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There are 4 main roast levels of coffee: light, medium, medium-dark, and dark.

Coffee starts off as a “green” bean. It is dense and full of moisture. During the roasting process, heat from the roaster pulls the moisture out and allows the natural sugars and acids of the coffee to react. Typically, the darker the roast the less acidic the coffee is.

In a light roast, the bean has just started to brown and is close to a cinnamon color. A good light roast coffee is vibrant, acidic, and has floral notes. These are often called light city or breakfast roasts. This roast has not yet begun to show hints of sweetness.

A medium roast is starting to allow sweet notes to come out and acidity to leave. This is a very common roast in America. Often called American or city roast.

A medium-dark roast has almost no acidity and if pulled at the right time has a great sweetness about it.

A dark roast is often referred to as a full city or Vienna roast. A dark roast has little to no acidity and is crossing over to smokey/ bitter flavors if roasted too long. The purpose of a dark roast is to pull out the “deep” flavors of particular beans. 

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