I called BS on light roast until a local roaster near Cincinnati proved me wrong

For years I thought light roast was just sour and weak. I always went for dark French or Italian roast because I wanted that heavy body. Then a barista at Deeper Roots in Cincinnati poured me a natural Ethiopian light roast and it tasted like blueberry pancakes. No lie, it had this sweet fruity thing going on that I never knew coffee could do. Anybody else get humbled by a single cup and change their whole roast preference?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithb7823d agoMost Upvoted

Has anyone considered that maybe the problem isn't light roast itself but how most places brew it? Like, if a cafe is using the same recipe for dark and light, the light ends up underextracted and sour. That Ethiopian natural you had was probably dialed in perfect, right down to the water temp and grind size. I had a similar thing at a shop in Columbus where their washed Kenyan light roast tasted like lime and brown sugar, but only because the barista treated it like a delicate thing. So maybe dark roast isn't always bolder, it's just more forgiving of bad brewing...

seth_carr23d ago

Right, blame the barista for ruining my morning coffee again!