Which to Choose: Dark Roast or Medium Roast?

Choosing the right roast is key for great coffee.

Dark roasts get most of the publicity. But before you automatically ask for the dark roasted beans, you might want to consider the difference between dark roast and medium roast.

All coffee is harvested bagged as whole green beans. Then the coffee will be roasted, either at a large facility or a local coffee shop that roasts its own beans on premise. Some people even buy green beans and roast their own coffee at home.

The roaster has a lot of control over how much to roast the beans, to bring out their best flavors. The most common roasts are dark and medium. How should the coffee roaster (or you) decide to roast the beans?

The difference between a dark roast and a medium roast

There are actually many grades of roasting. The most common are medium and dark, and the the darkest is called French Roast.

A skilled roaster is an artist, who must consider what the customers want to buy, and also how to make the most of the beans through a properly applied roasting process. Some beans can be dark roasted to a rich, full flavor, while dark roasting on other beans dulls their flavor. Generally, darker roasts lose some of the most subtle flavors, but can smooth a sharp bean.

Dark roasts were made famous in Amercia by Peet's Coffee in California. Later Starbucks applied its own dark roasting, although the early Peet's beans were actually darker.

When you buy beans that look dark, they are not actually "dark roasted" unless you see some oil on the beans' surface. The oil generally can start to be found on Medium Dark brown beans. When you get to the Dark Brown beans, generally you can see oil covering the whole bean. Espresso usually is made from these Dark Brown roasts.

What roast should you buy?

Learning about the different roasts is part of your coffee adventure. As you experiment with different beans and roasts, you will come to appreciate the art of coffee roasting, and the skill that a roaster brings to this craft.

The best roasters apply their skills and equipment to the beans at hand. Everyone does it a bit differently, which means you need to find a roaster and a taste you enjoy.

My advice is to start with medium roasts for your daily grinds. Work your way up to darker roasts, and for espresso. Along the way, let your local roasting company broaden your coffee knowledge by applying different roasts to beans from around the world.

How to Make Coffee...