*⚠Please note:* I have been getting a lot of comments from third wavers who are angry that I discourage the use of lighter roasts in espresso. The terms light, medium, dark mean different things in different parts of the world. In my view, Starbucks' blonde roast is a dark roast. Likewise, with Illy's medium roast. What I refer to in this video as a light roast is a coffee that is dropped during 1st crack with a moisture loss under 12%. Maybe the exact agtron color is hard to pinpoint from this video. But this is a REALLY light roast. Maybe this is your jam. But I don't think so. Even light roast gurus like Tim Wendelboe and The Coffee Collective use different profiles for espresso and filter. So instead of leaving an angry comment, let's have a civil discussion about different preferences.
I have to say, I started out brewing espresso exclusively with 100% arabica single origin beans based on what everyone was recommending (even the manual of my barista oracle recommended to do so). I was also typically looking for medium roasts (typically Ethiopian) as also every RUclips video was raving about how good espresso tastes with it. I typically drink milk based coffee drinks, so needless to say what was coming out didn’t taste right to me, but I thought maybe that’s my pallet adjusting to proper espresso and coffee. I was in a local cafe recently and the barista recommended the house blend (70% arabica and 30% robusta - darkly roasted), I took a bag home and brewed a cappuccino with it. And wow, that’s was really night and day difference. Really really enjoying it. Glad I made this discovery and stopped listening to all the hype. 1000% agree, lighter roasts single origin arabica should be exclusively used for low pressure longer extractions like pour overs, not for espresso and particularly not for milk based beverages.
Cannot agree more.. i have been doing the same mistake and the 70-30 blend is just perfect. Sometimes I do half caf with a dark roast (swiss water) beans and 70/30 blend and the taste is on a different level
I have been drinking various Italian brand coffees for about 20 years. I’ve been on a tour of specialty roasters for the last several months with a great deal of disappointment with my espresso. Really expensive coffee that gave me sadness in every cup. As I’ve learned more about the differences with arabica beans I’m realizing that I prefer at least some robusta in the mix for my espresso.
Enlightening and informative. I've recently started with espresso and have been wondering since about what type of coffee to use. I like your style that's down to earth and far from pretentious and snobby about coffee. Thanks for the video.
What percentage of Robusta do you suggest for a traditional Italian espresso? i'm using a specialty Vietnamese Robusta- 30 / 70 Ara. And i enjoy your comments, very unbiased and I see you're more interested in the coffee, not just in what's trendy
Nice video! As a new roaster I was swept up into the crowd of coffee tasting professionals and cupping scores. Basing what beans I should purchase to start roasting with. I quickly discovered that most of the coffee elites like the light roast floral/fruity coffees. That might be good for the writers of article's and content creator's but for those who purchase coffee a medium roast with nutty and chocolaty flavors are vastly preferred. In fact, I still haven't met anyone in person who enjoys a light roast. But if I were to just read content produced by the coffee experts and guru's, the cupping experts and the SCA and roasting competition judges, you would think light roast fruity coffee was all that the world wanted. There is a major disconnect between the coffee establishment and the regular consumer.
I think some commenters are missing the point. While I am a die hard light roast fanatic for both espresso and filter, some roasts are simply too light for espresso. I drink the lightest offerings for both brew methods, but if you pull, and I have many times, very light filter beans for espresso it’s almost impossible to get an ideal extraction. Possible? Yes. Worth it? No. I also agree that when it comes to espresso the extra dollars spent on really unique high quality ultra light roasts is not as well spent when compared to filter. But still it is fun to try every now and then. Earlier this year I tried the same green beans as an espresso roast and a filter roast. I did attempt pulling the filter roast as an espresso and I think it really highlighted the benefit of a slightly more developed roast for espresso despite both being “light”. In general I use a respectable but fairly conservative medium blend for day to day milk drinks and espressos. But I still save some light roasted beans for the weekend pulls.😂 Great video and channel just discovered you and watching all your videos!
