You can roast a bean. Now learn to control the curve, match the color, and explain why every choice you make changes the cup.
The SCA Coffee Skills Program — Roasting Intermediate is where craft becomes science. Foundation taught you to operate the machine and produce a clean roast; Intermediate teaches you to shape the roast — to use heat, time, and airflow as deliberate tools, and to read the bean's chemistry through every stage from drying to development.
At Tasse Coffee Roastery in Shinjuku, Tokyo, this course is delivered as a private 1:1 or 1:2 training on professional production roasters. You'll work with real green coffee, real thermodynamics, and a head roaster who will challenge you to defend every profile decision you make.
Course at a Glance
Level: Intermediate (SCA CSP)
Format: Private 1:1 or 1:2, hands-on
Location: Tasse Coffee Roastery, Shinjuku, Tokyo
Languages: English, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Duration: Minimum 21 hours, including practical exam
Pricing: From ¥75,000 (see product page)
Certification: SCA Roasting Intermediate (10 CSP points)
Module 1
Roast Profile Development & Control
Foundation introduced the idea of a roast curve. Intermediate makes it your primary instrument. You'll learn to read bean temperature, exhaust temperature, and rate of rise (RoR) as a live conversation with the bean — and to intervene with gas, airflow, and drum speed at the right moment.
What You'll Learn
- Profile reading: interpret bean and exhaust temperature curves and what they reveal about phase transitions.
- Variable control: use gas, airflow, and drum speed independently to steer the profile.
- Phase management: balance drying, Maillard, and development phases for repeatable results.
- Profile software: log roasts in Cropster, Artisan, or similar QC tools and compare batches.
Hands-On Highlight
Plan a target profile on paper, then execute three back-to-back roasts of the same green coffee — each one chasing your planned curve more precisely than the last.
Module 2
Heat Transfer & Thermodynamics
All three heat transfer mechanisms — conduction, convection, and radiation — happen inside a drum roaster, and they don't contribute equally at every moment. Intermediate gives you the physics behind what you can feel through the trier.
What You'll Learn
- Conduction: drum-wall contact and bean-to-bean transfer at the start of the roast.
- Convection: the dominant force in modern roasting and how airflow modulates it.
- Radiation: the smaller but real contribution from glowing surfaces.
- Energy balance: why charge temperature, batch size, and gas setting interact.
Hands-On Highlight
Run two roasts with identical gas settings but different airflow — then taste them side by side to feel exactly what convection contributes to flavor.
Module 3
Physical & Chemical Changes in the Bean
Behind every color change is a chemical event. You'll go deeper into the Maillard reaction, caramelization, water loss, and the structural transformation that produces first crack and second crack — and you'll learn to use that knowledge to predict cup character.
What You'll Learn
- Drying phase: water loss, endothermic absorption, and why this stage sets up everything after.
- Maillard reaction: amino acid + sugar chemistry that builds body, color, and brown flavors.
- Caramelization: sugar breakdown into sweet, bitter, and aromatic compounds.
- Pyrolysis & cracks: the exothermic events that mark first and second crack.
Hands-On Highlight
Pull samples from the trier at 30-second intervals across one roast, then line them up to see the visible and aromatic transformation of the bean in slow motion.
Module 4
Roast Color Analysis & Color Matching
Color is the most measurable shorthand for roast level — and one of the most demanded specs in commercial coffee. You'll learn to measure color objectively, match a target spec, and understand the difference between surface color and ground color.
What You'll Learn
- Color systems: Agtron, SCA tile, and other measurement standards.
- Whole bean vs. ground: why the two readings differ and which to trust.
- Spec matching: hitting a client's target color number reliably, batch after batch.
- Color & sensory: where color stops predicting flavor and the cup takes over.
Hands-On Highlight
Receive a target Agtron number for a wholesale client. Roast, cool, grind, measure, and adjust — until three consecutive batches all land inside the spec window.
Module 5
Sample Roasting for Quality Control
Sample roasting is how production roasters evaluate green coffee before buying tonnes of it. You'll learn the sample roast as a QC instrument — a fast, standardized profile designed to surface defects and reveal a coffee's true character.
What You'll Learn
- Sample vs. production: why a sample roast profile is different from your house profile.
- Standardization: running consistent samples so green coffees can be compared fairly.
- Workflow: from green receipt to roast to cupping in a working QC lab.
- Decision-making: translating sample roast results into purchase and production decisions.
Hands-On Highlight
Sample-roast three lots of the same origin, cup them on the same table, and write the purchasing recommendation you'd hand to a buyer.
Module 6
Development Time Ratio & Rate of Rise
Development Time Ratio (DTR) — the share of total roast time spent after first crack — and Rate of Rise (RoR) are the two metrics that separate craft from accident. You'll learn to plan, control, and adjust both in real time.
What You'll Learn
- DTR fundamentals: what it measures, why it matters, and the typical ranges for filter vs. espresso.
- Rate of Rise: reading RoR curves and using them to steer the roast away from stalls and crashes.
- Live adjustment: changing gas at first crack to land your planned DTR within seconds.
- Profile diagnosis: spotting a baked, scorched, or under-developed roast from the curve alone.
Hands-On Highlight
Take one green coffee, run three roasts at DTR 18%, 22%, and 26%. Cup them blind and discover what development time really does to acidity, sweetness, and body.
Module 7
Roastery Safety, Maintenance & Workflow
Roasters cause more fires than any other piece of café equipment. Intermediate covers the maintenance schedules and safety protocols that keep a production roastery running and protect your team and your business.
What You'll Learn
- Fire prevention: chaff management, drum cleaning, and the chaff fire scenarios to drill for.
- Maintenance schedule: daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks for a production roaster.
- Workplace safety: PPE, ventilation, gas safety, and incident response.
- Documentation: logs, checklists, and the paper trail that supports food safety and insurance.
Hands-On Highlight
Walk a real production roastery, identify three latent safety risks, and propose a maintenance schedule that would mitigate each one.
Who Is This Course For?
Roasting Intermediate is built for working roasters and serious specialty professionals — not absolute beginners. You'll get the most out of it if you have several months of hands-on roasting experience and you're ready to stop running a single house profile and start designing profiles for different greens, clients, and brewing methods.
It's a strong fit for café head roasters preparing to launch a roasting program, production roasters working toward QC and buying responsibilities, and competition-bound baristas who want to control roast as a flavor variable. Roasting Foundation, Green Coffee Foundation, and Sensory Skills Foundation are recommended preparation; their content is assumed knowledge in the Intermediate practical exam.
What Comes After?
The SCA Roasting pathway has three tiers — and Intermediate is the demanding middle step that proves you can think like a roaster, not just operate a machine.
Foundation — operate a roaster safely and produce a clean roast.
Intermediate — control roast profiles, match color, and apply heat transfer theory. (You are here.)
Professional — design profiles for any green coffee, manage a production roasting business, and lead QC.
Completing Intermediate also contributes 10 of the 100 points needed for the full SCA Coffee Skills Diploma, alongside courses in Barista, Brewing, Green Coffee, and Sensory.
Tasse Coffee Roastery is an SCA Premier Training Campus in Shinjuku, Tokyo. All Roasting courses are delivered private 1:1 or 1:2 in English, Japanese, Mandarin, or Cantonese — book at your pace.
