Light Roast Coffee Drinkers Be Like...

In this episode, I dive deep into the psychology and passion of light roasted coffee drinkers—a group I used to belong to but now observe from a different perspective. I explore why these coffee enthusiasts are so unapologetic about their preferences, how they chase that next hit of unique acidity and complexity, and why they'll spend almost any amount of money on specialized grinders, filters, water chemistry, and accessories to extract that perfect cup. I share my own recent experience with a medium-to-light roast that kept revealing new layers of personality the more I pushed the extraction, helping me understand what drives light roast lovers to constantly explore new coffees and processing methods.

By listening to this episode, you'll gain insight into the mindset of light roasted coffee drinkers and understand why they gravitate toward tea-like, acidic profiles over traditional chocolatey notes. I also examine a fascinating theory: that we all gravitate toward coffees that match our own personalities, seeking comfort and excitement in the beans we choose. Whether you're a light roast devotee, a dark roast loyalist, or somewhere in between, this episode will help you understand the tribal nature of coffee preferences and why being honest about what we actually enjoy matters more than following any particular coffee orthodoxy.

Transcript

[00:00]
One of the things that we don't talk about much in coffee are the people. The people who grow the coffee, the people who roast the coffee, and in this case, the people who ultimately buy, brew, and drink the coffee. But probably one of the most polarizing people in coffee are light roasted coffee drinkers.

[00:32]
It's interesting. Again, I used to be a light roasted coffee drinker. But I don't know where it just changed for me, but it did change for me. It's like I was always trying to find that hit of something new, something different, something exciting.

[00:55]
I was chasing how acidity can be more complex, more nuanced, more in your face. I was chasing that high each and every time. But now that I am not so much of that person anymore, pretty much far from it, I see it a little differently. I see it from other people's lens. I see why they like what they like and the reasons why.

[01:28]
They're unapologetic. They'll tell you exactly why they like what they like. They'll almost give anybody a shot at buying their coffee or they buying your coffee. They're all about trying to see if this roaster is going to give them something great. And for the most part, they may bash them from time to time. But for the most part, it is what it is, right?

[02:13]
Light roasted people are very passionate about coffee. One particular type of coffee, they can tell, they can sense it almost instantly if they're drinking a medium and a dark roast. They despise how much roasted it may be. And it's one of those things where at first, I thought it was kind of crazy when people are very particular about if they're tasting this note, that note, using this particular grinder in order to get there.

[02:57]
But then when you listen to them, you start to get why they like what they like. I don't know if they're actually drinking coffee. To an extent, just hear me out. A lot of light roasted coffees taste like tea. And it's more of a nuance type of thing that they can be accustomed to.

[03:22]
And a lot of times when I hear them talk about coffee, they're talking about more how tea is being used. They're talking about more how tea can be this way, how complex and how revolutionary it can be. But then it's one of those things where when you think about it, truly, it's just something that they just like and ponder about all the time.

[03:54]
And then the thing about them tasting sweetness. I'm not tasting sweetness in light roasted coffee. There may be a hot tag, that may be something that they may find. Maybe I do need to drink a couple coffees with lightly roasted coffee drinkers and see if they can taste that sweetness.

[04:21]
Try to see if I understand it from their point of view of what they think and feel what sweetness is in lightly roasted coffee. Because truthfully, I get a fruit bone. I get lemon juice. I get different elements of acidity that kind of calls your name from time to time. That's what I truly get quite a bit when I'm drinking light roasted coffees.

[04:51]
But I'm not going to lie, as you see behind here and all that stuff, I'm going deeper into that rabbit hole of trying to get it. And it's really interesting now that I think about it is that light roasted people will go to almost any ends of the earth in order to get that little subtlety to see if they can really get there with all the tools that they're using.

[05:24]
They'll pay whatever kind of money out there in order to get that little bit of betterness. Like money is not even an object. They'll spend all this money on fast filters, boosters. They'll spend the money on this particular gadget or this water chemistry in order to taste something that's extremely unique and powerful.

[05:56]
If you think about it, there's this extreme amount of passion there when we're talking about coffee. We're talking about something that is as pure as can be. It's like the thing that when you smell coffee green, that's what lightly roasted coffee smells like too. It's less developed. It's right in your face. It doesn't apologize for anything. Just like those folks.

[06:35]
And if they don't get it, they're not mad about it. Just drink the coffee and move on. Go on to the next coffee. And I think to an extent there are the true coffee sluts of the coffee world. I am too, but what I'm saying is that they're always on to the next kick.