I'm only drink espresso these days, and I think it's fun and interesting to get the roast level just right with a single origin where the balance is hitting several markers based on the roast level: sweetness (if there's any to be found in the origin), sourness, bitterness, floral notes, body, aroma, etc. Grind size, dose, compaction, pre-infusion, brew temp, water quality, there are just so many aspects to play with along with the origin and roast. Starting with ten pounds and roasting a pound a week has been super fun to see what results you can get when playing with all of these different dimensions to create a recipe. I used to pretty much hate the sourness of a lighter roast, but I think a lot of that was due to my expectations of what coffee should taste like. Pushing my "sour" roasts further into darker levels (Full City, Full City+, even to a Vienna darkness) and playing with the recipe though, helped me begin to see some beauty from the lighter side (as long as the body and extraction were right). A few times I just didn't have time to re-roast to a darker level, and had to spend the week drinking my sour lighter roasts. Afterward, roasting a darker batch, I found I missed the sour ones sometimes, though again, it depended on how well the recipe brought out the body and other aspects of the extraction. The variability of it all means I don't have a lot of consistency, but I've found that to be part of the joy of it all. Even the best cup would get boring after years of drinking it. This way, I never have to worry about that, and from light to dark (and with some developing intuition) I'm finding a lot of joy across the whole spectrum : )
Thank you for your comments, I suspect you are right about the espresso beans... I have tried the expensive single origin beans of all types and still can't get the espresso flavor I remember from the cafe's in Italy... even when done in a Moka pot, the flavor just isn't the same as my mothers Moka pot coffee Medaglia D'oro... As espresso has become "trendy" lately .. it has lost it's way imo... I'd like to find fresh beans that will reproduce that old flavor.
Thank you! I like to drink espresso neat or with a little bit of foam as a macchiato, and I like a smooth, sweet, nutty/dark chocolately taste with an intense body, as I have tasted when travelling in Southern Europe. Many independent/modern cafes in the US tend to use the lighter roast and/or single-origin beans as espresso, but I very often find the taste very sour and not enjoyable. I'm only now just realizing that I am not alone in this preference for a traditional Italian-style espresso, that some hipster brands label as "blue-collar". I hope that cafes start catering to both modern and traditional styles.
@@thepatternforms859 To be honest, I'm also still looking. I've only just gotten a 2nd espresso machine, after a 6-year gap, and have tried 3 beans so far: 2 locally from Blue Bottle in San Francisco (17ft Ceiling blend, and Hayes Valley blend), and some 'stale' beans from Caffe Borbone Miscela Blu (medium-dark blend, 1kg bag from Amazon), which I had been using with Aeropress. I'm still trying to dial these in - haven't reached the sweet spot yet with my Lelit Anna PID machine and Eureka Mignon Silenzio grinder. None of those beans are bad, just haven't reached that chocolately/nutty/sweet goodness yet. I've ordered some Kimbo Supreme to try out, which is a 80/20 Arabica/Robusta blend, medium-roast I think. Will let you know if it works out!
@@ericscavetta2311 I was just instructed by some espresso pros on what to buy last night! Here is what they said: Onyx coffee company (Monarch)(southern weather), intelegencia coffee company (black cat classic espresso), dogwood coffee company (bear hug). These are what I bought!
@@thepatternforms859 Thanks for the tip! I just ordered some black cat classic (Brasil/honey & Costa Rica/washed) & analog espresso (Brasil/honey) too. I've been wanting to try a honey-processed bean for some time. Excited!
Interesting insights! I just recently started dabbling with an espresso machine, admittedly mostly (attempting) to make flate whites & cappuccini but I started experimenting with the popular Italian espresso beans regularly available here in the UK; Lavazza (about 5 different types?) and Segafredo are fine, Illy is very nice but twice the price, but my favourite was probably Kimbo. Mind you, probably not wise to pay too much attention to my taste buds, I think they are a bit trashed with regular exposure to Scotch Bonnets, Golden Virginia and Islay malts.... Thanks for the great video.
