Understanding Coffee Roasts

From light and citrusy to bold and smoky, roast levels shape the flavor in your cup

Roast levels are determined mainly by time and temperature. The longer the roast, the darker the bean and the lower the acidity. Most coffees are roasted between 10–15 minutes, depending on the equipment and batch size. Here are the most common roasts you’ll encounter:

  • Cinnamon / Blond / Light Roast – Lightest roast, high acidity, with citrusy or lemon-like notes.
  • Full City / Medium Roast – The most common roast, dark brown with little oil. Flavors range from caramel to chocolate with slight smokiness.
  • French Roast / Dark Roast – Very dark brown with an oily surface. Strong, bittersweet, smoky, and pungent.
  • Espresso Roast (Dark) – Roasted to reduce acidity and highlight depth. Espresso itself is a brewing method, not a roast, but blends are often roasted darker for balance and richness.
  • Italian Roast / Very Dark Roast – Nearly black, very oily, highly aromatic with bold smoky flavor and very low acidity.

Coffee Terminology

Acidity, though kind of a harsh sounding word, is actually a pleasing, highly desirable characteristic of coffees complex flavor. Acidity is present in the form of formic, malic, and acetic acid, among others. These are the same acids found in vinegar, fruit, and wine. If coffee is properly roasted, these acids become wonderfully balanced and give coffee its pleasing “snap” and sharp, bright liveliness that let you know that you made a wise choice…or not.

If you’re sensitive to coffee acidity, then a low acid coffee such as Sumatra, or a very low acid coffee (acidity lowers in longer roasting time) such as a Dark French Roast would be an excellent alternative. Cold Brewed Coffee is very low in acidity (66% less!)  due to the coffee being extracted with cold water.

A tasting term to describe the luscious, sometimes almost syrupy quality that a (high quality) coffee imparts. It is the sensational texture, fullness, and consistency created on the tongue.

Simply put, flavor is an overall evaluation of a coffee’s taste. Terminology varies and is somewhat open to interpretation but may include such terms as mild, bold, tangy, pungent, and earthy.

A single origin, or varietal, is a specific kind of straight coffee (unblended), named after its country or place of origin; Kenya, Sumatra, Kona, etc.

Every good specialty coffee company will showcase certain “Special Blends”. They will have fancy, exotic, or even funky names like Kona Blend Fancy, or Ozark Mountain Fog Lifter. These are simply instances where someone at one time or another thought that a particular varietal would taste really good mixed or blended with one or more other varietals! (Our Espresso is a blend of 4 different coffees!) Simple enough, right? Well, yes and no. Much time and energy has been spent and books have been written on the art and science of blending, with the sole purpose of creating a concoction that is much better in the cup than the sum of its parts.

Is it Chocolate? Is it Coffee? Mocha is actually a port on the Arabian Peninsula called Yemen. Yemen, although across the Red Sea from Ethiopia where the mother of all coffees still grows wild, was the first to actually cultivate and commercialize coffee. This exotic “Mocha” coffee (now known as Arabian Yemen Mocha) was then popularized in Europe and many thought it had an aftertaste similar to Chocolate. No wonder no one knows what’s what!

The real answer to this question (as above) is another question. WHERE is Java? Java has become synonymous with coffee. Here is the reason, more or less. Due to some killer coffee marketing by the Dutch on one of the main Indonesian islands, yep, that would be…Java; a new slang term took hold. Now java is coffee, and coffee is java.

Well, this is where all reason goes south! Shouldn’t this be some kind of great chocolaty coffee drink? Well, it sounds like a blend of something anyway! Mocha-Java is actually and for real, the mother of all coffee blends. It is a combination of equal parts, more or less, of Mocha (Yemen) coffee, you know from that port we talked about, and Java. No, not just any coffee, but Java coffee from the island in Indonesia discussed earlier. Many specialty coffee houses don’t even purchase real Mocha/Yemen or Java. (WE do!) They take similar tasting coffee, blend away, and then call it Mocha-Java. This doesn’t mean it won’t be reasonably good. It just won’t be blended from the Classic coffees that gave the blend its name.

Every once in a while, you’ll come across a varietal that is followed by that mysterious word – “Peaberry”. One in every ten coffee beans, give or take a bean, is a peaberry. A peaberry is a botanical anomaly where the bean forms as a whole rather than two halves. (Flat berries) These beans or peaberries are thought by some to have mystical quality that comes through in the cup. (Since all of the goodness of the coffee is present in one bean instead of two halves). Is there any truth to that?  Well, if you’ve never partaken, you’ll just have to decide on your own. However, for whatever reason, the peaberry is sorted out and sold separately!

Did you ever wonder what constitutes a great dessert coffee and how this amazing coffee is created?

Well, just let me tell you…. well, O.K., it isn’t rocket science. Actually the “hands on method” is pretty darn simple, but like all the best of things, and similarly conveyed by the rest of this site, several key factors must be in place to have the heavenly experience described above.

1. These coffees begin with…big surprise, the best green mountain-grown coffee available, BUT, it should be a mild coffee such as Brazilian or Mexican, so as not to compete too much with the flavoring concentrate.

2. The coffee must be brought to a nice medium roast, not too light or it will be a bit grassy and acidic, not too dark or it will become too powerful and eclipse the flavoring of choice.

3. Then, while still warm to the touch, the coffee beans are transferred to a sterile plastic container where the highest quality flavoring is poured evenly over the beans.

4. Then it’s shake and bake! The coffee beans are shaken vigorously until thoroughly coated. Because the beans are still warm, they soak up every delectable ounce of flavoring.

O.K. So like I said, it’s not high tech, but after a number of different flavoring methods I have experimented with over the years, this produces the finest tasting coffee imaginable. After all, it’s more or less “home made” with old-fashioned loving attention to quality.
(well…ahem, at least, the way we make it here at Lakota Coffee Company!)

Now, assuming proper brewing, those scrumptious flavors will blend beautifully with the delicate aromatic quality of a mild high-grown coffee and, well, there you have it! You have arrived… at Flavored Coffee Nirvana!

Have you ever had a cup of decaffeinated coffee that was so good, you scarcely knew it was 99.9% caffeine free? The best decaf coffee you’ll ever taste begins with the finest green arabica coffee beans available anywhere.

The quickest way to have the above experience follows along with everything we’ve learned on this site.

The difference is that after our green coffee importer discovers a great bean at the cupping table, a small percentage of the buy is shipped to a decaffeinating plant where it’s processed before being sent home to the importer’s warehouse.

If you are looking for more information on coffee. Please check out our educational website:

http://www.specialty-coffee-advisor.com/worldsbestcoffee.html