How To Adjust The Brewing Method According To The Coffee Roast Levels?

Roasted coffee can be roughly divided into lightly roasted coffee, medium roasted coffee, and dark roasted coffee. Maybe you can only make coffee in one way at home, but what is the difference between coffee with different degrees of roasting?

In fact, there is no clear industry standard for light, medium, and dark roasted coffee, and bean roasters often use their own way to define different degrees of roasting. Still, generally speaking, lightly roasted coffee will retain a more original coffee flavor, emphasizing the aroma of flowers and citrus. For coffee with a dark roasting degree, the above aromatic substances will be replaced by the aroma of chocolate and nuts. If the roasted coffee is very deep, it will have a more obvious bitter taste.

The flavor is not the only difference in coffee roasting degree. The longer the coffee is exposed to the heat source, the more holes will be generated on the surface of the coffee, so the darker the roasted coffee is more soluble. This is why the darker roasted coffee is often used to make espresso. Because the extraction time of espresso is very short, the extraction efficiency of dark roasted beans with higher dissolution efficiency will be higher than that of shallow roasted beans.

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A good cup of coffee may come from the right extraction rate. When coffee beans are roasted and ground, they will release a large number of compounds in the process of contacting with water. The aroma and acid of fruits are extracted first, then the sugar of coffee is extracted to create a sweet feeling, and finally, the bitter taste is extracted. Therefore, if a coffee is not extracted enough, it will smell sour because the sugar has not been extracted yet. If coffee is over-extracted, it may be too bitter to taste.

Because the shallow roasted coffee beans have darker holes and fewer roasted beans, the release rate of substances in the coffee beans will be slower. This is why the shallow roasted coffee is often brewed in a slower way, such as making coffee by hand. This brewing method allows the water to have a longer contact time with the coffee, which is different from the fast extracted espresso. This also means that if you use the same brewing formula to brew the same coffee beans with varying degrees of roasting, you will drink coffee with a completely different flavor and taste.

Light roasted coffee exhibits a more complex aroma because a slower extraction method is used to amplify the aroma characteristics. Because the extraction time of dark roasted coffee is relatively short, it is difficult to show the same effect. Otherwise, it will extract the bitterness of dark roasted coffee.

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When you understand the logic of the brewing formula and are ready to try to make a new coffee, how do you adjust the method to adapt to the coffee with different roasting degrees? In order to make up for the above problems of hole difference and extraction rate, some variable factors can be adjusted.

The finer the degree of coffee grinding, the more surface area will be increased, which means the faster the extraction speed will be. If the coffee you usually make is medium roasted, you can grind it a little if you want to make light roastd now. Similarly, if you usually make more light roasted coffee, you should grind it a little thicker when making dark roasted coffee.

If it is a lightly roasted coffee bean, I will grind it finer; The darker roasted coffee will grind coarser. Because dark roasted beans are easy to extract the bitter taste, if the contact time between water and coffee is long, it will lead to over-extraction.

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There is no absolutely correct water temperature for brewing coffee (although the fine coffee association does recommend a coffee brewing temperature range of 90 – 96°C). The higher the water temperature, the faster the extraction speed will be. Some substances will not be extracted at a lower temperature, so the flavor of cold extracted coffee will be mild and sweet because of the lack of some extracted substances.

Water temperature is one of the easiest factors to adjust the flavor of the coffee. If you use dark roasted coffee, you can reduce the water temperature and prevent over-extraction from causing the coffee to taste bitter. If you are brewing coffee with light roasting, you can use higher-temperature water to accelerate the extraction speed.

Generally, dark roasted beans will use lower temperature water, and light roasted beans will use higher temperature water. Special attention should be paid here. If you use high-temperature water to brew dark roasted coffee or low-temperature water to brew light roasted coffee, the coffee flavor will not be very good in both cases.

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The longer coffee comes into contact with water, and the more coffee substances will be extracted. Special attention must be paid to the selected brewing method. For example, espresso must be extracted in a very short time, so light roasted coffee may not be suitable for espresso.

When you choose different brewing methods, you will need to adjust the brewing time. For example, making coffee by hand requires a slower water filling method, while the French filter press pot requires a longer soaking time.

If it is light roasted coffee, I will let the coffee soak longer during the first stage of stuffy steaming and water filling, which will release more substances and make the coffee have more aroma and flavor.

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In addition to the grinding size, water temperature, and brewing time mentioned above, there are some variables that will affect the coffee flavor. Still, you need to understand how these variables affect each other.

When the coffee beans are kept for a long time, and the flavor decreases, oxidation, and exhaust will lead to the loss of oil and aromatic compounds in the coffee, resulting in the loss of taste, aroma, and flavor of the coffee. It is usually recommended to choose the coffee beans that have been roasted for two weeks, store the coffee in a sealed and opaque container, and grind it when in use to avoid the rapid oxidation of coffee powder.

If your coffee has been kept for a long time, you can adjust the brewing formula to make up for it. Light roasted coffee beans can be ground slightly to increase the surface area of coffee powder and improve the extraction rate, which can somewhat fill the problem of the poor flavor of this kind of beans.

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Dark roasted beans that have been put for a long time will have more holes so that the dissolution rate will be improved. Therefore, this kind of beans can be ground coarser, or use low-temperature water to slow down the extraction speed, so as to avoid the bitter taste of the brewed coffee.

You can remember some other variables that may affect the final coffee flavor. The water used, the freshness of beans, the quality of beans, and the cleanliness of utensils will affect the flavor of the final coffee.

You may have a good recipe from repeated experiments, but when you try to use coffee with different roasting degrees or beans roasted by different bean roasters, you must readjust the brewing formula. By learning how to adjust the variables (including grinding size, brewing time, and water temperature), you can get a good flavor of coffee in every degree of roasting beans.

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