What is the Roast Color Value of Coffee Beans? How to Judge the Degree of Roast from Appearance

Understanding Coffee Roast Levels Through Color

We often make preliminary guesses about coffee bean roast levels based on their external color. For instance, if the bean's surface color is brown and leaning toward brightness, we might guess it's a light roast bean; if the color is brown and leaning toward darkness, we would guess it might be a dark roast bean!

These color differences resulting from roasting have long been scientifically distinguished by industry professionals. They assign different color numbers—Agtron values—based on color depth and timing when beans come out of the roaster. These values currently serve as our basis for coffee roast degree measurement, roughly translating to "Caramelization Analysis Numerical Values."

The Agtron Scale and Roast Levels

This shows a coffee color chart produced by SCAA, where you can see eight different color sections corresponding to colors that appear at different roast levels. Below them are numbers of varying sizes—these are what we call Agtron values. The larger the number, the lighter the color; the smaller the number, the deeper the color!

The lightest roast level is called Light Roast, with an Agtron value of 95, typically taken out when the first crack becomes dense and is about to end. Beans at this level primarily feature bright acidity as their main flavor characteristic.

Beans with an Agtron value of 85 are called Cinnamon Roast, typically taken out around the end of the first crack—when you can still hear occasional cracking sounds as they come out. The acidity of beans at this roast level will be slightly weaker, while sweetness begins to become more pronounced.

Beans with an Agtron value of 75 are called Medium Roast, typically taken out when cracking sounds can no longer be heard—that is, after the first crack has completely ended. Generally, coffee at this roast level achieves a balance between acidity and sweetness, displaying a fruit juice-like texture.

Beans with an Agtron value of 65 are called High Roast (Dark Roast), taken out during the quiet period just before the second crack begins. At this point, the flavor begins to be dominated by bitterness, with deep roast flavors like nuts, cream, and chocolate.

Beans with an Agtron value of 55 are called City Roast, taken out approximately when the second crack begins, with the judgment still based on the first three cracking sounds heard. Beans at this roast level will have further enhanced bitterness with distinct caramel aromas.

Beans with an Agtron value of 45 are called Full City Roast, taken out just before the second crack ends—a mere difference of about 10 seconds from the previous roast level, yet such a significant change! Their main flavor characteristics include even richer bitterness and caramelized notes!

Beans with an Agtron value of 35 are called French Roast, taken out approximately when the second crack becomes dense—that is, when the beans are vying to produce cracking sounds. When you choose to take them out at this moment, besides hearing them continue making sounds after coming out, you can also see the bean surface has already started to exude oil.

Beans with an Agtron value of 25 are called Italian Roast, taken out approximately when the second crack ends (after the dense cracking sounds). At this point, the coffee beans are jet black and even reflective, as oils have largely seeped to the surface. The flavors the beans exhibit at this stage begin to show明显的 burnt oil notes!

Practical Applications of Roast Levels

Like French Roast with a value of 35 and Italian Roast with a value of 25, we rarely see them on the market anymore, because since the specialty coffee trend began, people's preferences have gradually shifted from extremely dark roasts to lighter ones. However, FrontStreet Coffee's purpose in sharing about these values today is to help everyone understand this concept. There's no need for everyone to apply them in daily life, after all, there are many processing methods like honey processing and anaerobic processing that can affect bean color and cause认知差异. If we rigidly correspond these color values, it would be difficult to achieve uniformity in communication and would cause discrepancies.

Therefore, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned, we only need to judge the depth of beans based on the flavors we taste. Those dominated by acidity can be classified as light roasts, while those dominated by bitterness can be classified as dark roasts~

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