WHY COFFEE ROASTING REVEALS OR HIDDEN QUALITY 

Coffee roasting is one of the factors that most affects its taste. In fact, it is precisely roasting that transforms coffee beans into aromatic and delicious coffee. The most common words used to describe different levels of coffee roast are light, medium and dark roast.

Light roasting coffee

Light roasted coffee is light brown in color and there is no oily smell on the surface of the beans. These coffees usually have a pronounced acidity, a soft body and bright flavors. They are roasted in this way precisely to preserve the unique characteristics of the grains. If coffee cherries have been well grown, processed and roasted, they can offer a very wide range of flavors, aromas and aftertastes.

Light roasting is extremely popular in the specialty coffee industry, because this way we get the most vibrant and unique flavors from the coffee. This type of roasting also emphasizes the microlocation or growing area of a particular variety of coffee.

Medium roasting coffee

Medium-roasted coffee is brown in color and has only a partially oily surface. It is characterized by medium acidity and body and a rounded flavor profile. Roasting to this level also retains many of the unique flavors of the coffee's origins, but also begins to tap into the deep caramel sweetness of longer roasts. As a result, these coffees are balanced, well-rounded and slightly darker and sweeter. Some of the brightest notes may be removed in this mode, but this is a trade-off for additional aroma balance. Most of the time, we will detect the flavors of chocolate, walnuts and caramel during this roasting.

Specialty coffee roasters often resort to medium roasting, as it brings the coffee closer to the average coffee lover than light roasting. Such coffee is less acidic and intense, but its natural profile can still be detected in the taste.

Dark roasting coffee

Dark roasted coffee is dark brown or even black in color and often has an oily surface. These coffees have low or zero acidity, strong body, and tend to reveal deeper, darker flavors (the darker we roast the coffee, the more we destroy its flavor). To make it easier for you to imagine the difference, I recommend that you try light and dark roasted coffee together, because that way you will really feel the difference.

In the past, dark-roasted coffee was dominant because its quality was not great. With dark roasting, roasters still mask the taste of inferior coffee quality and thus achieve a uniform taste, which is largely dominated by bitterness, which is the result of over-roasted or even burnt coffee.

The goal of roasters who roast specialty coffee is not to roast the coffee dark and thereby destroy its taste, but to elevate and highlight it. 

If you're used to buying coffee beans at the grocery store, you've probably never experienced the flavors of freshly roasted specialty coffee. Take a look at our specialty coffee offer in the online store, or you can call in our cafe at Trubarjeva cesta 7 in Ljubljana and treat yourself to really good coffee and get to know its true flavors and the stories behind it.