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Coffee Color Measurement;
How To Accurately Measure The Color
Of Your Roasted Coffee

Macro shot of coffee beans on wooden background

Creating the perfect roast, every time.

Creating the perfect roast is often described as an art form; striving to achieve the perfect blend of color, flavor and aroma. This art, often referred to as profile roasting, is the practice of charting, measuring and customizing these colors and flavors to achieve the right balance of acids and sugars. If these measurements are not precise, even the slightest miscalculation can result in a end product that is of poor taste and quality. Top roasters around the world understand the importance of accurate measuring and thanks to modern equipment like Photovolt’s 580-PC Coffee Roast Classification System – this long standing art form has now evolved into a precise science.

Photovolt Instruments created the 580-PC Coffee Roast Classification System over 15 years ago as a result of listening to the concerns and needs of a local coffee roaster. After hearing their story and realizing they were using an alternative piece of Photovolt’s equipment to measure the color during the roasting cycle, Photovolt set out to create a solution specifically for the coffee industry. As a result in order to produce the highest quality coffee the 580-PC was born and to this day provides the most accurate measurements through every stage of coffee development.

Taking the guesswork out of roasting.

What made the 580-PC stand out specifically for the coffee industry was the fact it has a SCAA readout. Established in 1982, the Specialty Coffee Association of America was created by a small group of coffee professionals to instilled a standardization within the coffee roasting process by setting and maintaining industry standards. These standards can be found today by vising the SCAA’s website and Photovolt’s 580-PC can read these specific measurements on both coffee grounds and whole beans independently.

In addition to providing SCAA readouts, Photovolt as a company is certified by the NIST. This ensures that their instruments hold the same standards of measuring as The National Institute of Standard & Technologies out of Washington, DC.

This takes any guesswork out of quality control when it comes to reproducing the same high quality roast day to day or from location to location. Large coffee producers can rest assured their customers can enjoy the same quality of roast, regardless of location. For smaller single shelf roasters this same assurance comes in the form of knowing you are able to get your roast right exactly where you want it to be week in and week out.

Photovolt a roast above the rest.

When it comes to selecting the proper piece of equipment; price, service and maintainability all play an important role in the decision making process. Photovolt Instruments continues to receive praise amount coffee roasters due to their outstanding service and maintenance while offering industry leading pricing.

A common testimonial received by Photovolt’s customers is the ability for the 580-PC Coffee Roast Classification System to provide on-site calibration. While other units often take hours of time and can even require the need for a service personal to be on location, the 580-PC takes roughly 2 minutes to calibrate and can be performed on-site by the client. The 580-PC also offers WiFi and database capabilities that allow direct transfers of data to your computer or a flash drive plugin for the ease of transferring data. This ensures all measurements are recorded and allows customers to forego having to write down any data.

Creating the perfect roast takes a combination of time, patience and skill to create the perfect blend of color, flavor and aroma. Photovolt Instruments is proud of their involvement within the coffee industry and always are available for a conversation if you would like their help in creating the ultimate cup of coffee.