Coffee: What's Your Type

Coffee: What’s Your Type?

Light roast coffee. These beans are subjected to a very brief roasting process, yielding a pale, reddish-brown hue and an aromatic, mellow flavor. The smooth quality of light roasts belies their caffeine content; most have as much caffeine as dark roasts. They’ll wake you up just as passionately, but they’re more subtle. 

Medium roast. These beans are baked a bit longer, yielding a rich-brown coffee with a deeper, fuller flavor than light roasts, but with less edge than darker varieties. They’re complex, fragrant and flavorful.

Dark roasts. These beans are cooked to a deep, glossy brown or black; this is the roast most often used for espresso. Dark roasting must be done with great attention and care; it’s easy to go from a deep, rich flavor to burned beans. 

Varietals. For many years, coffees were made almost exclusively by blending beans from many different regions. Like wine or chocolate, coffee varietals are unblended selections hailing from a single country, region or crop. Some of the most popular of these are Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Jamaican Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona.

Decaffeinated. Met with mild derision among some coffee lovers, decaf has its place in the coffee world. A good brew will retain all the rich coffee flavor.

Flavored coffees. For some folks, a hint of mint or a layer of almond improves the flavor of coffee, enhancing its natural sweetness and complex undertones. For others, flavored coffees taste like hot ice cream. Choose those made with natural vanilla, ground nuts, cocoa beans or other natural flavorings.