Jun 08 2010
Coffee Roast
Walking the coffee aisle in the local grocery store can be confusing. There are dark, light and medium roast coffees, flavored coffees and decaffeinated coffees along with different bean types. Understanding coffee roast and how it affects the flavor of coffee is important when deciding what type of coffee to purchase, particularly for young adults just starting out on their own and buying their first coffee for their home.
Coffee roast is determined by how long the coffee is in the roaster, the temperature it is roasted at and what color the bean is after it roasts. It is defined as light, medium or dark and the flavor will be reflected by the roast of the coffee.
Coffee beans are green prior to being roasted. Roasting the coffee bean turns it into the chocolate colored bean most people are accustomed to seeing. Coffee roasters are masters of their art and have learned to know how to tell when the bean as reached its desired color. They are also adept at knowing how to manipulate the temperatures to reach the desired flavors by capturing the coffee bean’s many different essential oils that create its unique flavor. Light roasted coffee should have a slightly acidic taste with a citrus or fruity finish.
Light coffee roasts are not as popular as other coffee roasts. On one hand the resulting coffee is not as strong as medium and darker roast coffees while on the other hand some coffee drinkers say that light roasts capture more of the coffee beans true flavors. This could be true because the beans composite makeup is more intact than one that has been roasted longer. Lighter roasts usually contain more caffeine than dark roasts because the caffeine has not burned off during a long roasting process.
Dark coffee roasts are popular roasts among many people. Dark roasted coffee beans spend more time in the roaster than other roasts and they are roasted at a higher temperature. Dark roasted coffee beans lose the majority of their true coffee bean flavor resulting in a much more consistent taste. Dark roasting can make an inferior bean taste like a higher-grade coffee bean. Dark roasted coffee is identifiable by its rich, full body and smoothness. Because it is roasted to the breaking point the acidity is less noticeable. The finish of dark roasted coffee is less noticeable than light roasted coffee.
Medium roasted coffee is the most popular coffee roast. This roasting process falls somewhere between dark roasted and light roasted coffee and is entirely dependent on the roaster. Creating a medium roasted coffee is an art form that creates some of the best coffees in the world. Roasters study coffee regions and learn the different flavors each bean has and then roast them to just the right color for the perfect coffee blend. Medium roast coffees have varying tastes that depend on which side of the spectrum the roaster leaned toward.
Which roast the consumer chooses is entirely a matter of taste. Some people like them all and don’t have a preference while others know exactly what they want when they walk in the coffee shop. The good news is that there is no right or wrong choice; there is a roast for everyone.
-Sharon Chapman