Workshop Description: Roast color is one of the most commonly observed yet least consistently interpreted metrics in coffee roasting. While widely used for visual assessment and basic quality control, color measurement is often misunderstood, inconsistently applied, or disconnected from meaningful roasting and brewing decisions.
This presentation explores how roast color can be interpreted as a practical analytical tool by linking objective measurement with roast development and extraction behavior. Drawing on experience analyzing more than 500 coffees across origins, processing methods, and roast degrees—as well as ongoing work with production roasters and importers—this talk examines what roast color can and cannot tell us about coffee performance.
Attendees will learn how color data relates to roast development strategies, how it influences solubility and extraction outcomes, and how it can be used to improve internal calibration and communication within roasting teams. The session will also address common misconceptions around color analysis and highlight limitations that must be understood to avoid over-reliance on single metrics.
By reframing roast color as an interpretive tool rather than a fixed target, this presentation aims to support more consistent quality control, clearer communication, and better-informed roasting decisions across a wide range of coffee businesses.
Learning Objectives:
Interpret roast color measurements in context, understanding what color data can—and cannot—reliably indicate about roast development and coffee performance.
Connect roast color to extraction behavior, recognizing how differences in color relate to solubility, brewing outcomes, and consistency across coffees and roast styles.
Identify common misconceptions and misuses of color analysis in coffee roasting, and avoid over-reliance on color as a single or isolated quality metric.
Apply color analysis more effectively in quality control and internal calibration, using it to improve communication and decision-making within roasting teams rather than treating it as a fixed target.
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: 8:00 - 10:30
Location: Room 1123
REGISTRATION FEES: €150.00
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the World of Coffee Brussels Registration & Booking Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply log in using the credentials created at purchase to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Maxwell Martinelli
Coffee Trader / Educator, Rehm & Co.
Maxwell Martinelli is a coffee trader and educator based in Hamburg, Germany, with over 15 years of experience spanning barista training, production roasting, green coffee buying, capsule manufacturing, and coffee importing at Rehm & Co. Earlier in his career, Maxwell conducted independent research into coffee solubility, analyzing more than 500 roasted samples across origins, processing methods, and roast degrees - laying the foundation for a data-driven approach to roast development and extraction. His current work focuses on translating color measurement from a misunderstood metric into a practical instrument for standardization and quality control, helping the industry move toward more consistent evaluation of roasted coffee.