I made a blog post on this today, but I reckon I could have a bit of a fun run here since it is strictly not a purist approach to roasting. I however just could not resist trying it!

I saw it discussed on www.JimSeven.com recently.

Torrefacto roasting is a roasting process used in Spain where they throw sugar in during the roast and then those beans are used as part of a blend.

I imagine that this might have started originally to diguise inferior beans or to add some sweetness to dark roasts. Being the experimenter that I am I decided to try my own version.

I did not want to gum up my roaster with sugar so I made a concentrated sugar solution and when the beans were well into second crack I dumped them straight into this solution for about 2 seconds then straight onto the cooling tray.

They were still quite wet and sticky after cooling so I gently warmed them till they were dry.

The result is very sweet, crunchy beans - no good at all for running through a grinder although I can see how as a small part of a blend they might work out ok.

My use for them is as a sweet crunchy coffee treat - although I have been prevailed upon at work to grind them in a herb grinder and make a plunger pot so Ill see how that works out.

Corey at Epic, who is notoriously fanatical about his coffee, described our little table of torrefacto munching CoffeeSnobs this morning saying "You guys are far too obsessive about your coffee".

Imagine. The cheek of it!