.png)
Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff
It's about coffee, food, life and what other randomness I feel that'll be helpful to the common coffee drinker or to anyone who likes to be entertained by a stranger, briefly.
Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff
Light Roast Coffee: Love It or Leave It?
In this enlightening episode, I dive deep into my complex relationship with light roast coffee and embark on a month-long journey to rediscover its potential. I share my honest thoughts about a recent light roast brewing experience, discussing the challenges I face in extracting the desired flavors and my commitment to exploring various brewing methods to enhance the experience.
Listeners will learn about different brewing techniques specifically tailored for light roasts, including adjustments to grind size, filter choices, and brewing methods like AeroPress and immersion. I also examine the broader implications of light roast's popularity in specialty coffee culture while maintaining an open mind about potentially rekindling my appreciation for this style of roast through experimentation and understanding.
For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com
For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans
[0:00] Today is December 18th, 2024. This is round two of what we're going to be talking about. I'm revisiting light roast coffee.
[1:15] We've roasted a decent amount of light roast, and we're going to be doing various test recipes to see if we can develop more appreciation for light roast. There are many people who love light roast - it's the only thing they drink.
[2:30] It's going to be a hard challenge. This particular coffee isn't particularly eventful or spectacular. That's the reason why I fell out of love with light roast - they tend to taste similar to me.
[4:00] The coffee is about four or five days off roast. I ground it yesterday to let it mellow out. It's mellow and uneventful. I used my Belind to make this coffee. This particular coffee really shines as a medium roast - it's juicy and inviting. As a dark roast it's okay, but as a medium roast it's spectacular.
[5:45] Not every coffee works for every application. This coffee reaches its equilibrium as a medium roast. I used a 1:15 ratio, 20 grams of coffee on the Kim hand grinder. The recipe was a 30-second bloom with 40 grams of water, then poured to 100 grams, then 200 grams, and finally 300 grams. The brew finished just over two minutes and 30 seconds.
[7:00] The bed was clean with no issues. I believe I brewed this well, but it's not as good as I would like it to be. That raises questions about how we can make light roast tasty again. I've tasted many light roasts, both my own and from other roasters who specialize in them. They're just okay to me.
[8:30] A couple of years ago in Denmark, I tried a Mexican coffee from April Coffee. It was a light roast and it was just okay. I'm not here to bash, just to be honest. What do you really get out of light roast? I know it won't extract as much, and the flavors tend to be similar regardless of origin.
[9:45] Why do you like light roast? Do you think it's tasty? Do you only drink light roast? Just like some prefer pour-over over espresso or vice versa, we all have our preferences in coffee.
[10:15] How can we make this challenge beneficial? How can it help those who are on the fence? We'll explore different techniques to potentially enjoy light roast more. I do these experiments not just for shock value but to understand what people care about and how we can make the product better.
[11:30] As a roaster, once I've roasted this coffee, I can't put it back in the roaster. But we can manipulate our brewing technique and approach to appreciate the coffee differently. This coffee isn't sweet at all, though there is some pleasant acidity.
[12:15] We can try going finer with the grind, using different filters, or trying immersion brewing. The Hario V60 might work well with a four to six minute brew time. For pour-over, we might try a fast filter with shallow beds to increase extraction.
[13:00] Light roast is harder to extract because the beans are lighter and less developed. You have to do more work to get proper extraction. What is this novelty of light roast? What spell does it have on the specialty coffee community?
[13:45] I'll probably do this challenge for about a month, trying different coffees and techniques. Let me know your thoughts about light roast, give me pointers, or tell me what you like about it. We're going to do this together.
[14:00] Cheers and goodbye.