Choosing the right roast level for your coffee can significantly influence the flavour and overall experience of your favourite brewing methods. With a wide range of roast levels available, from light to dark, understanding how each level affects taste is key to finding your perfect cup. Here at Coffee and Tee, we allow you to choose the level of roast, giving you the opportunity to experiment with tastes and flavours to find what works best.
In this blog post, we will delve into the subtle differences of roast levels and explore how they impact the flavours when brewing coffee using an espresso machine, a V60 pour over, and Aeropress methods.
1. Light Roast: Light roast coffees are known for preserving the inherent characteristics of the beans. When brewed as an espresso, light roasts offer vibrant acidity, floral and fruity flavors, and a lighter body. The delicate subtleties shine through, providing a bright and complex experience. In a V60 pour over, light roasts showcase a crisp and clean cup, with pronounced acidity and a lighter mouthfeel. When used with an Aeropress, light roasts can yield a well-balanced brew, highlighting the coffee's origin and showcasing its intricate flavors.
2. Medium-Light Roast: Medium-light roast strikes a balance between preserving origin flavors and introducing subtle roast characteristics. As an espresso, medium-light roasts offer a slightly richer body with more pronounced sweetness and a delicate acidity that remains prominent. When brewed with a V60, medium-light roasts provide a well-rounded cup with a touch of sweetness, moderate acidity, and a smooth mouthfeel. In an Aeropress, medium-light roasts deliver a balanced and approachable brew with notable flavours and a clean finish.
3. Medium Roast: Medium roast is often considered a classic choice, striking a balance between origin characteristics and roast flavours. As an espresso, medium roasts exhibit a balanced body, moderate acidity, and a touch of sweetness. The flavours are well-rounded, with hints of chocolate, nuts, and subtle fruitiness. When brewed using a V60, medium roasts offer a harmonious cup with balanced acidity, medium body, and a pleasant sweetness. In an Aeropress, medium roasts deliver a versatile brew with a smooth and approachable flavour profile.
4. Medium-Dark Roast: Medium-dark roasts begin to showcase more prominent roast flavors while retaining some origin characteristics. When prepared as an espresso, medium-dark roasts offer a fuller body, lower acidity, and deeper flavours with notes of caramel, dark chocolate, and a slight bitterness. In a V60, medium-dark roasts yield a robust cup with a full body, reduced acidity, and rich flavours. With an Aeropress, medium-dark roasts produce a bold and flavorful brew with a smooth mouthfeel and noticeable roast characteristics.
5. Dark Roast: Dark roasts are known for their bold and intense flavors, often accompanied by smoky and caramelized notes. As an espresso, dark roasts exhibit a heavy body, low acidity, and pronounced roast flavors. The cup is rich, bittersweet, and may have a slight oiliness. When brewed using a V60, dark roasts offer a full-bodied and bold cup with reduced acidity and distinct roast characteristics. With an Aeropress, dark roasts produce a strong and robust brew, perfect for those who prefer a bold and intense coffee experience.
From the range of beans that we offer at Coffee and Tee, here are our recommended roast levels and why, remember this is only our personal opinion and true results can only come from your own experimentation:
The Smooth Bean: Our most popular bean. We love the Smooth bean roasted at a medium roast level - this produces a very pleasant chocolate taste that is well rounded. The smooth bean roasted to a medium level makes an exceptional flat white when being used in an espresso machine, creating a thick crema as the shot is extracted.
The Rich Bean: If you love a pour over coffee and drink it black, this would be your go to choice. The Rich Bean goes great at a Medium-Light roast when used in a pour over as this roast level leaves a lot of the fruity flavours in the cup producing an almost tea like drinking experience.
The Strong Bean: For the black coffee connoisseur, The Strong Bean produces a strong kick (as the name suggests) when roasted at a Medium-Dark level. This is because the dark roast brings out those slightly smoky, dark chocolate flavours.
The Sweet Bean: Mexican beans are known for their sweet tastes, therefore this bean is great at a medium roast as well. This level of roast produces a milk chocolate taste while maintaining the Mexican sweetness.
The Exotic Bean: Similar to The Strong Bean, we think The Exotic Bean is perfect when roasted at a Medium-Dark level and will be great for black coffees as well as milk coffees. This level of roast brings out the dark chocolate flavour while maintaining the delicious nutty notes.
As for our personal tastes, we tend to stay away from light roasted and dark roasted beans, being at the two extremes of the roasting scale. We find light roasts a bit too green and earthy, and dark roasts too burnt and smoky. So our go to generally sits at a traditional medium or med-dark. We use our espresso machine 80% of the time, with the V60 pour-over and Aeropress coming out every now and again, so the medium roast suits us well.
In conclusion, selecting the right roast level depends on your personal taste preferences and brewing method. Light and medium-light roasts emphasize the coffee's origin characteristics and offer vibrant flavours. Medium and medium-dark roasts strike a balance between origin and roast flavors, while dark roasts provide bold and intense flavour profiles. Experimenting with different roast levels will help you discover the perfect cup of coffee that suits your palate and brewing preferences. Remember, the world of coffee is diverse, and there's no definitive answer to "what roast is good for me?" It's an exciting journey of exploration and discovery, so embrace the variety and enjoy the process of finding your ideal roast level for each brewing method.
Cheers to a delightful coffee experience from us at Coffee and Tee!
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