Second CrackRoasting Works

Six lots, and the
two minutes that
separate them.

Every coffee here goes into the same drum at roughly the same temperature and comes out somewhere between 202 and 211 °C. Nine degrees is the whole difference between the blackcurrant at the top of this list and the dark chocolate at the bottom.

On the list
Six lots, 36 sacks landed
Roast days
Tuesday and Thursday, 12 kg drum
At the drop
202 °C to 211 °C
Macro photograph of raw green coffee beans in a steel tray before roasting

193 °C

0:00

All six start here, indistinguishable to anyone but the person who bought them. Nothing below is decided until the last two minutes of the roast.

Six lots, this week

Whole bean · 250 g and 1 kg · roasted Tuesday and Thursday

  • Karimikui

    Kirinyaga, Kenya · washed

    blackcurrant · grapefruit pith · cane sugar

    203 °C

    rung 1 of 4

    £14.50

    250 g

  • Alaka

    Guji, Ethiopia · washed

    bergamot · white peach · jasmine

    202 °C

    rung 1 of 4

    £15.60

    250 g

  • Gitwe

    Nyamasheke, Rwanda · natural

    strawberry · cocoa nib · black tea

    204 °C

    rung 2 of 4

    £13.20

    250 g

  • La Ilusión

    Chalatenango, El Salvador · honey

    red apple · demerara · almond

    206 °C

    rung 2 of 4

    £12.40

    250 g

  • Cerro Azul

    Valle del Cauca, Colombia · washed

    milk chocolate · orange peel · toffee

    208 °C

    rung 3 of 4

    £11.80

    250 g

  • Sítio Bela Vista

    Mantiqueira, Brazil · natural

    roasted hazelnut · dark chocolate · brown sugar

    211 °C

    rung 4 of 4

    £10.90

    250 g

Prices are per 250 g bag. A kilo is four times the bag less ten per cent; cafés and offices taking four kilos a week or more are on the wholesale list instead.

What the swatch means

Four rungs · 200 to 212 °C · twelve degrees, end to end

  1. 200–203 °C

    Stopped just past the crack

    Ninety to a hundred seconds of development. Acid leads, the body is thin on purpose, and the coffee tastes of the place rather than of the roast.

    Karimikui Alaka

  2. 204–206 °C

    Held a little longer

    Sugars carry further and the fruit turns from fresh to cooked. This is where naturals and honeys sit, because they arrive with sugar to spare.

    Gitwe La Ilusión

  3. 207–209 °C

    Past the point acid leads

    Chocolate, caramel, enough body to hold up in milk. Two degrees decides this, which is why the probe is logged every second and not every minute.

    Cerro Azul

  4. 210–212 °C

    The bottom of the ramp

    As dark as we go, and short of second crack by a clear margin. Oily beans are a fortnight from stale; we would rather sell you sweet than sell you dark.

    Sítio Bela Vista

How the list works

Cut-off Tuesday 20:00 · roast Thursday · post Friday

Bag sizes
250 g and 1 kg, whole bean as standard. We will grind to order if you tell us the brewer — filter, cafetière, moka or espresso — but ground coffee is stale in a week and whole bean is not, so we would rather not.
Rest
Bags ship the day after the roast. Filter is drinkable at three days off the drum and best from day five to day eighteen. Espresso wants longer: give it seven to ten days before you judge the shot.
When a lot runs out
Each lot page says how many sacks landed and how much is left. When the last sack is roasted the row comes off this list and does not come back until the next harvest lands, which is usually the following year.
Standing orders
Every two or four weeks, 250 g or 1 kg, one lot or roaster’s choice. Charged the morning it is roasted, not before. Pause, skip or stop from the email that goes out on the Monday — no notice period, no phone call.
Postage
Tracked 48-hour, £3.95 up to 2 kg, free over £35. Ordered by Tuesday 20:00 it goes on Thursday’s batch and posts Friday. Later than that and it waits for the Tuesday roast rather than going out stale.
If it is wrong
Tell us within a fortnight and we replace it or refund it, your choice, and we do not ask for the bag back. Sheet 411 in the roast log is what happens when we get it wrong: it never went on sale.

Roasted Thursday,
with you Friday.

Order by Tuesday night and your bags come off the batch whose sheet you have just read. Standing orders run every two or four weeks, 250 g or 1 kg, paused whenever you like.

orders@secondcrack.example Read the roast log

Cut-off is Tuesday 20:00 for the Thursday roast. Or call the roastery on 01632 960 118, weekdays 08:00–16:00.