How do you prefer your beans to be roasted?? Light, Medium, Full, or Double Roast?

[expat]

Because I can roast my own beans I have the luxury of roasting each bean to different levels. And often the bean has quite a range of wonderful flavors, each showing up at different roast levels. Sometimes when I hit the 'perfect roast' I'm happy with that, whatever level it is. Otherwise I like to blend the coffees so, say with my 'double roasted' Colombian, I roast one light-medium and one just past 2nd crack and blend the two together. Right now I usually do that 50/50 but varying the ratio would be a way to vary the taste.

So with my 'double roast' I get all the flowery, citriusy, honey flavours with the lighter roast and all the caramel and chocolatey flavours with the dark. When the coffee is hot, right out of the brew pot I really taste one set of flavours. As the coffee cools I get to enjoy a range of flavours right on down the temperature scale.

And someone posted on this thread that coffee shouldn't be bitter. That's true. I've found the best way to really taste your coffee is at room temperature. Make a cup the way you'd normally make it right out of your brew pot -- black, with cream, with sugar, etc. Then let it sit for an hour and assume room temperature. Now drink it. If it tastes like swill you're drinking a low class cup of coffee. If it still tastes great (and I'm happy to say that The Lovely & Talented Roast Mistress does such a nice job that our coffee is still very tasty at room temp as opposed to most store bought coffee which isn't, it gets quite bitter and 'swilly', possibly because more roasters, especially the big guys, are loading up their blends with a lot more Robusta than before) you've got a good cup of coffee. The reason I sugges this is scientifically our taste buds are most sensitive in a narrow room temperature range. Hotter or colder starts masking the flavour for a number of reasons. This isn't to say I'm an advocate of drinking room temp coffee all the time. No, I still like it hot (and I'd miss the great aroma if it was just room temp) but you should try it to really 'understand' the coffee you're drinking. Again, if it is nasty to drink at room temp then you should treat yourself to a better grade of coffee.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

That is very interesting and also I had an experience of drinking coffee left in my car over night...(sounds disgusting) but I really needed coffee and I was nowhere near where I can get a cup. When I discover I had a cup left over from night before, my initial thought was to dump it out and clean my cup but my curiosity took over and tasted what I had in my cup. Amazingly enough I did like what I had in my cup. The taste was actually pretty good and didn't feel any bitterness or foul taste(luckily it was middle of November).
I ended up finishing the cup.... I will try again and I wouldn't hesitate to drink room temperature coffee again in the future.....

 

[Cowboy905]

I just started roasting this week.

i have a 10lb bag of Peruvian SHB Organic beans and so far i've roasted Light, Medium, and Dark. My light and medium look real dry while the dark ones are very oily.

i haven't tried the dark yet but i liked the light and i loved the medium. The medium i found actually had a bit of a sweeter taste and the flavour came out more as the cup cooled a bit.

i'll try the dark tonight but so far i think i might have hit the nail on the head with the medium

 

[PinkRose]

I accidently discovered the chocolate undertones in my Papula New Guinea coffee one day when I fixed my coffee and walked away from it to do something else (which turned out to be about an hour). When I realized what I had done, I decided to take a sip anyway, and I was amazed at the chocolate flavor. I knew Papua New Guinea coffee was supposed to have chocolate undertones, but I never really tasted the chocolate until that day. It was so good that I finished the rest of the coffee and I wished I had more.

Rose

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I haven't had Papua new Guinea in few months until couple of days ago and realized how great it was again.... I need to order bean..... I will try at room temp this time....

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

Sooo.... how do YOU prefer your beans to be roasted?

It depends upon the beans themselves. Beans can have a variety of roast levels and different flavors will be apparent at each roast level. Generally, high-quality specialty roasters will profile several samples through small test roasts and decide on the best roast level from sampling the test roasts. The direct opposite is Starbucks who used to roast every bean to the same level making the roast flavor what you were tasting and not the individual bean's traits. Since my wife and I roast our own coffee, we will often do a "melange" roast where we will dump beans into the cooling tray from 1st crack through 2nd crack, giving a cross section of flavors from the different roast levels.

In the case of espresso beans, many blends are formulated so that you need to roast into the second crack and then let the beans rest for a number of days before using them. An example of this is Josuma Coffee Malabar Gold. Joseph John, the person who formulated the Malabar Gold espresso blend, recommends roasting 20-30 seconds into 2nd crack, and then resting the beans 7-10 days before using them.

My point is that there is no single answer to the question as each bean type will have a different roasting requirements - including resting the coffee after roasting.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Generally speaking .... some people prefer dark roast and some people prefer light roast.... I rarely roast my beans pass first crack but then again i found little more interesting flavor at medium roast with some of them... but I still prefer light roast to avoid any kind of bitter taste and I also try to avoid having too much tanning in my coffee....

 

[Seth]

light to medium

 

[eldub]

CJ: At what temp are you seeing first crack?

Our roaster generally gets beans popping into first crack around 385-390*. 420* is the lightest we roast, but even at that temp, I usually still notice some grainy characteristics in the beans.

For me, 440* would represent our medium roast. I bring our dark roasts up (carefully) to 455-460* and try to find the sweet spot where some bean character is mingled with a bit of smokiness without getting bitter.

 

[bigred1]

Some coffe is not meant to be dark roast - you can find charts on diff coffees that show the roast levels

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I get my first crack at around 390 and when FC finishes around 415-425... I would generally stop roasting at that point. But sometimes I would roast little pass 430-445 to get some interesting flavor....

 

[HIM]

Pretty much a newb compared to others here but feel I have a good palate. Im a big fan of cold brewing as I feel I get a more rounded out flavor and pick up more nuances from the beans. Though lately I've been interested in getting a vacuum coffee maker.