All Coffees Are Not Roasted Equally

The importance of finding the best roast for a particular coffee cannot be understated. One of the problems I have with Starbucks and Peete's coffee is that all of their coffees, regardless of their origin, are over-roasted. Roasting coffee is an exact science that requires a great deal of trial-and-error to find which roast best suits a particular bean. For example, African coffees are delicate, and they cannot stand up to darker roasts. Ethiopian coffees are some of the most nuanced coffees in the world with incredible floral and fruity flavors that jump out regardless of the roast. However, with a dark roast (full city+ or higher) the flavor of the roast begins to conflict with the natural flavor of the coffee producing a combination that is rather revolting. The owner of Sweet Maria's, my favorite green coffee vendor, comments on an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe,

I like this coffee roasted at City or City +, which highlights the strongest quality of a great Yirgacheffe, the brightness, even though the coffee lacks some body and depth at this roast level. It is how Ethiopians roast coffee in some parts of the country: quite light ... in fact they roast it so light that I don't think it passes through first crack! I am not recommending that, but it would be interesting to add the term "Ethiopian Roast" to our lexicon to describe utlra-light roasting. Anyway, darker roasts still have citric quality but it becomes eclipsed by "roast taste" to the detriment of the "origin flavors". FC+ is passable but Vienna roast I cannot abide.

Latin American coffees also work better with a lighter roast. Because of the high acidity of these coffees, a lighter roast is needed to allow the other natural flavors of the coffee to balance out the acidic tangy-ness. At darker roasts, these other flavors are essentially burned up leaving the dominant acidity to combine with the flavor of the roast itself. The result is an extremely bitter taste. In contrast to these more delicate coffees, Indonesian coffees such as Sulawesi and Sumatra have very low acidity and can stand up to darker roasts. These earthy, herbal coffees even prefer a darker roast to bring out these deeper flavors.

One should not have a roasting philosophy (if there is such a thing) that a dark roast is better than a light roast or vice-versa. While Starbucks will tell you that their darker roast brings out the flavors of the coffee more fully, the truth is that each coffee must be roasted to its exact preferred roast. Some coffees, such as the Ethiopia Harar, will have radically different aromas and flavors at different roasts. I recently cupped a Harar at a city+ (light) and full city+ (dark). the lighter roast smelled and tasted like apricots. The flavor was uncanny, as if I had added apricot juice to the water. The darker roast smelled and tasted just like blueberries, which provides for one of the most enjoyable cups of coffee I ever have.

As a consumer, O gentle reader, you may wish to take a closer look at a coffee before you purchase it. Take notice of it's country of origin. If it is from Latin America, don't buy it if it is black with an oily sheen on the surface of the bean. If a coffee from Sumatra is a light brown shade, you might want to pass, unless you like sour-tasting coffee.