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How Much Caffeine is in Dark Roast Coffee Beans? Is Dark Roast Black Coffee Good to Drink?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). Intuitively thinking, dark roast coffee still has more caffeine, right! This is an issue that has been debated for a long time in the coffee world. Although many people believe that dark roast coffee tastes richer, it is理所当然 because it has more

Regular specialty coffee enthusiasts should understand that the roast level of coffee beans is a factor that affects the flavor of a coffee bean. Different coffee beans from various regions have different roast levels. For example, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee region beans have citrus and lemon acidity, so FrontStreet Coffee uses light roast to handle this coffee bean, aiming to highlight its acidity. The lighter the roast level, the more prominent the acidity will be. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share information about how coffee roast levels affect coffee flavor.

What is Roast Level?

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, American terminology for coffee roast levels includes light roast, medium roast, and dark roast, which can be further subdivided into 8 stages. The differences in roast levels vary across different regions. Below is a brief introduction to coffee roast levels and flavors:

1. Light Roast: Extremely Light Roast

Drop time: Around the start of first crack

Flavor: Bean surface appears light cinnamon color with strong grassy taste, insufficient mouthfeel and aroma, generally used for testing, rarely for tasting.

2. Cinnamon Roast: Light Roast

Drop time: From start to intensive first crack

Flavor: Bean surface appears cinnamon color, grassy taste has been removed, strong acidity with slight aroma, often used for brewing American coffee.

3. Medium Roast: Medium Roast

Drop time: Between intensive and end of first crack

Flavor: Bean surface appears chestnut color, light mouthfeel with sour and bitter taste, moderate aroma, preserving the original flavor of coffee beans, often used for American coffee or blended coffee.

4. High Roast: Medium-Dark Roast

Drop time: End of first crack

Flavor: Bean surface appears light reddish-brown, refreshing and rich mouthfeel with balanced sour and bitter taste, slightly sweet, excellent aroma and flavor. Blue Mountain and Kilimanjaro coffee are suitable for this roast level, popular among Japanese and Northern European people.

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

5. City Roast: Medium-Dark Roast

Drop time: After first crack, between first and second crack

Flavor: Bean surface appears light brown, bright and lively mouthfeel with balanced sour and bitter taste where acidity is relatively light, releasing high-quality flavors from coffee. This is the standard roast level and the most popular among the public. Brazil and Colombian coffee are suitable for this roast level, often used for French coffee.

Brazil Queen Manor Coffee Beans

6. Full City Roast: Dark Roast

Drop time: Second crack

Flavor: Bean surface appears brown, steady and full mouthfeel with stronger bitter taste than sour, sweet aftertaste, full aroma. This is Central and South American roast method, mostly used for iced coffee and black coffee.

7. French Roast: Very Dark Roast

Drop time: From intensive to end of second crack

Flavor: Bean surface appears dark brown with black, strong and intense mouthfeel with stronger bitter taste, light sourness almost unnoticeable, with rich chocolate and smoky aroma. Popular in Europe especially France, often used for café au lait and Vienna coffee.

8. Italian Roast: Very Dark Roast

Drop time: From end of second crack to when bean surface turns black and oily

Flavor: Bean surface appears black with oily sheen, coffee bean fibers before carbonization, intense and complex mouthfeel with strong bitter taste and rich roasting and burnt aroma. Mainly popular in Latin countries and Italy, mostly used for Espresso.

Espresso Coffee

The above is the complete coffee roast guide compiled by FrontStreet Coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's store mainly focuses on light to medium and dark roast coffee beans. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share some typical and common light roast and medium-dark roast coffee beans.

