Naming the Roast |
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Naming the Roast |
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Generally, there is no such thing as a
really light roast, but what is called a
"light" or "pale" roast should
be used only with very high-quality coffee, as every characteristic,
good or bad, will be exposed in the flavor. the coffee trade
generally concurs that the better the coffee, the higher the
acidity, and the nicer the flavor when milk or cream is to be used;
one could deduce that a light-roasted coffee would be best consumed
at breakfast. therefore, unlike tea, breakfast coffees tend to be
not so heavy as those drunk later in the day. Most coffee companies use what is called variously a "light medium" roast, "medium" roast, or "brown" roast, in their basic, ordinary, any-time-day-or-night blend: in America this is also called a "city" roast or, not surprisingly "American" roast. Some people maintain that there is a well-defined degree of roast in-between "medium" roast and "dark medium" roast, but here words fail; perhaps one should coin the title "Dutch" roast, as the everyday blends produced in Holland seem to lie somewhere in the middle, being richer and more flavorful than the average commercial "medium" roast, but not so dark as that favored by the French. But then, is this what is meant by the term "Viennese" roast? Anyway, the really dark "Fresh" roast definitely comes next; it is also known as "New Orleans" or "full" roast, but this roast is not so dark as the "continental" or "after-dinner" roast, which in turn may or may not be the same as that indicated by "Italian", "espresso", "double", "high", or even "burnt". One last roasting fact on which to ruminate: as coffee is sold by weight, the weight-loss that occurs in beans during roasting can have financial consequences for buyer and seller alike. the person who buys green coffee beans to roast and sell on, must allow for losing about 15 per cent of the product in the roast, and this percentage increases with the degree of roast. The person who orders a quantity of beans pre-roasted to a particular degree could find that the roaster has been tempted to under-roast, and supply fewer beans for the weight, in which case the flavor may not be fully develop. the person who buys roasted beans by weight will receive a greater volume of beans if the roast is darker. |
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