What Is the Best Way to Measure the Color of Roasted Coffee Beans?

Many connoisseurs take pride in their daily cup of coffee. Like wine or whiskey, finding the perfect blend takes time and tempering from the moment the bean is plucked from the plant. Perhaps the most vital part of the preparation process is the all-important roast, where beans are made into light and dark roasts and develop the flavors buyers expect.

While there are a multitude of ways to gauge coffee bean flavor profiles, color measurement may offer some of the most precise results. With a powerful spectrophotometer like the ones available at HunterLab, delivering an accurate, consistent product is more achievable than ever before.

Why the Color of Coffee Matters

A consistent color in your coffee beans contributes to various standards, including:

• Industry standards: Every business within the coffee industry has certain standards to meet that the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) set forth. A good coffee spectrophotometer has its roast ratings programmed into the system to ensure you're meeting the minimum requirements for quality roasts.
• Brand standards: Furthermore, it's likely that your brand has even more stringent standards to help you meet internal goals. Our spectrophotometers can measure far beyond what the naked eye can see, assigning specific numerical values to every color and making it even easier to sort based on roast degree.
• Health and safety standards: Coffee beans that have been roasted too much, not enough, or with contaminants may pose a safety risk to consumers. Spectrophotometer readings may help you find these outliers throughout the coffee production process and improve overall product safety.

Spectrophotometers take the guesswork out of color measurement, ensuring you can rely on accurate data to achieve a uniform roast degree.

Measure Your Coffee Color With an Industry-Leading Spectrophotometer

Choose HunterLab's ColorFlex EZ Coffee to meet your precise coffee color measurement needs. You can gain accurate color readings based on SCAA Roast Classification or our in-house system, the HunterLab Coffee Color Index (HCCI). Either system will deliver precise color measurements with more accuracy than sight or weight measurement methods.

Though your roast coffee may look uniform to the human eye, machine color measurement will help your consumers get more consistent results. When potential buyers know they can rely on you to achieve the perfect cup every day, your product will become the obvious choice. Invest in a new spectrophotometer from HunterLab today and see your results improve.