The Secret Life of a Coffee Bean: A Day in the Roastery

From the Master Roaster at Ublend®

People often ask, “What actually happens to the coffee before it ends up in my bag?”

The answer? A lot — but we’ve perfected every step.

Here’s what a typical day of roasting looks like at the Ublend® plant — where precision meets personality, and every bean tells a story.

Coffee first :)

The team’s in, the first coffee’s brewed, and it’s time to get started. There’s a quick chat about the footy, someone mentions the latest world headlines, and then it’s straight into the day's work.

7:30 AM — Planning the Day Ahead

Our production admin team gets things moving.

First order of business? Alex from the admin team reviews all customer orders, prioritise private label and retail runs, and schedule roasting, packing, and capsule production for the day.

Everything is planned with precision — from bean origin to final bag — ensuring every order is roasted fresh and on time.

Our production system is also fully automated, providing a detailed breakdown of the Bill of Materials, and all the relevant information required for the roasting team to roast and pack individual customer orders. It also tracks batch numbers and green coffee crop numbers so we have full traceability, ensuring transparency and quality control from bean to bag.

Oh no… Gianni has done it again. Just as we’ve finished setting the production plan, he walks in with another last-minute customer order.

No problem — we re-program the day. Oh, Gianni! 

8:00 AM — The Green Bean Line-Up

Today’s schedule includes a range of single origins, over 20 specific customer blends and packages, a decaf that actually tastes like real coffee, and some capsules for our café customers. It’s shaping up to be a full-on day.

But before any roasting begins, the green beans get checked — moisture, size, density, and smell.

Even at this stage, we’re making quality calls.

8:30 AM — Automation in Action

Our Brambati roasting plant is more than just a roaster — it’s a fully integrated, automated system.

• Green beans are automatically cleaned

• Different origins are separated and weighed to spec

• The system loads the roasting drum without any human handling

• Everything is programmed and tracked. From the first step, it’s about consistency, control, and clean processing — no guesswork, no shortcuts.

9:00 AM — First batch in - Roast Curves & Heat

We roast in 120 kg batches of green coffee, yielding approximately 100 kg of roasted beans.Each batch is programmed with a computer-controlled roast curve, carefully designed to bring out the best in that specific blend or single origin.

These roast curves manage:

• Drying phase for even heat distribution

• Maillard reactions to develop sweetness and body

• First crack for aroma and complexity

• Development time for balance and finish

Our Brambati software allows for perfect reproducibility — essential for café chains, capsule lines, and private label brands that rely on us for consistency.

9:15 AM — First Roast Done, Second Begins

The first batch is finished and dropped into the cooler. Once cooled, it’s automatically sent through a destoner — removing any dense particles or foreign matter.It’s then weighed again, post-roast, to verify yield and log data.

Meanwhile, the second batch is automatically dropped into the roaster — a completely different blend, with its own programmed roast curve. No intervention needed — just seamless transition and total precision.

Freshly roasted coffee from both batches is piped directly into the roasted bean silo, ready for resting, QC, or packing.

9:30 AM — Packing the First Batch

Once rested, the first batch moves into packaging, where we offer two premium formats:

• The Goglio Italian Packaging Line. Our workhorse — runs at 15 bags per minute. We select the customer’s logo from the label printer, align the output, and it’s full steam ahead. Perfect for bulk 1kg café bags or consistent retail runs.

• The Comunetti Premium Line. For brands using pre-made custom foil bags, this Italian packaging system handles more delicate and boutique-style retail formats. Slower, but premium. Ideal for higher-end, shelf-ready retail products.

Both systems preserve freshness, apply date and batch coding, and ensure each bag represents your brand with care and consistency.

Steph swings the van around and starts loading up the day’s first deliveries. With Google as his co-pilot, he’s got the fastest route mapped out — because come Monday morning, cafés are running low and baristas are begging for beans after a big weekend!

9:40 AM — Meanwhile, on the 30kg Roaster…

Our pesky small-batch roaster Vicki is ready to start roasting. The Brambati 30kg roaster is fully warmed up and humming — a compact but powerful system designed for batch development and specialty profiling. It’s fully automated with a few manual controls that give our roasters hands-on flexibility.

Today, she’s focused on single origin roasts and micro-lot experiments. These are the rare coffees, often destined for small runs, cupping evaluations, or seasonal features. It’s all part of pushing the boundaries of flavour.

“Send me some beans!” Vicki yells — and we do. The green beans are cleaned, weighed, and automatically sent over from the main plant, ready for her to begin crafting the next standout roast.

Specialty profiles are incoming.

9:45 AM — Cartons on the Move

The first cartons are coming off the line. Steve and Peter are on watch as the automatic boxing machine kicks into gear — forming boxes, counting out ten bags per box, loading them in, sealing them, and pushing them up the line to be palletised.

Peter takes the pallet to the warehouse for storage. Everything is roasted, packed, and boxed on the same day, according to order. The coffee remains in its sealed valve bags to degas naturally, locking in freshness and ready for dispatch or later fulfilment.

Chris and Peter (No.2) begin pallet packing for Canberra and Sydney customers. Matt is already ringing from our Sydney office - customers had a great weekend and we need coffee. Coffee is always roasted to order and delivered just in time.

Unlike others that allow the coffee to sit in silos for days to degas, at Ublend® we pack immediately after roasting. This means more consistent degassing through the one-way valve, which preserves the coffee’s freshness, flavour, and aroma.

Degassing in the bag is essential — it allows the coffee to release CO₂ naturally without losing flavour or aroma. By packaging right after roasting, we seal in peak freshness while allowing the coffee to mature and settle perfectly before it’s brewed.

11:00 AM — Cupping & Calibration

Roasting is only half the job — tasting is everything.

Not everyone can make a good coffee for testing when it’s this fresh — but Luke’s the man. He gives each sample the attention it deserves, selecting random coffee straight off the line and carefully brewing and evaluating each one. His work helps ensure that every batch not only hits spec — but shines.

This strict QC process ensures that nothing gets packed unless it meets our flavour standards — and yours.

1:00 PM — Capsule Production Begins

Time for precision.

Steve and Spiros shift gears and starts capsule production, pulling roasted coffee straight off the line. First up: grinding — and not just any grind. He fires up our Italian-made Colombini grinder — a true precision workhorse.

This machine is a beast, delivering ultra-consistent grind size that’s critical for capsule performance. We’ve even had competitors drop by to use it — hey, we’ve got to support the coffee industry where we can.

Once ground, the coffee heads into our capsule filling line, where it’s packed, sealed, and boxed — ready to become your next bold morning espresso.

Set and repeat

Set and repeat — over 2.4 tonnes of coffee roasted, programmed, and packed today, all roasted to order.

4:00 PM — Shutdown & Reset

Machines are cleaned. Data is logged.Roast profiles are saved, and tomorrow’s batches are lined up and ready to go.

Before we leave, we always check one thing:

“Would we serve this coffee in our own café?”

If not, it doesn’t leave the roastery.

Final Word from the Roaster

At Ublend®, we don’t just roast coffee — we help cafés, startups, and brands build trust with every cup.

From fully automated green bean processing to precision roast profiling and daily cupping, everything is done with purpose and passion.

So the next time you enjoy your blend — bold, balanced, fruity, or rich — remember:That coffee started its journey here, in our roasting plant, with technology, skill, and a whole lot of love for the bean.

– The Master Roaster Ublend®