How to prepare your coffee according to its degree of roast
Making excellent coffee means balancing many variables. In the same way that you consider the extraction method and the relationship between coffee and water, you should keep in mind your roasting profile.Maybe you have a recipe that you always use to prepare an excellent V60, but if you change a light roast for a medium one, you may have to reconsider. Read on to discover what modifications to make according to the coffee roasting profile.
How Coffee Roasting Profiles Vary
Roasted coffee is generally divided into light, medium, and dark , and you likely have a preferred roasting profile for home brewing. But what is the difference between roasting profiles?
There is no industry standard that defines what is light, medium, or dark, and roasters often put their own names on different profiles. But in general, light roasts retain more coffee bean flavors and this profile can highlight floral and fruity notes. The darker the coffee is roasted, these delicate flavors can disappear behind sensations that are more reminiscent of chocolate and nuts. If the coffee is roasted too dark, it can turn sour.
Taste is not the only difference between roasting profiles. As coffee is exposed to more heat during longer roasting and higher temperature, it becomes more porous and therefore more soluble. In part, this is why medium or dark roast coffees are generally used for espresso , since there is a short period for extraction, a roast that is more soluble will work better than a light roast.
Why Should You Prepare Light and Dark Roasts Differently?
A good cup of coffee depends on the correct level of extraction . When roasted and ground coffee beans are placed in the water, various chemical compounds are extracted. First, the compounds responsible for the fruity notes and acidity are extracted. The sugars are then extracted, producing the sweet flavors. The compounds responsible for the bitterness are then extracted. If a coffee is underextracted, it may have a sour taste, because the sugars did not have the opportunity to enter the preparation. If it is overextracted, it may be too bitter.
Since light roasts are less porous than dark roasts, compounds will be extracted more slowly. For this reason, light roasts are often prepared using a slower method, such as pouring; the beans can stay in contact with the water longer than in a faster extraction method such as espresso. Also, this means that if you were to use the same recipe with the same coffee with two different roasting profiles, you would feel different tastes and have a different mouthfeel.
Sam Koh is a barista and founder of Kaffiend Brews , a coffee shop in Singapore . She tells me that “a light roast coffee gives you more complex notes and the best way to highlight them is with a slow extraction, like a pour. A darker roast may not shine as well with a slow extraction due to the extraction time, which could cause the extraction of more sour or bitter notes. ”
How to Adjust Your Recipe for Different Roast Profiles
So, you discovered your pouring recipe, but you want to try new beans. How can you modify your method to work with a different roasting profile? To compensate for differences in porosity and solubility, you can change some variables.
Grinding Size
When coffee is ground to a finer size, it has a larger display surface. This means that the extraction will be faster. So if you are used to making medium roast coffee and you are trying a light roast, grind it a bit finer. Similarly, if you normally use lighter roast beans, but try a darker one, use a coarser grinding size.
Marlous Van Putten is a store manager and barista at the Dutch coffee shop chain Coffeecompany . She says: “Personally, I also always grind my beans to a finer size if they are light roasted and to a thicker one if they are dark roasted. This is because, from the beginning, dark roasting tends to have a more bitter taste, so a long contact time between water and coffee would result in over-extraction ”.
Water temperature
There is no single correct temperature for brewing coffee (although there are recommended ranges, such as the 195–205 ° F / 90–96 ° C suggested by the SCA ). But the hotter the water, the faster the extraction. Some compounds will never be mined at very low temperatures, which is why the cold brew is usually very smooth and sweet, but it may lack a bit of bitterness to balance out the other notes.
Consider the water temperature as one more factor that you can adjust to highlight your favorite flavors in your coffee. If you are using a dark roast, you may want to lower the temperature of the water to avoid overextraction and decrease the chance of sour tastes. If you are using a lighter roast than you usually use, using hotter water will help speed up the extraction a little.
Marlous says: “The common rule is lower temperatures for darker roasts and higher temperatures for lighter roasts. Side note: The darker roast will probably not taste good if it is made with water at an elevated temperature, while the lighter roast made at a lower temperature may taste good. "
Extraction time
The more time coffee is exposed to water, the more time is available for extraction to occur. Keep this in mind when choosing a brewing method , as mentioned above, espresso has only a brief chance to brew, so a light roast may not be the best option.
In each method, you can also modify your technique to have a longer or shorter extraction time. For example, pouring the water more slowly when you prepare filtered coffee or letting it rest in a French press for longer before serving.
Sam says, "For light roast coffee, it seems to me that infusing it longer before the first drip gives the coffee more time to expel more complex and complicated flavors."
Other Factors to Consider
Using different roasting profiles with different grinding sizes, water temperatures and extraction times and seeing how these variables affect your cup can be interesting. But you should also consider the features that can accidentally change.
As coffee beans age, the flavor degrades. Oxidation and degassing cause coffee to lose important oils and compounds that contribute to aroma, body and flavor. It is generally recommended to use roasted coffee beans within two weeks of purchase , store them in airtight, light-proof containers, and grind as necessary to avoid faster oxidation.
If you know that your beans are a little old, you can adapt the recipe to compensate. If you grind light roast coffees more finely, you will increase the surface and the extraction rate, which should revive the slightly stale beans.
Dark roasted beans that are already old can be very porous and therefore very soluble. Coarser grinding or the use of cooler water will slow down the extraction and prevent the preparation from being too bitter.
Marlous recommends keeping in mind a few more factors that could lead to a successful or disastrous end result. "The type of water you use, the freshness of the beans, the quality of the beans, the cleanliness of your equipment," he says. "You should be aware that each step in the process has an effect on the outcome in the cup."
Maybe you have a recipe that you developed through controlled experiment or trial and error. But when you try a new coffee or roast profile from a different roaster, it's time to reconsider your method. By understanding how variables such as grind size, extraction time, and water temperature can be adjusted, you can get excellent results with each roasting profile.
Lavazza Super Crema Whole Bean Coffee Blend, Medium Espresso Roast, 2.2 Pound (Pack of 1)
