Omni: A roasting style, a philosophy or a profile?

Another of my Instagram short post series converted into a full length article, today I like to share more about what I understand on the philosophy of Omni in coffee. 

Post lunch, arvo espresso and white flight while re-reading for the 3rd time, Scott Rao latest article about Omni Roasting.

OMNI - yes you read it right. I am a strong believer of it (but let me explain again my theory, all the way to the bottom before you give me more stones) and i have received alot of fluke about this style and belief, discussed plenty of time online whether in the iamabaristasg.com FB group or CSS. To summarise what the great Scott wrote, it depends on the quality of the green, how was it roasted and how was it extracted.

Once again i like to clarify this theory, like I always share it at my cupping table, in workshop i run or to those who care to ask me. Omni IMHO is not a style of roasting but it is a decision made by roasters at the cupping table, using our palate to agree that a certain roast in a certain coffee can taste great in both filter and espresso. We can have a roast degree discharged at 214 degrees celcius which is Omni, we also have the same 214 degrees celcius which is strictly espresso and while rare, there are some too that can be passed off as filter at the same discharged temperature. This i name it 'the angry bird roasting theory' (more to this another time) 

And yes too, we do apply light, medium and medium dark roast to other coffees, not all are Omni (that is plain lazy and one size fit all is not for all coffee and processes)

In one of my many exchanges on this topic in the past, someone came in strongly to call omni stupid, in the process generalising it.  At the end of the day, we cannot help ourselves as human to generalise and make broad statement about anything. At the end of the day, there are reasons for something being done a certain way and if we do not know or not comfortable about it, we ask and we learn. After a long roasting career, I don't really dare to call anything stupid because every roastmaster have their own interpretation of things. I will do a fast roast for a filter (10mins) and a longer roast for a espresso(13mins) but both ending at the same end temperature. Possible? Ask me how. At the same time, yes the fast roast becomes my filter and the longer is my espresso but when we cupped them, QC and taste them and realise certain coffees ( not all) is suitable for multiple brewing methods.

 We call it omni for easier reference for our customers, who are layman people entering our shops and wanting an educated guess on what work for both, maybe the wife prefers a filter while the husband like a long black and getting 2 x 250gm is too much for a week worth. You don't want to buy a bag recommended for a filter and make it into an espresso because you don't want your espresso to taste like a filter coffee, you want a filter for that. Of course an experienced person will say "tweak the parameters for it to work" but try asking a home barista who is untrained to do it and end up wasting half of the bag and getting disappointed. Hence, by over generalising something for them, stating the obvious, 'filter, omni and espresso' is making it easy for the people who buys them. 

I take the opportunity to state here that Omni is not a roasting style, it is a piece of information to consumer that a batch of coffee roasted the same way is suitable for multiple brewing methods because the people who roast it, cares to try and advise what they feel is right. Call it versatile, call it dual method, call it medium-light but Omni seems to hit the right spot for understanding. 

Now let see how this message transcend down. Everyone have a conceptual sphere of things, this is mine. Discuss yours.