Who Roasts Our Beans: Calibre Coffee and the World Coffee Roasting Championship

The beans at Roots & Roasted are roasted by Calibre Coffee, the Istanbul roastery behind the 2023 World Coffee Roasting Championship runner-up — which is the short answer to why an espresso on Sultanahmet Square tastes the way it does. Guests ask us about the roaster more than about anything else on the menu, usually after the first sip, so here is the longer answer: what the championship is, why a second place in it matters, and what you can actually taste as a result.

What the World Coffee Roasting Championship is

The World Coffee Roasting Championship, WCRC, is one of the competitions run by World Coffee Events, the competition body of the Specialty Coffee Association, alongside the better-known barista and brewers’ championships. Competitors qualify by winning their national roasting championship, and in 2023 the world final was held in Taipei, Taiwan.

The format tests the whole craft rather than one showy moment. Competitors are given green coffees they have not seen before and must grade them — identifying defects and quality with the accuracy of a professional buyer. They then design a roast plan for each coffee, roast it on competition machines, and submit it. Judges score how closely the roast matched the plan and, in blind cuppings, how good the coffee is in the cup. Roasting well on unfamiliar coffee under a clock, and predicting the result before you start, is about the hardest thing a roaster can be asked to do.

Why second in the world matters

Roasting is where a coffee is either revealed or ruined. The farm decides what a bean can be; the roaster decides how much of that arrives in the cup. Under-roast it and the acidity is sour and the sweetness never develops. Over-roast it and everything tastes of the roaster instead of the origin — smoke, ash, bitterness. The skill lies in building a profile that brings out sweetness and keeps the acidity clean, and then hitting it again every week, on every batch, as the green coffee ages and the weather changes.

A roaster who can plan and execute that on coffee they have never touched, in front of judges, will do it reliably on the coffees they know. That is what a runner-up finish at the world level tells us, and it is why we chose Calibre rather than roasting on a small machine in the corner of the café. We would rather be excellent at brewing than average at both.

What it means in the cup

You taste it most clearly in an Espresso (₺280): sweetness up front, a clean acidity rather than a sour one, a finish that does not turn ashy as it cools. In a Filter / Black Coffee (₺340) the same care shows as clarity — the fruit and floral notes of a single origin are still there instead of being roasted flat. And in the milk drinks, a Flat White or Cortado (₺340), it shows as balance: the coffee is present through the milk without being harsh. Good roasting does not need syrup to be pleasant.

What we do with it every morning

A well-roasted bean is a starting point, not a finished drink. Before we open at 09:00 our baristas dial in: they adjust the grinder, weigh the dose, pull test shots and time them until the espresso runs the way that day’s coffee needs, then repeat as the room warms up. You can see the machine’s group heads and portafilters in the gallery. The name Calibre and the word calibrate are a coincidence we are happy to live with, because calibrating is most of what a coffee bar’s work is.

Where to find Calibre Coffee

Calibre Coffee roasts in Istanbul and shares its work on Instagram as @calibrecoffee. If you want to follow the roastery’s work after you leave Istanbul, that is the place to start.

Try it

The simplest test is to order an Espresso (₺280) and drink it before anything else, at a terrace table with the Hippodrome in front of you. Then decide for yourself whether a world-class roaster makes a difference. The full menu, hot and iced, is on the menu page, and we are at At Meydanı Cd. No:10/1, every day from 09:00 to 19:00.