Light Roast Forgives More Than You Think

Hey,

Here's something about light roast that most people get backwards. You can extract the absolute crap out of it and it still won't turn bitter.

Full honesty, I'm not a light roast guy. I lean medium and dark. Which actually makes me a decent person to run this test, because I'm not trying to sell you on light roast. I'm just tasting what the coffee does.

So I took a light roasted Honduras and pushed it. Same 1 to 15 ratio, 200 degrees, but I kept grinding finer and finer to force more extraction out of it. The first cup came out around a 1.23 reading, which is actually under extracted, a little thin. Then I cranked it up and got it to a 1.67, somewhere around 23 percent extraction. That's high. With a lot of coffees, that's bitter territory.

Not this one. No bitterness at all. The acidity got a little more intense, sure, but it stayed pleasant, more approachable, even a little chocolatey and round at the higher extraction. The cup got better as I pushed it, not worse.

Here's the takeaway, and it flips a common frustration on its head. When a light roast tastes thin or sour, most of us assume we overdid it. Usually it's the opposite. We didn't extract enough. Light roast is dense and holds on tight, so it can take a much harder push than a dark roast before it gives up anything harsh.

If you're happy with how you brew your light roast, keep going. You don't need to chase numbers. This isn't a rule.

But if light roast keeps handing you a thin, sour cup, try going the other way. Grind finer, push the extraction, and don't be scared of it. That's where these coffees actually come alive. Watch me push it to the edge here.

Then hit reply and tell me, do you love light roast or fight it like I do? I read every one.

Oaks, the Coffee Guy