When coffee beans are roasted, the plant compound, chlorogenic acid, is broken down.

NEWYORKER: The Operator

When he is in Oakland, Mr. Freeman meets with his staff each day in the company's production facility for their "cupping" ritual a blind tasting of all the coffee roasted the previous day, as well as coffee made from beans they are considering buying.

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Coffee growers had beans roasted on the bush when the peaty soil caught fire.

ECONOMIST: Guyana

One of the newer start-ups in the city, its Jordanian owners are proud of their former life in Italy and coffee-making credentials (they get their roasted beans from outside Bologna).

BBC: The cosmopolitan crossroads of the Middle East

Other local coffee roasters include Coffee Assembly, a pioneer that began roasting in 2006, and Glory Coffee and Fahrenheit 500, both of which supply roasted beans for 18 Grams and Espresso Alchemy.

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Since then, a boom in artisanal coffee culture triggered a kind of arms race in which various trendy descriptors overwhelm the humble coffee beans: organic, fair-trade, shade-grown, locally roasted, etc.

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