4 Types of Coffee Roasts

Shopping for coffee, you might have felt overwhelmed looking at the coffee aisle. Cinnamon, Viennese, French, City— there’s just too many varieties of coffee and the type of roasts.

Although the coffee bean itself matters, coffee gets a lot of its flavor and aroma from the roasting process. The duration length of the roasting process can affect so many things such as the flavor, acidity, and the body of your beans.

In order to help you expand your coffee knowledge, here is a handy guide to the 4 types of coffee roasts.

1. Light Roast

Common Names: Half-City, New England, Cinnamon

The light roasts are the coffee beans roasted for the least amount of time. They generally reach an internal temperature between 356-and401-degree Fahrenheit, right after the 1^st crack occurs.

These coffee beans usually don’t have the oils on them since they were not roasted at a high temperature. The longer a coffee bean is roasted, then the more the heat pulls out the acidity and the caffeine. Thus, light roasts have the most acidity and caffeine and are often accompanied by a lemon or citrus tone.

They can have various taste profiles due to the short roasting process, preventing some chemical changes from occurring. Thus, original flavors are more recognizable in the light roasts.

Check out the Nectar of Life Light Roasted Coffees.

2. Medium Roast

Common Names: Regular, City, American

The Medium roasts reach an internal temperature between 410- and 428-degrees Fahrenheit, which is after the 1^st crack and right before the 2^nd crack occurs. Thus, they have little more body and less acidity.

Medium roasted coffee beans are what the average American coffee drinker used to drink. These roasts offer a balanced flavor. Although the body and acidity of a medium roast can vary, they are typically somewhere in between.

3. Medium-Dark Roast

Common Names: Light French, Full City, Viennese, Light Espresso, Continental

These beans are roasted in internal temperature between 437- and 446-degrees Fahrenheit, which is during or just after the 2^nd crack occurs.

Medium-dark roast beans will also start showing oils on the surface since the temperatures are high enough. Coffee beans with a medium-dark roast have a fuller and richer flavor, less acidity and more body.

4. Dark Roast

Common Names: Heavy, Turkish, Espresso, French, Dark French, Italian

A dark roast has an internal temperature of 464- to 482-degrees Fahrenheit. Dark roast beans feature visible oils and you can’t taste the original flavors because of the roasting process.

The dark roasted coffee beans have sweeter flavors since the sugars in the beans caramelized. The long roasting process also helps develop a full body and richer flavor with a buttery finish. Plus, they have the least acidity and caffeine content.