How Coffee Roasting Affects Bean Weight
Some of our subscription customers have rightly noticed that some pouches of coffee are slightly bigger than others. When buying coffee beans, you purchase them based upon weight.
The interesting thing is though, that the weight of a bean actually varies based on what type of roast it is.
Thankfully, there is a pretty straightforward explanation. Check out our previous blog on the 10 levels of coffee bean roasts in case you did not realize that there are so many types of roasts.
In this instance, however, it just depends on how long the coffee bean has been roasted.
When you roast a coffee bean, in the process, you are essentially removing some of its liquid components. This is also why when you get into the darker roasts that you cannot taste the origin of the bean anymore, and that you can really only taste the roast (even when tasting and smelling properly).
So, the longer you roast a bean, the more of its liquid components you are going to lose.
Therefore, the darker the roast, the lighter the bean. So, if we are shipping you a half pound of coffee and it is a dark roast, it will take up far more space than a half pound of lightly roasted coffee beans.
With darker roasts, like a French Roast or Italian Roast, you generally would want to include a bit more beans in the process. This is regardless of your coffee brewing method too.
In those darker roasts you start to lose some of the caffeine potency, and also lose some of the natural fats and amino acids that lend lots of the flavor to your cup of coffee.
It does depend on how you prefer your own cup of joe, however. The acidity in the coffee bean is one of the first things to go. The acidity is where you get lots of the hints and subtle flavors that come from the coffee bean’s origin.
For those that generally add lots of milk, creamer, sugar, and other items; the coffee drinker is generally doing that because they want to avoid the “harsher” flavors. In which case, there is no real need to add extra beans when brewing a dark roast.
And, if you are doing it just for the caffeine? Well, lighter roasts, and perhaps even a dash of caffeine powder is right up your alley. Caffeine is bitter though, so keep that in mind.
So, long story short, dark roasts weigh less per bean, and although you may think you hit the jackpot because you got “extra” beans, you should likely be brewing with more beans than you usually do.
What is your favorite roast? Do you vary the amount of coffee beans per pot of coffee, depending on the roast type?
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