Deciphering Relative Color
Bryant Banker-ScannellHello friends! Let's take a beat to decipher what's going on with color of roasted coffee, and why Relative has five colors on our single origin bags that change with different offerings.
If you haven't looked at our roast level guide for Relative, find it here and scroll down.
Flavor in coffee is more complex than just saying what the roast level is. Where that coffee was grown and how it was processed will ultimately impact overall flavor, and then roast level becomes a blanket of flavor on top of that.
Below we see two labels. On the left it's our washed Guatemala Atitlan and the right is our washed Ethiopia Chelchele. Both labels we see, "RC," in the upper right, but a different color.
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Initially, designing with five colors we thought, "five major locations of coffee growing: Central America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Indo-Pacific." But that would mean a major blanket assumption of flavor.
So we thought, what if the colors meant a snapshot of that cup? Each color can represent four ideal descriptions for: overall cup impression, the type of sweetness, a multiplier kind of description that assists sweetness, and then a snapshot of acidity.
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In summary, colors can be a guide and not an absolute. They are a tool for you to decipher what's going on with our coffees. From there, you have our tasting notes on the bag, and finally, the roast level of that coffee.
Enjoy your next coffee, and stay colorful!
- Bryant