Espresso Coffee Beans: Dark Roast vs Light Roast - Understanding the Differences in Espresso Roast Levels

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Why are espresso coffee blends typically medium roasted? Can light roast coffee beans be used for espresso?

As coffee becomes increasingly popular, many people are becoming eager to open their own small shops. FrontStreet Coffee, as one of the time-honored specialty coffee brands in Guangzhou, has received many aspiring coffee shop owners who come to ask about what's needed to open a coffee shop. Among these questions, espresso coffee beans are a topic that nearly every visitor seeking advice inevitably asks about.

Q1: What coffee beans are recommended for making espresso?

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using blended coffee beans because the espresso extracted from blended beans is more consistent! Blended coffee beans adopt a complementary approach, ensuring that each batch of beans can maintain stable flavor in the extracted espresso.

FrontStreet Coffee uses its own house-roasted Frontsteet Sunflower Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend in daily service. This blend is composed of two specialty coffee beans: Frontsteet Honduras Sherry and Frontsteet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry, using a 7:3 blending ratio. The main goal is to highlight the unique wine aroma and creamy body of Frontsteet Honduras Sherry, while compensating for the lack of fruity sweetness in Frontsteet Honduras Sherry by adding fully red fruit Frontsteet Natural Yirgacheffe, resulting in beans that express rich vanilla cream aroma and wine fragrance, bringing out intense chocolate and brown sugar flavors.

Q2: Is it better to use medium roast or light roast for espresso beans?

First, we need to be clear about one point: espresso serves as the base for most coffee beverages, especially milk-based coffee. To ensure that coffee beverages still display a rich, full-bodied character when mixed with other ingredients, FrontStreet Coffee suggests that newcomers to espresso should use coffee beans roasted at medium level or above for espresso extraction.

Why don't we recommend using light roast? Because light roast coffee beans have more pronounced acidity than medium roast beans. If made into other coffee beverages or mixed with milk/water, without proper adjustment of extraction parameters and ratios, the resulting coffee will taste thin and lack body. If tasted directly as espresso, the coffee's flavor might appear sharply acidic with heavy astringency.

Q3: How are coffee bean roast levels defined?

During the coffee roasting process, coffee beans undergo dehydration, yellowing, then first crack, dense first crack, and if roasting continues, there will be second crack, dense second crack, and so on. Reading different materials, you'll find various expressions about roast levels. At this point, we introduce the concept of Agtron values.

Light roasts can be divided into: Agtron value #95: Light Roast - Drop time: when dense first crack is about to end; Agtron value #85: Cinnamon Roast - Drop time: around the end of first crack.

Medium roasts can be divided into: Agtron value #75: Medium Roast - Drop time: after first crack ends; Agtron value #65: High Roast - Drop time: during the quiet period between first and second crack.

Medium-dark roasts can be divided into: Agtron value #55: City Roast - Drop time: at the start of second crack; Agtron value #45: Full City Roast - Drop time: before dense second crack.

Dark roasts can be divided into: Agtron value #35: French Roast - Drop time: during dense second crack; Agtron value #25: Italian Roast - Drop time: when oil begins to surface on the beans.

Q4: Why does coffee become less acidic as roast level increases?

During the coffee roasting process, when the temperature reaches approximately 170-200°C, which is during the first crack stage of coffee roasting, the caramelization reaction begins, causing further breakdown of sugar compounds. The caramelization reaction deepens the color of coffee beans and creates caramel, roasted nut, and other aromas. Meanwhile, chlorogenic acid lactones and phenylindanes, the sources of coffee's acidity, gradually transform into bitter compounds as the roast level increases, so the deeper the roast, the less acidic the coffee becomes.

Q5: Does this mean light roast coffee beans cannot be used for espresso?

Of course, they can. What FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above is merely a suggestion, not saying that espresso can only be extracted from medium-dark roast coffee beans. Nowadays, more and more coffee shops are offering SOE - Single Origin Espresso. SOE Single Origin Espresso selects coffee beans to highlight regional flavors, and the roast level is generally not too deep, offering different flavors compared to traditional darker-roasted Italian espresso beans.

When making SOE coffee, attention must be paid to adjusting extraction parameters to increase extraction yield, such as extending extraction time, adjusting to a finer grind, increasing dose, etc. On the other hand, when serving espresso-based beverages using SOE as the base, it's necessary to adjust the ratio of espresso to milk or water. Reduce milk or water to highlight the coffee flavor, preventing it from becoming too bland.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add private WeChat: FrontStreet Coffee, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473