Despite market demands, classifying a coffee profile as "light roast," "medium roast," or "dark roast" is outdated and causes more confusion than it solves.

It has become common to define a light roast coffee as delicate with high acidity, a dark roast as intense and bitter, and a medium roast as resulting in a balanced coffee. However, as we will see, this is not only incorrect but also doesn't mean much.

Of course, the roast makes a difference! Just as a single coffee (from the same lot) will have different sensory notes if roasted to different colors. The color is, in fact, an excellent form of quality control. If a specific coffee doesn't achieve a certain color after roasting, it won't have the same sensory result.

What people (including the major industry) confuse is that color alone is not a guarantee of a specific sensory profile. Some coffees may taste better with a "dark roast," while others may be better with a "light roast."

This is because different coffees have different chemical compositions and structures. As a result, some coffees, even with a light roast, might already have a burnt taste, while other coffees with a dark roast might not have the excessive bitterness classic of dark roasts.

Today, in addition to greatly expanding the number of coffee varieties, we are exploring new areas—both higher and lower altitudes—and new post-harvest methods. All of this affects the "natural color of the coffee." What I mean by natural color is that a coffee with an appropriate roast profile (always thinking about specialty coffee) can have a darker or lighter appearance. For example, coffees from lower altitudes tend to be lighter, and if you try to roast them to a "medium roast," they will likely already have burnt notes in their sensory profile, which would typically be attributed to a "dark roast."

For those not so familiar with the industry, color is measured using precision equipment. The most common scale used in coffee is the Agtron scale, which ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 is very dark and 100 is very light. This scale has a wide range, which means that coffees with considerable color variations on the scale and in their sensory results can have differences that are imperceptible to the naked eye. In other words, a "medium roast" coffee can have different sensory profiles (and Agtron values) within that same medium classification.

Extreme roasting techniques can also cause confusion, generating bitterness in light coffees or high acidity in darker-toned coffees.

So, roasts made by cuppers or at championships where the criterion for acceptability is the color of the coffee are terrible! Establishing a specific roast color might favor most coffees, but some coffees might be better lighter, while others are better darker, and this significantly compromises the evaluation of that coffee!

Meanwhile, a recent packaging regulation (which doesn't apply to most artisanal roasteries) started requiring a description of the roast color. This is useless!

The search for good coffee, then, is not about the color, but about the sensory experience. If you want a coffee with high acidity, don't look for a light roast; simply look for a coffee with high acidity! You're more likely to find an under-roasted coffee that way, and you might miss the opportunity to find high acidity in a well-roasted coffee that has a darker appearance—or vice versa.

Buy coffee that's good to drink, not to take a photo of!

Best regards! Gabriel Carvalhaes Heinerici