Light Roast, Medium Roast, Dark Roast: What Are the Differences?

People prefer different coffee tastes and aroma types, yet not everyone knows where the taste and aroma come from. The raw coffee beans are naturally green. The beans need to be roasted in order for the flavors to come out.

Coffee roasting has a large impact on coffee flavor. In the roasting process, it depends on how you want the coffee to taste. As its color changes, the coffee bean will result in different flavors. The darker the bean gets, the richer the taste.

Light Roast Coffee

As the name suggests, the light roast coffee has a lighter brown color on its body. Also, the bean’s surface has no oil. Generally, the bean is roasted in a shorter time, so it gives almost no room for the caffeine to leave from its natural green bean. The light roast has the highest acidity content due to its roasting process.

In addition, you will need the temperature between 180-200 degrees Celsius (356-401°F) to roast a light coffee bean. With this heat, the bean will explode its first cracking like popcorn within seconds. This will tell you that the bean is well roasted.

Medium Roast Coffee

The medium roast coffee bean has a darker color with its thicker body appearance than the light roast one. This roasting level makes the coffee more flavorful and aromatic, producing a fuller body yet less acidic than light roasting. Moreover, at this roasting level, the amount of caffeine content will be averaging.

Apart from this, the temperature to roast for medium roasted beans will take between 210-220 degrees Celsius (410-430°F). The roasting duration will take longer than the light roast as well. You may wonder when the coffee bean is medium-roasted? During the roasting process, the first crack will be for a light roast while the moment before the second crack will be for a medium roast. Other than that, once you start to see the bean oils leaking out to its body surface, that is when the second crack is going to happen.

Dark Roast Coffee

This roasting type will make your coffee bean’s color darker brown and often an oily surface. At this roasting level, it requires great expertise and techniques to not burn the beans. Dark roast beans have a low acidity, heavy body with richer, bolder flavors.

The temperature required would be about 240.6 degrees Celsius (465°F) or essentially the end of the second crack.

The difference between light, medium, and dark roast coffee is quite dramatic. It all comes down to individual's preference when selecting the ideal roast level.