My recent post Seeing through roasts generated much discussion, especially about which cup qualities may be more influenced by roast and which are more a product of a green coffee’s character.  As noted in the post, my proposed classifications were debatable; I had hoped others would offer to improve on my diagram, and they have.  

Matt Perger and Matt Graylee proposed this table as an alternative way to present the information:

They also suggested a graph listing a spectrum of green-influence => roast-influence along one axis and a spectrum of rare => common along the other axis.  I think those are good ideas, and I hope I'm representing them accurately.  However, I’m not sure I have a broad-enough perspective on green coffee to do the rare => common axis justice.

I say that in part because of a comment James Hoffmann made regarding the graph in my post: James pointed out that the attributes “fruity” and “caramel” are not available in all coffees, specifically, they are absent in some low-quality and underripe coffees.  I sometimes forget to consider the spectrum of flavors available (or not) in low-grade coffees, and James was right, as always.

I’m grateful to James and the Matts for their contributions, and to other readers for their comments.  Although replying to blog comments takes up a lot of time, I look forward to receiving them.  I want to be challenged and to learn, as much as anyone does, and that’s the comments section is great for our collective learning.  Just please hold back on the countless personal requests for batch-brew settings and roast-curve advice :).

Thanks for reading.

*Can you name the varietal in the photo?