Coffee roasting techniques play a crucial role in shaping the flavour, aroma, and overall quality of every cup. This comprehensive course is designed to take learners from the earliest stages of coffee bean selection through to advanced roasting, cupping, and small-scale business operations. By exploring the journey from farm to roastery, the diploma offers a complete understanding of how processing, grading, and roast profiling influence the sensory experience of coffee.

Throughout the programme, you’ll gain hands-on knowledge of how to evaluate green coffee, identify defects, and assess bean quality using industry-recognised standards. You’ll also delve into the science behind roasting, including the drying phase, Maillard reactions, caramelisation, and the key moments known as first and second crack. By learning how heat, time, and airflow interact, you will be able to design and adjust roasting profiles to achieve consistent, high-quality results.

As you progress, you’ll explore light, medium, and dark roast approaches and how each level affects sweetness, acidity, body, and bitterness. You’ll also learn practical methods for avoiding roast defects such as underdevelopment, scorching, and baking. Dedicated lessons on sample roasting, cupping protocols, and sensory analysis ensure you build a strong palate for evaluating flavour notes and improving roast performance.

Toward the end of the course, you’ll gain valuable insight into packaging, storage, shelf life, and the degassing process — all essential for preserving coffee freshness. The course concludes with guidance on starting a small-scale roasting business, covering sourcing, branding, marketing, and UK compliance requirements.

Upon successful completion, you will receive a free course completion certificate. Learners can also upgrade to premium certificate and transcript options if they wish to obtain official documentation. To ensure the best learning experience, students have access to 5-star rated support available 24/7 via email.