How to Choose Your Best Coffee Roast Level
As you might have noticed, coffee roast levels play an essential role in the coffee’s flavor, aroma, and tasting notes.
A light roast will not produce a cup of coffee that tastes the same as that of a dark roast. Flavors and aromas vary, based on the type of roast and the brewing method used.
Some people think that using a light roast guarantees natural coffee flavors and strong aromas, but this isn’t always the case.
So, you might be asking yourself what is the best coffee roast level? Or how should you roast your coffee beans to make your favorite cup of coffee?
But this shouldn’t get you worried. Here are some tips:
If you enjoy a balanced cup of coffee with fruity flavors, use medium roast coffee like City roast or Full City roast.
Always keep in mind that lighter roasts have more acidity than darker roasts, but darker roasts are more bitter.
If you like full-body, rich cowboy coffee with boldness, you can go for dark roasted coffee like Vienna, Italian, and French roasts.
Brew your coffee with light roasts like Cinnamon roast if you are craving organic coffee taste and flavors
Always read the descriptions provided to see what’s the best roast for you.
FAQs
What are the Basic Degrees of Coffee Roasting?
There are three basic roasting degrees; light, medium, and dark. However, you will find that different rosters have created names for their varied roasting levels.
Light Roast
This is the most popular coffee roast degree among specialty lovers. Light roast beans are heated until the beans reach their first stage of expansion.
When coffee beans are exposed to temperatures ranging from 180 – 205 degrees Celsius, they will expand and pop, in what is usually called the first crack.
You can easily identify light roast coffee beans by looking at some of their physical attributes. If you see light brown, pale, and dry coffee beans roast, you are probably seeing a light roast degree.
This degree of the coffee roast will have a fruity coffee, floral aroma, and have a generally higher amount of caffeine compared to other degrees of coffee roasts.
Light roast beans are sometimes referred to as half city, Cinnamon Roast, New England Roast, and Light City.
Medium
Medium roast beans are common for breakfast and regular roast. They are brown and have very little oil on their surfaces.
This roast coffee is heated with temperatures between 210 and 220 degrees Celsius which is immediately after the first crack.
At these temperatures, the beans are still dry with no oil on their surface and they have a medium brown color.
Medium roast level offers sweet fragrances due to the caramelizing caused.
Caramelization is the process of converting reducing sugars in coffee to caramel as a result of heating.
Coffee beans roasted to a medium roast level have lower acidity and a stronger flavor. You will experience bitterness after tasting this coffee due to compressed flavors.
Medium roast coffee is the most loved by a larger population in the United States of America.
Dark
Dark roast beans often have an oily dark brown colored surface. It’s very low on acidity, full-body, and tends to reveal darker flavors
To obtain dark roast beans, you have to heat them to high temperatures of 225 to 230 degrees Celsius until they reach the second crack.
At such high temperatures, all the flavors and aromas become very noticeable
Dark roasts are very easy to recognize with their shiny and oily coat. They also taste bitter on biting.
When it comes to caffeine levels, dark roasts have slightly less caffeine. However, when you brew two different cups of coffee with similar amounts of dark roast beans and light roast beans, the caffeine level will be the same.
This is because dark roasts have less weight, so you will use more beans in terms of coffee bean number.
It’s very easy to confuse between dark roast and espresso. Despite both giving dark results, espresso is just a brewing method and not a degree of roast.