The journey of coffee.

This is what coffee looks like straight from the origin we import the coffees from.

There are countless names for the coffee roasts used in our industry. You've probably heard of Italian Roast, Cinnamon Roast, Dark Roast, Light Roast and many others. The basic coffee roast is often called a Cinnamon Roast. The cinnamon roast is just dark enough to allow the grinding and brewing of the bean. Coffee roasted any lighter than that will not resemble coffee as we know it.

City Roast

Characteristics: Hard but grind-able beans, smooth and compact, no oil present.

*We do not use this roast profile on any of our coffees.

A shade darker than Cinnamon roast is, City Roast. This is the roast most commonly used in large scale coffee production. These lighter roasts are preferred by large-scale operations because they are more predictable and because more of the original weight of the coffee bean is preserved in lighter roasts. This amounts to higher profits.

Full City Roast

Characteristics: Smooth, round beans, little to no oil, strong coffee flavor.

Examples of roast: Any of our Single Origin coffees, House Blend, Kona Blend & Espresso Milano Blend.

Here at RoCo, our lightest roast is the Full City Roast. This roast is a shade darker than City Roast. We use Full City Roast when we want the dominant flavor in the cup to be that of the coffee, not of the roast. Because at a Full City Roast you taste what that bean really has to offer. The bean has fully developed in the roasting process, but the smoky roast flavor won't take over the flavor of the bean.

Viennese (aka: Italian Roast)

Characteristics: Some oil apparent, coffee / pronounced caramel flavor.

Examples of roast: Deep Tan Blend & Hope Ranch Blend.

When we want the cup to have a more robust, roasty or smoky flavor, we'll roast darker than Full City. That brings us to the Viennese Roast, which is more commonly known as an "Italian Roast". Since no coffee actually is grown in Italy, anything labeled as 'Italian coffee' is referring to this roast level. This roast level balances perfectly the inherent flavor of a bean with the robust flavor of roastiness.

French Roast

Characteristics: Very oily beans, dominant smoky flavor.

Examples of roast: Dark Tropics Blend, French Riviera Blend & Rincon Red Blend.

Our choice of roast for a particular coffee is very important. The flavor profile of some coffees changes significantly when roasted to different levels. And this is most important when we talk about French Roast Coffee. We at the Santa Barbara Roasting Company are most well known for our dark roast coffee, because we take it very seriously! We don't just use cheap/crappy coffee and "burn" it like a lot of large commercial roasters do; you know who we are talking about. We take our specialty coffee grade coffee and carefully bring it up to a dark roast. So you have that amazing full flavor as well as a nice rich French roast coffee.

Double French Roast

Characteristics: Smoke / tobacco flavor prevails over other flavors.

Examples of roast: Strictly our famous State Street Blend.

The most intense of all the roasts is the Double French Roast. You will not see this at many coffee roasters. And we are especially proud of it here at the Santa Barbara Roasting Company. Specifically we are especially proud of our State Street Blend, which is a double french roast blend. It happens to be our MOST popular coffee of all. This is a tricky coffee to roast so dark, but we do it with care and love.

Some Unique Blends

You'll notice that some of our blends have more than one roast in them. For example In Santa Barbara Blend, you'll notice it is made up of Full City & French Roasted beans. This is because we wanted to achieve a moderately roasted flavor without sacrificing the coffee flavor of certain single origins. We'll take a sweet and flavorful single origin and roast it to Full City then add another, more robust single origin roasted to French Roast. The two combine to create a flavor profile that is more flavorful than either single origin alone. Here are a few of our most unique coffee blends.
Santa Barbara Blend
Full City Roast + French Roast

Santa Barbara Blend

A blend of 5 South & Central American coffees roasted to different darknesses combined to create this smooth full bodied brew.
Montecito Blend
Full City Roast + Viennese Roast + French Roast

Montecito Blend

A coffee lover’s dream. An International blend of American & Indonesian coffees roasted to three unique degrees creates this classy favorite.
Espresso Blend
Viennese Roast + French Roast

Espresso Blend

A cosmopolitan blend of unique coffee varietals from around the word. The complexity and body of this blend excite the palate and create amazing crème.