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Optimizing a light roast profile for Colombian washed coffees comes down to airflow management. Targeted batch tests—tracked through Firescope—make it easy to identify the best settings to highlight acidity, sweetness, and fruit, while avoiding negative flavors.
Colombia produces a wide range of specialty coffees, and most of its production still uses the washed process. This method applies across classic varieties like Caturra, Castillo, Colombia, and Tabi. Determining the right airflow is one of the most effective ways to bring out each coffee’s character.
When working with a new Colombian washed coffee, start with two test batches—one with fast airflow, one with slow airflow. This straightforward approach quickly reveals how airflow affects flavor development.
In this experiment, Caturra and Colombia coffees from Cauca were roasted on a Giesen W1A, with all parameters tracked and visualized using Firescope.
Result: Pronounced citric and malic acidity, medium sweetness, lively fruit, and a long aftertaste. This profile highlighted the coffee’s clean, vibrant notes.
Result: Noticeable acetic acidity, muted sweetness, no fruit, and a woody, dry finish. This profile lacked complexity and balance.
Choose the profile that brings out the best flavors as a starting point. For this washed Colombian, fast airflow produced a more expressive, balanced cup. From there, continue refining by adjusting input temperature, heat application, and discharge temperature based on cupping feedback. Firescope makes it easy to interpret all relevant metrics—BT, ET, RoR, weight loss, color, density, and sensory notes—enabling rapid, informed improvements. Accumulating this data over time is invaluable for developing new profiles and consistently high-quality roasts.
Based on these tests, washed processed Colombian coffees—including Caturra, Castillo, Colombia, and Tabi—consistently benefit from relatively fast airflow throughout roasting. There are exceptions, such as Geisha and Bourbon, but for most lots (except dark roasts after second crack), maintaining a faster airflow helps preserve acidity and sweetness while preventing flat or woody notes.
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Colombia is a country that produces many specialty coffees, and most of its coffee is still produced using the washed process. In this post, I will explain how to design a roasting profile for Colombian washed processed coffee. Here, you can apply this design method when roasting Colombia's major varietal coffees, such as Caturra, Castillo, Colombia, Tabi, etc.
When roasting a coffee for the first time, we should determine the speed of airflow required during roasting to fully bring out the coffee's flavors. The simplest way to find this out is to do two roasts. One with a fast airflow and one with a slow airflow, and we can easily find the answer.
To summarize briefly for your time, when we want to make a fast airflow inside our roasting machine, we can achieve this by opening the roasting machine's damper more, increasing the exhaust fan speed, and setting the gas higher. At this point, since we don't want the roasting time to be too short, I will lower the charge temperature to under 190°C to roast the coffee.
If we want to create a slow airflow in the roasting machine, we do the opposite setting. In that case, I will open the damper very little or lower the fan speed and set the gas low. If you're unsure about this explanation, please read my previous post, "The Importance of Airflow in Coffee Roasting"
Let's return to the experiment we are discussing in this post. I roasted washed coffee of the Caturra and Colombia varieties from the Cauca region of Colombia. As mentioned earlier, I roasted two batches with different airflow speeds.