[07:00]
They're always moving into the direction of the next particular journey as they go throughout their whole coffee life. They're willing to try coffees that have tropical fruit on it. They're willing to try coffees that are uniquely processed. But if it says chocolatey or nutty, they're not with those. Which I get, I understand because those coffees, even if they do have some type of acidity on it, it just doesn't do it for them.

[07:45]
And to an extent, it doesn't do it for me all the time. Interesting that I'm talking about this and looking at it and just realizing that lightly roasted coffee people are just passionate. They like what they like. And no matter what is in their way, they're going to be able to try to get there. They're going to use this grinder, that grinder. They're going to use different filters.

[08:17]
They're going to probably stick to one or two brewers because they know for the most part that's where the magic kind of starts because they can get this accessory, kind of figure things out from there. And just a little bit better. That's the ironic part about it.

[08:40]
I don't think there's a problem with them. They have their own ways of going about things. I have my own ways of going about things. And no matter what, they just care to get there. And what I mean by getting there is just that high, that kick, that coffee that has that acidity that they haven't tasted before.

[09:10]
They want to know about all different processing. They want to know to see if they can actually get some sweetness out of it. Again, I'll get there with them, drinking it with them. But I don't get that.

[09:28]
And I think one of the things that we have to realize, which I've talked about many times here, is that we don't like everything about coffee. I'm not unique. I like what I like. I'm trying to push past my comfort zone in order to see it from the point of view of others and seeing why they like what they like. But at the end of the day, we're more kind of set in stone. We're happy with the coffees that we gravitate to.

[10:08]
It gives us that kick and that high. And that's all we want to do. That's the only thing that we really want to experience. And that's perfectly fine. And as long as we are honest with ourselves and that's what we want, that's all that's going to matter.

[10:28]
I'll leave you off with this. Just yesterday, I roasted some coffee a couple of weeks ago, which is perfect. It's about almost a month old. So it's prime time ready to really get into it. Medium roast, right? I'll get the roast right on it soon. But when I tasted it, I was like, wow, that's a medium to light roast. I can sense it.

[11:02]
There's little to no sweetness on the coffee. But when I brewed that cup at the origami dripper and use the accessory to understand it even more, it started to talk to me. I couldn't decipher exactly what the extra element that I was tasting, but it made it more interesting. And it kept going. It kind of kept lingering.

[11:42]
And when it did that, I just stood there and just wondered, wow, this is what I'm drinking. And I think that's what light roast people get out of coffee. It's like that little bit more of a kick of understanding coffee even more so.

[12:07]
When the coffee doesn't quit, when you push that coffee to the place where you didn't even know that it can go, where extraction is just a formality, it just doesn't matter. Because as you keep going deeper into the extraction and understanding this coffee, it keeps wanting to talk to you even more so.

[12:34]
The personality just kind of keeps going. And when it keeps going, it's just something that you just kind of sit there and just wonder, wow, this is what happens when you push coffee, when you truly get there. And it keeps giving you something different. It's like talking to that person, as I've talked about many times.

[13:02]
It's like they're quiet at first. You keep talking and they're still kind of a little timid about trying to share anything with you. And you keep talking to them, you kind of bring out more things out of them. And then all of a sudden, they can't stop talking. They want to keep talking to you.

[13:24]
That's what light roast does to you. You can push it. You can extract it. It'll keep giving you these personalities that are like, "What else can I do for you?" That's kind of crazy. Now that I'm thinking about it, it allows you to explore that coffee, great or not, and it kind of just pushes you as a person to the extent. Weird me saying this. But yeah, interesting times, I guess.

[14:06]
We're talking about coffee, how personalities from the coffee bean, from the person, really come out. And I think that's the biggest thing that we have to realize here. No matter which tribe we are within the coffee world, light roast, medium roast, dark roast, anything in between. Only high-end coffee, only chocolatey nutty coffee.

[14:37]
It's like what we're doing here. Now that I'm thinking about it, we're just trying to match our personalities to the things that we like to gravitate to. That's really all we're doing here. Yeah, it's narcissistic, right? But at the end of the day, it's one of those things where we just want to go to where we're comfortable with things.

[15:04]
And I think that's what lightly roasted coffee does for lightly roasted people. It allows them to have that comfort, that excitement, that drive, that curiosity of what that coffee is going to be telling them for however long they have that coffee. Crazy stuff.

[15:25]
Now that I think about it, maybe totally off, who knows? But that's kind of what I see. Let me know what you think. Are you a lightly roasted person? Coffee drinker. Do you care about that high, that intensity, that acidity? And if you taste sweetness in coffee and lightly roasted, let me know. Tell me what I'm not doing right. Who knows? I may learn something. Talk to you later. Bye.