Dark Roast Coffee Beans

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's store has typical dark roast coffee beans like Indonesia's Mandheling, whose regional basic flavor includes spices, herbal notes, with thick and smooth mouthfeel. Therefore, using dark roast can better highlight the basic flavor of coffee beans. If light roast is used, it will weaken its original flavor, losing the soul of Indonesian Mandheling flavor. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce some dark roast Indonesian Mandheling coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee: PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

Country: Indonesia

Region: Gayo Mountain, Aceh, Sumatra

Altitude: 1100-1600m

Variety: Ateng

Processing: Wet-hulled

Flavor: Toasted bread, nuts, pine, caramel, herbal

This Golden Mandheling from Frontsteet is the latest launch from PWN company in recent months. Unlike previous PWN Golden Mandheling, this latest batch comes from Gayo Mountain in Aceh, Sumatra, while the previous one was from Lake Tawa, Sumatra. According to Frontsteet's cupping and brewing of this latest Golden Mandheling coffee, it has more toasted bread flavor compared to the previous Golden Mandheling, making the mouthfeel richer.

Additionally, PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans have specifications of 18 screen or above, with fewer than 3 defective beans (300g raw bean sample), belonging to the highest grade G1 level, with deep green color and neat flat bean shape. After strict selection, FrontStreet Coffee found that not only does it lack the unique earthy impurity taste of regular Mandheling, but it tastes cleaner and brighter.

How Much Caffeine Do Coffee Beans Contain?

Coffee is a beverage made by brewing coffee beans. Without understanding the caffeine content of coffee beans, how can we know the caffeine content in coffee? ~ (Although it's a bit convoluted, this is the fact ~)

Different varieties have different caffeine content. Currently, commercially valuable coffee varieties are mainly divided into two categories: Arabica and Robusta. The caffeine content of Arabica is around 0.9~1.4% (average 1.3%), while Robusta has double the "dose" at around 2%~4%, with an average of 3%.

The fluctuation in these caffeine contents originates from the changes caused by coffee beans grown in different regions and environments. Additionally, varieties with extremely low caffeine content have been developed! Their caffeine content is about half that of regular Arabica varieties, so people call them - "decaf coffee."

So how much caffeine does a cup of coffee contain? Most friends probably already know how to calculate ~ That's right! Just multiply the amount of coffee beans used in a cup by the average caffeine content of that variety to calculate its peak value ~ For example, using 15g of coffee powder to extract a cup of pour-over coffee, its peak calculation is 15g × 1.3% (Arabica average), resulting in: this cup of pour-over coffee's peak caffeine content is around 195mg.

But know that this is its peak value, not the actual caffeine content. What does this mean? This cup of coffee would need to extract all the caffeine from the coffee beans to have 195mg of caffeine! The actual caffeine content it contains will be much lower than this value!

Frontsteet says this because caffeine is a "soluble substance." A coffee bean contains 30% soluble substances, but we don't need to extract all 30% of these. We generally only extract 18%~22%! Because if all 30% of soluble substances were extracted, the entire cup of coffee would be unbearably bitter.

Caffeine is a bitter substance. Frontsteet has shared before that although bitter substances are released throughout the entire extraction process, the rate is relatively slow, much slower than sour and sweet substances. The higher the extraction efficiency of a cup of coffee, the more caffeine content it will have. Therefore, calculated according to normal extraction efficiency, a cup of pour-over coffee extracted with 15g of powder should actually have around 60~90mg of caffeine!

Then, applying the above conclusions to other brewing methods, we can calculate their respective caffeine contents based on their extraction time and efficiency:

A cup of cold brew coffee (200ml/20g beans/12 hours) contains about 200mg of caffeine; a cup of French press coffee (225ml/15g beans/5 minutes) contains about 120mg of caffeine; a cup of pour-over coffee (225ml/15g beans/2 minutes) contains about 60-90mg of caffeine; a shot of espresso (30ml/15g beans/30 seconds) contains about 85mg of caffeine.

Note: Latte, cappuccino, Dirty, Americano, etc. are all espresso-based drinks, so without reducing the espresso, their caffeine content is equivalent to espresso!

How Many Cups of Coffee Can You Drink in a Day?

This has been a popular topic recently! According to surveys, an adult's daily caffeine intake should not exceed 400mg, which means that as long as the intake is below this value, there won't be a problem! Taking the average caffeine content of a cup of pour-over coffee as 80mg, you just need to control your daily pour-over intake to within 5 cups, and there won't be a problem.