Saturday, nine in the morning, Marché de l'Abattoir, by the exit of the Manufakture car park in Anderlecht. The thermometer reads 17 degrees, the air still carries the damp of the night, and Golden's lever sits cold under the hand. At four in the afternoon, same spot, it is 23 degrees and the drum plate is burning hot. Coffee roasted in the morning and in the afternoon of the same day carries two distinct signatures, because Laurent reads both ends of the day and changes the fire and the timing between them.
September Opens the Day Back Up for Coffee Roasted in the Morning and in the Afternoon
The summer just finished goes into the Belgian record books. The 20.3 degree average at Uccle is the highest since measurements began in 1833, with 46 summer days above 25 degrees against a normal of roughly 24. Those days were flat: the morning already started warm and the afternoon carried on in the same register.
Early September puts the gap back. Saturday 5 September: 17 degrees at the first batch, 23 at the last, west wind at 10 km/h, dry sky. Sunday 6 September opens wider still, from 15 degrees in the morning to 26 in the afternoon, with a south-easterly you can barely feel. Eleven degrees between the first and last batch of a single roasting day.
Coffee Roasted in the Morning and in the Afternoon: The Nine O'Clock End
Cold air pulls heat out of the drum faster and cools the air the burner draws in. Laurent sees it in the first minutes: the temperature climbs back more slowly after the green beans drop into the drum. He stretches the drying phase by twenty or thirty seconds and holds the flame slightly higher until the drum finds its rhythm again.
Hands work differently in the morning. Cold, slower on the lever, more deliberate. The batch that comes off the cooling tray around ten has body and depth, because Laurent gave it more time in the phase where the sugars settle. The longer version of how that reading works sits in the Meteo Koffie experience explained.
Coffee Roasted in the Morning and in the Afternoon: The Four O'Clock End
In the afternoon, two things move at once. The air has gained six to eight degrees, so the drum loses less heat outward. And Golden's plate has already banked the heat of three morning batches, which means the roast starts from a higher threshold.
Everything accelerates. First crack arrives earlier, and the window between crack and drop narrows. Laurent brakes sooner, cuts the flame earlier and empties the drum a good fifteen seconds ahead of the morning schedule. The afternoon batch comes out lighter, with cleaner top notes and a livelier acidity.
What a Closed Roastery Does with Coffee Roasted in the Morning and in the Afternoon
The trade has an entire doctrine for this problem, and all of it is called erasure. The manuals call for a fixed charge temperature and a drum reset between batches, so the thermal energy that builds up across the day stays out of the cup. Scott Rao installed a humidifier in his roastery to hold temperature and humidity steady all year. Bogdan Georgescu, Romanian roasting champion, takes green beans out of storage a day early so they reach room temperature. Industry guides treat weather as a seasonal variable to compensate for, and the hour of the day is missing from them entirely.
Their logic holds for a roastery that ships the same taste every month. At Marché de l'Abattoir, Golden rumbles under open sky, in the air of that particular day, and Laurent leaves the amplitude in the batch and writes the hour on the bag.
How to Choose Between Coffee Roasted in the Morning and in the Afternoon
At the market you ask the question straight at the stall: what time did this bag come out. The morning batch goes to moka pot and espresso, where body carries the pressure. The afternoon batch opens up in filter and French press, where clarity has room to show. The Meteo Discovery Box puts both signatures side by side.
Both come from the same sack of green beans. The hour written on the label tells the rest.
Golden burns on Saturday and Sunday, in the open air, at Marché de l'Abattoir, by the exit of the Manufakture car park in Anderlecht. The first batch goes on around nine, the last around four. Come at whichever hour suits you, taste both and take home the one that fits: this weekend's batches.
Brut. Sauvage. Imprévisible.
(≈ 720 words)
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