Roasted and Caffeinated!

Thursday - 5.9.2013

As promised on Monday, here's the second part of my coffee post: What's the difference between roasts? So I always thought that the darker the roast the stronger or more caffeinated the coffee is... WRONG! According to Wikipedia there is less caffeine in darker roasts, about 1.31% compared to 1.37% in a light roast. So if that's not what the difference is, what is it?

As the name suggest the roast is the amount of time and what temperature the beans spend roasting or baking if you will. They start off green and the darkest is the Spanish roast. So what does the roast really effect? It's is the flavor!

The lighter or less roasted the beans are the more of the original flavor that stays intact and less roast flavor there is. The flavor you get depends on the soil, altitude, and weather conditions in the location where it was grown. With the darker roasts, you taste more of that "roasted flavor" and this makes it more difficult to distinguish the origin of the beans used in the roast.

Light Roasts

Cinnamon roast, half city, New England
Lighter-bodied, higher acidity, no obvious roast flavor

Medium Roasts
Full city, American, regular, breakfast, brown
Sweeter than light roast; more body exhibiting more balance in acid, aroma, and complexity. Smoother than the traditional American "medium" roast, but may display fewer of the distinctive taste characteristics of the original coffee.

Full Roast
High, Viennese, Continental
Somewhat spicy; complexity is traded for heavier body/mouth-feel. Aromas and flavors of roast become clearly evident.

Double Roast
French, Italian, Spanish
Smokey-sweet; light bodied, but quite intense. None of the inherent flavors of the bean are recognizable.

So now that I know the difference between the roast I plan to do a lot of taste testing! So what's your roast?

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