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Professional coffee knowledge exchange. This article is part of a series on roasting and how roast level shapes flavor.

The Art of Coffee Roasting: Light vs Medium

FrontStreet Coffee is here to discuss how light and medium roasted coffees perform in the roasting process.

The selection of green beans directly determines the quality of the final coffee flavor. Without high-quality green beans, there is no good coffee to enjoy. Blending different beans in various proportions might create better flavors than the original beans, but if you want to experience a relatively pure flavor, you should still focus on the selection of the original beans.

Light Roast Coffee

Light roast coffee beans appear brown or light brown, and the surface of the roasted beans has few oil spots. When brewing such coffee you can more distinctly perceive the flavor characteristics inherent to beans from different regions. The floral notes of Colombian coffee, the distinct red wine acidity of Kenyan coffee, and the earthy aroma of Mandheling create strong contrasts. Not all beans are suitable for light roasting; some undesirable ones may produce unpleasant flavors such as raw peanuts, grass, or vegetables.

Medium Roast Coffee

Medium roast coffee has a mature brown color and appears fuller and rounder. Medium roast beans are generally considered to have a better aroma and a balanced acidity and bitterness, which makes them widely popular. Because the caramelization reaction is just beginning, this roast does not impart too much burnt flavor or dark chocolate bitterness, and the body is enhanced as well. This roast level showcases the potential flavors inherent in the beans more comprehensively: citrus, fruit, berries, and softer acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If medium and deeper roasts are what you enjoy, Mandheling is the coffee to reach for. Mandheling is a single-origin coffee from Sumatra, Indonesia, usually brewed as pour-over, with a rich aroma and a full body, and it also works for espresso: pulled on an espresso machine, the shot has generous crema, a strong flavor, and a prominent caramel note. The Mandheling most people drink is dark roasted so that the acidity is softened and the mellow, aromatic character comes forward. FrontStreet Lindong Mandheling and FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling come from Sumatra's Lindong and Aceh growing regions respectively; both are roasted medium-dark to present dark chocolate and caramel while preserving the wild herbal quality that Mandheling's environment and processing method give it.

FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is the highest grade, with beans that are even and plump, large and bright, and low in defects. After medium-dark roasting it carries a rich toasted aroma, and brewed as black coffee the cup is clean with a full body, ideal for anyone who dislikes acidic coffee. PWN mainly purchases high-quality Mandheling green beans and then carries out further sorting so that everything it produces is specialty grade. For pour-over, FrontStreet suggests 87-88 degrees C, 15g of coffee, a 1:15 ratio, a grind about the coarseness of coarse sugar, and a three-stage pour, which better expresses the mellow body and caramel sweetness: a 30ml bloom that wets all the grounds and lets them degas, then 100ml to flush out the golden foam and lift the bed, then a gentle 95ml pour into the center to lift sweetness and round out a thick body with caramel sweetness and chocolate and nut notes.