Sample roasts
Each spring and autumn we sample-roast dozens of green coffees from specialist importers and cup them blind. Only a handful make it to the shelf.
About
9:30
Minutes in the drum for a typical light roast
How we roast: light, clear and on purpose
Kuura is a small roastery with a café attached, or a café with a roastery in the corner, depending on which day you visit. Either way, everything we do starts with the roast.
The roaster
A small drum, watched by a person
We roast on a 15 kg drum roaster in the corner of the café. Every batch is logged by hand: the weight of green coffee going in, the temperature at each stage and the minute it comes out.
Small batches mean we can roast each coffee to suit it, instead of pushing everything through one profile. A dense Kenyan coffee and a soft Brazilian get very different treatment.
Our roaster, drawn from memory. No brand names, just a drum and a lot of attention.
One light roast
Guji Highlands, batch log from a Tuesday.
Ten minutes, five moments
0:00
Charge
Green coffee drops into a drum at 200 °C.
1:10
Turning point
The beans stop cooling the drum and start warming up.
4:40
Yellowing
Grassy smells turn to bread. The beans lose their green.
8:10
First crack
Steam escapes with a pop. The roast is nearly done.
9:30
Drop
Out into the cooling tray at about 205 °C, cooled in four minutes.
Stopping a minute or so after first crack keeps the acidity bright and the sugars intact. Roast longer and you taste the roast; stop here and you taste the farm.
Buying coffee
Chosen by taste, bought by the season
Whole lots
When we like a coffee, we buy enough to last its season. When it runs out, it is gone until the next harvest, and something new takes its place.
Cupped every batch
Every roast is cupped the next morning beside the previous batch. If it does not taste right, it goes into staff coffee instead of a bag.
Small things
The details we care about
Roasting well is most of the job. The rest is making sure good coffee is easy to buy, easy to brew and does not leave a mess behind.
- Bags with a one-way valve, recyclable with plastic packaging
- Roast date printed on every bag, never a best-before alone
- Wholesale deliveries in reusable crates around Helsinki
- Coffee grounds go to a community garden nearby
The people
Three people, two roast days
Aino
Head roaster
Plans the roasts, keeps the logs and tastes every batch first thing the next morning.
Joonas
Café lead
Runs the bar, bakes the buns and dials in the espresso every morning before opening.
Mira
Wholesale and training
Visits our café and office partners, sets up recipes and trains new baristas.
Sample team for this demo, shown with initials instead of photos.