I think it definitely depends on what kind of drinks you like. I drink my esspresso straight every morning so it is important to me that I have complexity in the cup. For me that means a medium roast 9 times out of 10. Dark roasts are often just 1 note or too smokey and ashy while lighter roasts take extra effort to fight off sourness. However, if you drink milk drinks and add sugar or other flavors then a dark roast is going to be a good consistent base for you as the milk and sugar balance those "roasty" notes. As with all things coffee it's really just subjective.
My first specialty bag of coffee for espresso was a light roast and I had a terrible time trying to get a balanced shot, nothing but sour lemon tasting shots! My second specialty bag was a darker roast and it was amazing. Super smooth and chocolate notes in every cappuccino with that bag. Lesson learned.
You're absolutely right. I've tried both light-roast Speciality coffees and more generic but darker coffees. I was determined to use these very expensive coffees, but I got very poor results with the light roast coffees in my espresso machine. The taste was like barley coffee, a little straw-like and fermented. On the other hand, I've had amazing results with cheaper, darker coffees, especially when I drink cappuccino or latté, so the chocolate and hazelnut taste is perfect.
I just want to say I appreciate your content, I have bought my grinder off of your 1zpresso reviews and now I have a better understanding of why my espresso taste like a lemon. Thanks keep doing what you do its a blessing. God bless and look forward to your next video... So I roast my own coffee, if I were to buy in bulk a bean do you think brazilian is a good bean for espresso? Bc I have noticed im using a lot of coffee trying to dial in what will be an enjoyable shot. Thanks again (:
I’ve tried so many beans now ranging from expensive small independently roasted to mass produced widely available. I’ve found my favourite to be lavazza gusto forte, cheap and the best crema and probably the strongest I can make with my machine. I can’t get any other bean nearly as good and I am purchasing dark roast espresso beans.. I am grinding them myself with the dose control pro and have tried almost every possible grind size from 20 to super fine. Any advice ??
Thanks for this video. I have an overkill for home espresso setup and our family enjoy about 5 espresso based drinks a day. I have dabbled in "specialty" type coffees and found them interesting but always gravitate back to one of the Lavazza blends readily and cheaply available online for my espresso needs. True to your video, I find that I am able to get my desired taste profiles (whether acidity, sweetness, chocolate) from these cheaper blends through the amplified espresso extraction process.
That's been my experience as well. I made the mistake of buying expensive single origin coffee beans thinking they would taste better but since I only drink milk-based espresso drinks like Cappuccino or Latte, the higher quality beans with floral and acidic notes tasted horrible! So I went back to cheaper, lower altitude blends, with medium to dark roast, and the coffee is so much better balanced and tastes more like what you would get in a café in Italy!
Yeah, that's the general rule, and I agree. But it's just a rule, and it's meant to be broken. With some knowledge, you can use those light roasts in espresso with results far exceeding anything coming from a dark roast. But yeah...knowledge and skill...they're in short supply.
@@pushslice use as hot of water as you can and don’t be afraid of over-extraction as it’ll take more to over-extract light roasts than medium roasts. Brew modern ratios and use a really uniform grinder.
@@EB-coffee how about the number of atmospheres? Can you describe the taste, compared with a classic espresso, and compared with same beans with pour over.
Thanks for the video, very informative. But I have to disagree - those dark beab espresso are awful, in my opinion. Yes light roasts are much much harder to get right. But medium roasts are great. Lots of crema is pointless, unless you like bitter coffee. Also, it just gets boring doing dark roasts. Thanks again!
This. This is exactly why I use a blend of all three bean roasted categories. I use a perfect mix of light, medium and dark beans and it comes out absolutely perfect every time. I feel like with that combination, it's both the easiest to make _and_ the best tasting!
@@NippleSauce do you roast your own coffee beans, what kind of blends are you using? Do you use a manual or automatic espresso machine? What grinder are you using? Sorry for the many questions, but not to much information on the web...
