Effects of coffee roasting technologies on cup quality and bioactive compounds of specialty coffee beans

The effects of drum, fluidized bed, and traditional type of coffee roasting technologies on the cup quality and bioactive compounds of Yirgacheffe, Harar, and Sidama variety specialty coffee beans grown in Ethiopia were investigated at light, medium, and dark degree of roast from 150 degrees C to 200 degrees C for 7 to 15 min. No significant differences in cup quality were detected among the roasted coffee varieties disregard of the type of roasters. Varietal difference was found to have significant (p < .05) effect on caffeine content of the coffee beans. A significant reduction in trigonelline and total chlorogenic acids content of the coffee beans was observed during roasting process, with darker roasts attaining the least values. Drum roaster was found to be the best type of coffee roaster for specialty coffee beans at medium degree of roast with the highest cup quality, optimum bioactive compounds content, and minimum acrylamide formation. However, traditional roaster resulted at the least average cup score of 80% among the three coffee samples and the highest acrylamide content of 2.306 mg/L for Yirgacheffe coffee sample at light degree of roast. There are still some bottlenecks that need to be addressed via advancements using novel food processing technologies in order to devise the next generation of coffee processing.