Choose Your Roast: Understanding Light, Medium, and Dark Coffee Roasts

Published by SpecialityCoffee.ca

When you buy coffee, you’ve probably noticed words like light roast, medium roast, or dark roast.
But what do they actually mean — and how do they affect the taste in your cup?

At SpecialityCoffee.ca, we carry a wide range of roasts from artisan roasters in Canada and around the world — so you can find the perfect flavour, whether you love bright and fruity or bold and rich.

Let’s explore what roasting really is, how it transforms green coffee beans, and how to choose the roast that’s right for you.

🔥 What Happens During Coffee Roasting

Roasting is where coffee comes to life.
Raw, green coffee beans are heated in a roaster — usually between 180°C and 240°C (356–464°F) — until they reach their ideal colour, aroma, and flavour profile.

During roasting:

• The beans lose moisture and expand.
• Natural sugars caramelize, creating sweetness.
• Acidity decreases as the roast darkens.
• Aromatic oils move to the surface, giving that irresistible smell we love.

Roasting is both art and science — each roaster fine-tunes temperature, airflow, and timing to bring out the best in every origin.

🌅 Light Roast: Bright, Fruity, and Lively

Colour: Light brown
Internal temperature: ~195°C (383°F)
Crack stage: Stopped soon after first crack

Light roasts preserve the bean’s original character — the terroir, the variety, and the processing method.
Expect vibrant acidity, floral or fruity aromas, and a tea-like body.

Common tasting notes:
🍋 Citrus, berries, jasmine, honey, apple.

Best brewing methods:

• Pour-over (V60, Chemex)
• Aeropress
• Filter drip

Light roasts are ideal for those who love complex, bright, and aromatic cups that tell the story of the bean’s origin.

🌞 Medium Roast: Balanced and Sweet

Colour: Medium brown
Internal temperature: ~210°C (410°F)
Crack stage: Between first and second crack

Medium roasts strike the perfect balance between brightness and body.
They have rounded sweetness, balanced acidity, and chocolate or caramel undertones.

Common tasting notes:
🍫 Milk chocolate, brown sugar, nuts, red fruit.

Best brewing methods:

• Filter coffee
• Espresso
• French press

This is the most popular roast level in specialty coffee because it’s versatile and crowd-pleasing — not too light, not too dark.

🌙 Dark Roast: Bold, Smoky, and Intense

Colour: Deep brown, slightly oily
Internal temperature: ~225°C (437°F)
Crack stage: After second crack

Dark roasts have a stronger body, lower acidity, and bittersweet flavours.
The origin’s characteristics become less pronounced as the roast flavours dominate — think chocolate, spice, and toasted caramel.

Common tasting notes:
🔥 Cocoa, molasses, smoke, roasted nuts, dark caramel.

Best brewing methods:

• Espresso machines
• Moka pot
• French press

If you love bold, classic, café-style flavours, dark roasts are your match.

⚙️ Different Roasting Techniques

Professional roasters use a few different styles and tools, depending on the flavour they want to achieve:

1. Drum Roasting – The most common method. Beans rotate in a heated drum for even development and precise control.
2. Hot Air Roasting (Fluid Bed) – Uses a stream of hot air to roast beans quickly and cleanly, enhancing brightness.
3. Hybrid Roasting – Combines both airflow and drum heat for optimal control — often used by modern specialty roasters.
4. Profile Roasting – A digital approach where roasters track time, temperature, and rate of rise curves to repeat perfect batches.

Every technique affects aroma, sweetness, and texture — that’s why no two roasters taste exactly the same.

🧠 Fun Facts

• The same green coffee can taste totally different when roasted light vs dark.
• Lighter roasts actually contain slightly more caffeine by volume (because the beans are denser).
• The Maillard reaction — the same process that browns bread — is what gives coffee its deep, toasty flavours.
• Specialty roasters often cup multiple roast levels to decide which one expresses the origin best.

❤️ Find Your Perfect Roast at SpecialityCoffee.ca

Whether you love:

• the floral brightness of a light roast,
• the caramel sweetness of a medium roast, or
• the deep intensity of a dark roast —

we’ve got it all.

Explore coffees from Canada, Thailand, and beyond — carefully roasted by masters who understand flavour balance.

👉 Shop all roast levels now at SpecialityCoffee.ca