@@rbmanb Understandable. Everything that I like to learn about can't really be found on the internet....yet. But anyway, I don't roast my own coffee beans, however, I get the same beans in select roast methods of light, medium and dark. I usually mix even amounts of the light and medium beans with a bit less of the dark beans. As for my bean grinder, I have a Porlex Mini II (on setting 5, 6 or 7). For brewing, I happen to use an Aeropress and do this weird, upsidedown brew method that's best suited for an espresso like brew. Hopefully your next brew comes out great!
@@NippleSauce sounds interesting to try this kind of mix, although as I'm drinking smaller doses of coffee a day, if I buy more than one bag, I'll end up with old coffee. So seems like blending my own coffee is somewhat unachievable unless I find a roaster whom can get me quarter a pound or less a bag.
@@rbmanb I only have one cup of coffee per day. So doing what I do should be achievable so long as you can buy roasted beans from your source in smaller quantities. If you buy whole beans, they'll stay good for more than 12 months. So no worries about old beans here! It's another awesome thing about coffee.
How do you make your medium roast espresso? I'm struggling to dial in. I had some taste of chocolatey-ish, but now it's just acid. I'm already pulling really fine. Sometimes a pull is even 35-40 seconds. I'm using a double filter with 14 grams. Maybe I should go less fine and go to 16 grams?
check what temperature you have, and also, see how much volume liquid you are getting out in ml vs the grams you are extracting. When you are in a 1 to 2 ratio, and that is working at about 25 seconds. If not happy, then perhaps temperature setting may need to be adjusted. Lighter roast will like hotter water, in general. @@highmastdon
The best coffee that I have tasted was dark and shiny just like yours! A week ago I was talking to a professional at a coffee rosters company. He said that they aim to roast their coffee in a way that it comes out dry and not silky/shiny. He added that shiny coffee is a sign of “over-roasting” so the fat inside the bean carrying most of the flavor evaporates as it is having direct contact to the air surrounding the bean. Is that true? Now I wonder what is right for me and what difference does it make? Again the coffee (cappuccino with cow milk) that I liked the most was dark and shiny 🤷🏻♂️
Thank you so much. I have had a long love story with coffee but I somehow missed the 3rd wave. I got back to espresso 2 months ago but I hadn't be able to brew one the way I used to enjoye, which is, now I realize, classic. How could I forgot Robusta ?!
What about the importance of freshness in these dark, robust containing espresso roasts? Is it still important to have them fresh roasted, or am I not going to loose much when using a 3 months old bag?
I buy the Starbucks french roast beans at Costco. I use them in a reusable k-cup. I have been thinking about an espresso machine for americano's. Do you think the mentioned beans would favor well through espresso?
I wonder if an espresso brew is possible without using any special high-pressure equipment. I tried using Aeropress to brew with increased pressure but this just squirts much of the liquid out through the filter basket and makes a mess, spilling too much of the liquid onto the table-top.
My taste generally leans towards city+ so medium roast with a few oily patches on the beans. I’ve been roasting my own lately and when they hit that range they taste great. Dark roasts are good with milk drinks to offset that burnt taste and light roasts are better neat to pull out the flavors.
I personally prefer mid-roasted specialty beans on their own and as blends and single origins. I’ve been enjoying them for a long time. While I’m not a fan of Illy due to its aftertaste, I do appreciate specialty coffee blends and single origins as espresso, especially in a single shot latte. I find that a single shot allows me to taste the subtle, interesting flavors more easily compared to a double shot, unless it’s in a larger cup with double the milk. For me, a double shot tends to drown out all the nuanced flavors with just the coffee taste.
Thank you for the imparted wisdom! I just ordered (but have not yet received) as espresso machine with flow control, mainly with the hopes of being able to dial in the lighter roasts. Do you have experience with this? My understanding is that light roasts become truly viable with the proper extraction method. Interested to try. . .
Totally agree with this video. Been trying (a lot) to enjoy light roast with my Robot, but personally prefer a dark medium roast much more and then save the light roasts for the v60. Best results I can get from lighter roasts is with preheating piston, basket and portafilter, grinding fine, 14g dose, long preinfusion and then damaging my hands with 9 bars. Still too sour for me though. Might try sugar next!
