Why our coffee looks a little different

Why do some of our coffees have a rainbow of colors, unlike anything you see in bags of coffee from supermarkets? What're these white flakes in my grounds? Specialty coffee is different. These are features, not flaws!

These beans don't have uniform color

Recently I had a brand new customer get their first bag of Young Buck coffee delivered to their house. They rushed it to the kitchen to open and smell it. About 5 minutes later I got a message:

"Something is wrong with my coffee! It smells great, but I think I got the bag you put all the bad beans you're tossing out in. They're all different colors. Some seem pretty light, like maybe they didn't finish?"

She thought she'd received a bag of the defect, green or burnt beans (called "quakers" by coffee nerds) on accident. Like our trash bag got sealed up, labeled and sent to a customer. For the record: WE'D NEVER USE OUR COFFEE BAGS FOR TRASH! They're too expensive 😅

But I love getting this sort of reaction in real time, because I can respond directly and clear things up. But how many people don't ping me through the website chat (which comes directly to my phone, BTW) but still have this question. They must be wondering upon each weekly delivery if they got the trash bag AGAIN! 🤣

As Gemini explains it, "Light and medium roasted specialty coffee show high color variety because they prioritize showcasing unique, complex characteristics of specific origins (terroir) over consistency. Unlike dark roasts, which mask differences behind a uniform, dark, oil-covered look, lighter roasting allows the bean's natural, green-to-brown transformation to reveal subtle, unique color variations based on origin, density, and processing." 

Young Buck coffees are roasted by single origin, in an approach customized for that beans characteristics, in small batches (20lbs) and then hand-sorted at least 3 times. 

Sort 1 - While it's cooling in the agitator, we pluck out obvious quakers, those are ones that got stuck in the roaster and either didn't roast enough, and are still yellow-green, and the ones that get burnt to crisp black. 

Sort 2 - As we move the roast into it's holding bin, we do another sort, looking for the lightest and darkest beans, quakers, and (in some rare instances) rocks! 

Sort 3 - While weighing out the coffee to blend and bag, we give it a final sort as a quality check. 

The beans that make it into the bag, are part of the flavor profile. Feel free to grind and brew. That said, if you are brewing up something pretty light, like our Killer Sufi, and you find the flavors a bit too bright, tart or fruit-forward;

Sort 4 - You can pick out the lightest beans before you grind and just use the ones on the darker side, making it a different coffee. Put the light ones back in the bag or in an airtight container for roommates, partners or friends who love a bright light roast coffee! 

What are these light colored flakes in my coffee grounds?

Another bit of feedback I get from first-time light to medium roast specialty coffee drinkers is:

"My coffee has dandruff!" 

I've actually only heard that descriptor for it once, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. Many people tell me after they've ground their beans, they notice light, papery flakes in the grounds.

Again, this is a feature, not a bug. In dark roast coffees, this slight parchment from the interior of the bean is burnt away in the last phases of the roast, giving much of the smoky flavor you'll find in dark roasted specialty coffees. But that inner skin, when toasted just enough to get that parchment texture, actually promotes our coffees' natural sweetness. 

At Young Buck coffee, we roast our coffees slow and low to elongate caramelization and craft naturally sweeter coffees. A major contributor to that sweetness, are these flakes that come out of the beans when ground. Their sweetness dissolves straight into the brew like sugar.

If for some strange reason you didn't care for this quality, getting rid of them is actually quite easy. When you grind your coffee, give the grounds a little blow and the chaff will fly right out. Give it another blow when your grounds are in the brew basket to get rid of more. It may be a bit messy, so do it over the sink. But truthfully, I don't recommend it. It's a significant factor in the flavor profile of our coffees.