A Guide to the Bolder Brews
In part one of our series about the different types of coffee roasts, we looked at some of the lighter roasts and talked about what happens to a coffee bean when you roast it. Roasted beans produce stronger flavor but have less of a kick, as roasting removes some of the caffeine and lessens the acidity of your brew. Because a coffee bean has high water content, it steams from the inside as you roast it, eventually cracking from the internal pressure. (You can actually hear the cracking when beans are roasting.)
In this article, we’ll see what happens when we roast beans longer and they reach the higher internal temperature of a medium roast. In the course of producing some medium roasts, the beans reach a temperature high enough for them to crack a second time. Medium roasts produce the most popular brews, at least in the United States. A good medium roast has a bit of the brightness of a lighter roast with increasing hints of the rich, velvety texture of a dark roast.
The City Roast
To produce a city roast, coffee makers leave the beans in the roaster until they reach about 415°-425° Fahrenheit. With a city roast, the bean has completed its first crack. Though many city roasts appear on supermarket shelves and in coffee shops nationwide, they are typically labeled as generic “medium” roasts.
The Breakfast Roast
If you stopped at your morning breakfast place today, this is likely what was poured into your cup. Breakfast roasts can easily be found in your local grocery store. There’s a bit of latitude in the roasting temperature of the beans for a breakfast roast, anywhere from 410° to 430°. For that reason, some coffee aficionados dub it a light roast and others consider it a medium roast.
The Full City Roast
When coffee beans stay in the roaster after the first crack is complete, it takes only a few minutes for the bean to crack again. The second crack occurs when the bean reaches a temperature of about 440°. If the beans are pulled just before the second crack begins, the roast is considered a full city roast. This is also the most transformative stage of the roasting process, as the bean takes on a dark brown hue and starts to emit oil. At this point, much of the acidity leaves the bean, replaced by the familiar sweetness of a dark roast. If your coffee has subtle hints of caramel, cocoa, toffee, or hazelnut, it’s probably a full city roast. Full city roasts are relatively easy to find in specialty coffee shops but not that common in supermarkets.
The Continental Roast
Much as the breakfast roast bridges the gap between light and medium roasts, the continental roast lives in the space between medium and dark roasts. This roast requires consummate skill. The beans must stay in the roaster until they are close to being burnt, which produces a dark chocolate brown bean with lots of oil on the outside and a rich, smoky caramel flavor. Many find a continental roast to be a bit too strong for the day’s first cup, but it’s a popular after-dinner libation. Many commercially available coffees have some continental roast content, but pure continental roasts are typically available only at specialty coffee roasters or shops.