@@sriwahyanibudianingsih1534 Not sure about torture! but frustrating and unsatisfying. I've currently given up with it. Even medium medium roasts are tricky. I would rather just enjoy a more traditional espresso roast on the darker side of medium (at around 6 bars). Nice textured, sweet chocolatey espresso. The internet says light roasts can be good with an electric machine with a PID, small doses and finer grinds but I have no personal experience of it. It so easy to enjoy light roasts with a £8 v60 so there is no need to miss out. I get the feeling light roast espressos is kind of like riding around a mountain bike trail on a cyclocross bike - certainly possible, just not very pleasant.
I did brew my regular pour over fuitty-floral light roast kenyan bean using my friends cafelat robot, i was hoping to get some nuances with those bean.. but, it ended up very2 citrussy, astringent, and even greenish 😂
I’ve always avoided dark roasts, blends and robusta. I was lead to believe high altitude single origins are best and I hated the robusta in James Hoffmann’s worlds largest coffee tasting but I gave it a try after watching this video and am honestly blown away! The Italian Job blend number 2 from Rave is my new favourite and so cheap! It’s like drinking melted chocolate but without the sickly feeling.
i think light roast can be brewed right only with machines that we can adjust the pressure, coarser grind than for medium/dark roast, around 5-7 bars of pressure so we can get a slow flow, then i think it would be balanced. so far with my home espresso machine i can only brew very sour light roast hahaha
pressure is the key we are able to pull sweet and syrupy shots at under 3 bars and 20%+ extraction but when with standard 7 - 9 bars yes you will get super astringent coffee
I can understand the appeal of the challenge of dialling in a light roast bean for espresso, but it’s just too much effort for me- especially for an African bean. I would always choose a South or Central American medium roast bean, sometimes washed, sometimes natural. For Christmas/winter time maybe an Indonesian bean. Never an African. I always go for single origin because I like to know exactly where my coffee has come from and I enjoy the differences between them. That’s how I personally like it, but each to their own... just got to find what you like 👍🏼
Care to share more about your experience with different kinds of beans and espresso? I like costa rican honey processed for pour over, I wonder if it would benefit as much as an espresso.
@@rbmanb I think that would make beautiful espresso! Honey and other naturals are my favourite at the moment... but as always what I like might not be what other people like. I enjoy exploring the different flavours that single origin beans offer, even beans from the same country or region can taste really different. So I would say just experiment with different beans and if your technique is consistent and repeatable you’ll have a good time I’m sure 👍🏼
Being served an light roast Ethiopian espresso once, that tasted horribly bad in the sense it makes me feeling like drinking a cup of 60ml lemon juice. I can't appreciate the flowery or citrus note at all when the coffee is highly concentrated.
Does a coffee bean size make a difference? Sometimes I buy coffee beans from some place and they're small and some of the places I buy it from they are big.
If it's from the same farm and coffee variety, bigger is usually seen as more premium. But from one brand or roaster to another, there's no correlation between size and quality.
Is it true that the Flair can't handle light roasts? I just talked to someone that told me he's with his Flair for 2 years and still couldn't get his light roasts right, always sour.
Great video Asser! Of course I am going to ask about the Flair and medium-light roasts (say 15% to 20% DTR) of specialty coffee: Don’t you think that with a manual espresso machine like the Flair you can get really good results with high temp, long pre-infusion, and 5-7 bars of pressure? Waste of time? 😆 Would you still advise not to invest on specialty coffee for espresso?
Haha, good question. Yes, I do think the Flair can do those well. I'm not really advising against specialty coffee for espresso (which is anything above 80 points) but just saying that those attributes you pay for in a 85-90 point lot are harder to appreciate when concentrated down to espresso. So the best ROI might be found in a medium roast 83 point coffee.
Hi Asser. Lil question: I roast 12 different single origins from Columbia, Ethiopia to Brazil. