Coffee Roaster's Batch & Cupping Log

How per-bag cost is actually calculated for roasted coffee

True per-bag cost = (roasted cost per pound × bag weight in pounds) + bag pouch + label + degassing valve + per-bag labor + freight. Roasted cost per pound is the green cost per pound divided by (1 − loss percentage). On a $7.80/lb Ethiopia Yirgacheffe with a measured 13.8% loss, roasted cost is $7.80 / 0.862 = $9.05/lb. A 12oz bag (0.75 lb) draws $6.79 of roasted coffee. Add a $1.05 valve pouch, a $0.25 label, a $0.08 valve top-up, $0.45 per-bag labor, and $0.20 prorated freight — true per-bag cost is $8.82, not the $5.85 you'd get from green cost alone.

The Per-Bag Costing tab in this workbook does the math row by row. The Loss % column auto-pulls from the matching row in the Roast Profile Log via VLOOKUP on Lot ID — so a 17.3% Yirgacheffe and a 19.8% Sumatra each get their own roasted-cost-per-pound, instead of a flat percentage that washes out the real differences between origins and roast levels. Suggested retail uses 2.5× bag cost (room for a 1.6× wholesale floor and retail keystone); suggested wholesale uses 1.6× bag cost — the floor below which cafes can't double to keystone and your account drops off the line sheet on their next reorder.

Why roast loss is the number most coffee roasters guess at

Green coffee contains 10–12% moisture by weight plus organic compounds that break down during the Maillard reaction. Light roasts (City, City+) typically lose 12–14% by weight; medium roasts (Full City) 15–17%; dark roasts (Vienna, French, Italian) 18–22%. Roasters who skip the post-roast weigh and apply a flat 17% across all profiles overstate margin on dark roasts (where actual loss is higher than 17%) and understate margin on light roasts (where loss is lower). On a 12oz retail bag selling at $18, a 4-point overestimate of loss inflates phantom margin by $1.30 per bag — about $260 of vanishing profit across 200 monthly bags.

The Roast Profile Log tab forces a per-roast weigh-in and weigh-out and computes loss percentage automatically. The cell flashes red if loss falls outside the 11–22% typical band — a roast that lost 8% is probably underdeveloped (or the roasted-out weight was recorded wrong); a roast that lost 24% is probably scorched (or the green-in weight was wrong). Either way, the workbook surfaces the anomaly before it pollutes a quarter of pricing decisions.

How development-time ratio (DTR) connects roast log to cup score

For specialty coffee, a development-time ratio (DTR) of 18–22% is the target range on washed-process origins — bright but not grassy, sweet but not flat. DTR is the seconds from first-crack onset to drop, divided by total roast time. Below 15% the cup often tastes grassy or papery (underdeveloped); above 25% the cup loses origin character and tastes baked-flat. The Roast Profile Log tab encodes times as minute-decimals (e.g. 9.45 = 9 minutes 45 seconds) and computes DTR automatically — cells flash red if DTR drifts outside the 15–25% band and green when it lands in the 18–22% sweet spot.

DTR by itself is not a substitute for cupping — a roast can have a perfect 20% DTR and still cup poorly because of green-coffee quality, profile timing, or charge temperature. The workbook pairs DTR with the Cupping Scores tab so the next time you ask 'which Yirgacheffe profile cupped best?' the answer is a sort, not a memory check. Build calibration by cupping the same lot multiple times across a week, scoring blind, and comparing — your numbers should land within ±2 points on a stable lot before you treat them as objective.

How the blend calculator handles the math wholesale customers care about

A blend's weighted green cost per pound is just SUMPRODUCT of component percentages and component green prices. A 60% Colombia at $5.20 + 30% Sumatra at $5.40 + 10% Ethiopia at $7.80 = $5.52/lb green weighted. Weighted loss percentage is the same — SUMPRODUCT of percentages and lot loss percentages from the Roast Profile Log. With component losses 16% / 19% / 14%, weighted loss = 16.6%, and weighted roasted cost per pound = $5.52 / 0.834 = $6.62/lb. An example 12oz bag draws $4.97 of roasted blend plus $1.83 of standard packaging — $6.80 true bag cost, $17.00 suggested retail at 2.5×, $10.88 suggested wholesale at 1.6×.

The Blend Calculator tab does this row by row and flags an error if your component percentages do not sum to 100%. The plumbing is VLOOKUP from the lot-ID column into the Per-Bag Costing tab (for green cost per pound) and the Roast Profile Log (for loss percentage) — so updating a green-cost cell on the Per-Bag Costing tab reprices every blend that uses that lot, automatically. The trade-off this workbook makes versus a database: four components is the maximum, the validation is shallow, and a roastery running five or more standing blends will hit a wall when one component lot reprices and every blend needs a manual recheck.

How do I calculate the true cost per bag of roasted coffee?

True per-bag cost = (roasted cost per pound × bag weight in pounds) + bag pouch + label + degassing valve + per-bag labor + freight. Roasted cost per pound is the green cost per pound divided by (1 − loss percentage). On a $7.80/lb Yirgacheffe at 13.8% measured loss, roasted cost is $9.05/lb; a 12oz bag draws $6.79 of roasted coffee, plus $1.83 of standard packaging ($1.05 pouch + $0.25 label + $0.08 valve + $0.45 labor) and $0.20 freight = $8.82 per bag. The Per-Bag Costing tab in this workbook does the math per row and picks up each lot's actual measured loss percentage from the Roast Profile Log via VLOOKUP — so you don't flat-percentage your way to wrong numbers.

What is a typical roast loss percentage for specialty coffee?

Light roasts (Cinnamon, City, City+) typically lose 11–14% by weight. Medium roasts (Full City, Full City+) lose 15–18%. Dark roasts (Vienna, French, Italian) lose 18–22%. The exact percentage varies by green moisture content, batch size, and drum temperature, so the only reliable approach is to weigh in and weigh out on every roast and record the actual percentage in the Roast Profile Log. Flat-percentage assumptions ("I always lose 17%") are off by 2–4 points on individual batches and silently distort per-bag cost calculations.

What is development-time ratio (DTR) and what range should I target?

Development time is the seconds between first-crack onset and drop. DTR is development divided by total roast time, expressed as a percentage. For washed-process specialty origins, a DTR of 18–22% is the typical specialty sweet spot — bright but not grassy, sweet but not flat. Below 15% the cup often tastes grassy or papery (underdeveloped); above 25% the cup loses origin character and tastes baked-flat. Natural-process coffees and dark-roast styles often push slightly higher. The Roast Profile Log tab in this workbook computes DTR automatically and flags rows that drift outside the 15–25% band.

How does the SCA cupping scale work?

The Specialty Coffee Association cupping scale assigns 10 points per attribute across 10 attributes — fragrance/aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, uniformity, clean cup, sweetness, overall — for a 100-point maximum, minus a defects deduction (2 points per cup affected for a taint, 4 points per cup for a fault). 80+ is specialty grade; 85+ is excellent; 90+ is outstanding (rare, auction-grade). Below 80 is sub-specialty. The Cupping Scores tab in this workbook scores each attribute 6.00–10.00 in 0.25 increments, sums to a /100 total, subtracts the defects deduction, and auto-classifies the quality grade. Full SCA protocols and free training materials are at sca.coffee.

What is the typical retail markup on roasted coffee bags?

Most independent roasters use 2× to 3× true per-bag cost as a retail starting point. 2.5× is the modest middle — it leaves room for both a wholesale floor at 1.6× cost (cafes keystone to ~3.2× cost) and your own retail at 2.5× cost. Single-origin specialty bags often sit at 2.8–3.5× cost; commercial blends at 2.0–2.5×. Below 2× cost rarely covers Etsy fees, Shopify processing, marketing, and the time you didn't put in the labor line.

How do I price for wholesale coffee accounts?

Wholesale coffee pricing convention is 1.6× true per-bag cost as the floor — the cafe doubles to ~3.2× cost retail for whole-bean resale, which keystones (50% margin for them) profitably. Cafes that pour by the cup work different unit economics, but 1.6× cost is still the defensible floor for whole-bean bag pricing. Below 1.6× cost most cafe and grocery accounts cannot keystone and your account drops off their line sheet on the next reorder. The Wholesale Line Sheet Template in our resources collection gives you a buyer-ready PDF; this workbook gives you the per-bag number to put on it.

Is this a coffee log or a general production tracker?

This is a coffee-specific log — the Roast Profile Log captures charge temp, first-crack time, drop temp, and development-time ratio (DTR); the Cupping Scores tab uses the SCA 10-point scale; the Blend Calculator handles component percentages with weighted roast-loss math; the Reference tab carries 24 green-coffee origins and process styles with per-pound pricing. Our separate Recipe Scaling & Batch Calculator is a general recipe tool for any small-batch product. Use this one for coffee; use the Recipe Scaling workbook for a candle or soap or cookie recipe.

Does this workbook account for green-coffee price volatility?

Partially. The Reference tab carries 12-month-average illustrative defaults dated to the workbook's publication, with a loud warning that the C-market and origin differentials move every business day. The Per-Bag Costing tab has a green-cost-per-pound column you update by hand against your latest importer invoice. The workbook does NOT auto-refresh from a live commodity feed — by design. Spreadsheets that promise live C-market pricing either break weekly when the data feed changes or phish for credentials. For wholesale-line repricing, the recommended workflow is to update the green-cost cells whenever an importer invoice arrives.