[Link to research mentioned in the video above – free pdf here]
For research projects and training roast colour is an essential property of the roasted coffee. In research you often have a very limited amount of the samples available and in training your have to show skills in making the right decision when the colour is right. You only have few seconds to hit the right colour window! How do you go about this to maximize the probability that you hit the colour within the allowed colour range? In the SCA system the acceptable range is +/- 4 Agtron for the Intermediate level and +/- 3 for Professional. In competitions it is +/- 2 and when we do research projects in CoffeeMind we only accept +/- 1 Agtron!
Morten Münchow has developed this colour palette for training and research purposes where you can have the reference colour in the middle and then you have radially arrange compartments to add samples while roasting. If you take out samples when the coffee is not far from the reference colour but clearly still to light, it is easier to make the right decision, when you have the colour gradient just next to the reference as you have on this plate.
For teaching purposes you can take out a sample each minute and have compartments enough on a slow roast to illustrate the full colour progression from green to target colour.
