It’s not just the process of roasting that can make all the difference to your coffee experience. We know that.
However, the degree to which roasting impacts the final product is significantly more than some of the other phases that coffee goes through in its journey from bean to brew.
Today, we’re looking at some myths related to the coffee roasting process or different roast levels.
You Can Re-Roast Coffee to Get Stronger Flavour
Roasting transforms the organic compounds in coffee, and the resulting chemical changes are not something you can undo.
Just because you don’t like the roast level of a bag of beans, it doesn’t mean that re-roasting them will solve the problem.
Once roasted to a certain level, the acidity, caffeine quotient, and flavour profile of the coffee are determined to an extent. This can only be influenced marginally by the brewing method chosen.
Re-roasting beans will more than likely ruin them for good, so this is a myth that you shouldn’t buy into.
All Roasts are Suitable for All Brewing Methods
Not all coffee consumers are well aware of how roasting, grinding, and brewing tend to be connected and affect the final cup profile. Therefore, it’s understandable why some people may think that they can use any roast type for any brewing method.
Since each brewing method works differently in terms of extracting flavour from coffee grinds, all roasts will not work the same in delivering the exact cup of coffee.
For instance, the darker the roast the more easily they are extracted. In such a case, you’d want to use a brewing method that doesn’t expose the coffee to hot water for a longer duration as it can become easy to over-extract. The resulting brew becomes extremely bitter. For darker roasts, use an espresso machine or pour over method.
This is of course not a rule written in stone. Ultimately, each roast level can produce a great cup if paired with a certain brewer. But if your expectations are minimal and you don’t care too much about the taste of the coffee, you could use any roast type regardless of the brew gear.
It’s just that myths like these can impair a customer’s coffee experience, especially when roasters create a product with the end user in mind.
Dark Roasts Have More Caffeine
While roasting does affect the level of caffeine remaining in coffee, it’s not true that dark roasts will always have more caffeine.
As the process of roasting increases in duration, less and less caffeine remains. Consequently, light roasts tend to retain more caffeine than dark roasts.
It takes more quantity of dark roast coffee in weight to match up to the caffeine of light roasts.
Additionally, dark roasts tend to have a bitter, almost smoky flavour to them which can sometimes be misunderstood as containing more caffeine.
Coffee Should Be Consumed Immediately After Roasting
We all know that the freshness of coffee begins to reduce as time passes since the coffee has been roasted and packaged. But that doesn’t mean that coffee should be consumed as soon as it's roasted.
If you’ve read our blog post on the whys and hows of roasting, you’d know that after the beans have been roasted, they emit gases, carbon dioxide to be specific.
Most roasters recommend waiting for at least 1-2 days before using the beans to brew a cup. This not only allows the flavour to be better developed but also prevents the moisture from the air interacting with the beans at this degassing stage.
Espresso is a Level of Coffee Roast
The term “espresso” gets used interchangeably a lot; sometimes to refer to a coffee drink, sometimes to refer to a particular roast level. But the fact is that this term ought to be only used for the brewing method.
So whenever you see the word espresso to describe a roast, it essentially means that the beans have been roasted to suit espresso machines.
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