Auckland Coffee Roastery, Merito, Reveals Differences Between Café and Supermarket Coffee

Merito Coffee Roasters, based in Auckland, have pulled back the curtain on the differences between café and supermarket coffee. If you’ve ever wondered if one has advantages over the other, you’re not alone.

The truth is there are significant differences between the two products. Café roasteries are smaller than industrial roasteries, the latter of which supply a lot of supermarket brands. Café roasters are therefore able to adjust their production amounts much more easily, and can scale down when demand lowers, to make sure the product stays fresh.

Freshness is a big part of what makes a good cup of coffee. For maximum freshness, there is a window of time in which the coffee is at its peak, and this is usually after 4-14 days from the roast date have passed. This is because coffee needs to ‘de-gas’ after roasting. Small roasteries can hit this target much more reliably than industrial roasters, which have to push at as much coffee as possible by design! This means there’s no real way to tell how old coffee on supermarket shelves is.

This is just one reason why café coffee roasteries tend to produce a higher quality product. Another is the method of roasting itself.

Small roasters require constant attention and control of the temperature. Each batch takes around 12 to 14 minutes, and the temperatures fluctuate depending on the product, but are often between 180 to 210 °C. Each batch is in the tens of kgs—around 20-25kg at the heavier end. Small batches may only be about 12kg, and some small roasters do specialty roasts of 3-4kg.

This technique is used because the sugars in the bean caramelise throughout roasting, and this is where much of the aroma comes from.

Industrial roasting for supermarket coffee often uses much bigger roasters, so they can produce hundreds of kg every hour. Industrial roasts only take 4 or 5 minutes, and use temperatures above 700 °C. This process destroys a lot of the aromatics and flavour that you find in with the product produced by café roasteries.

To find out more about coffee roaster, or to browse the Merito store, visit their website here: https://merito.co.nz/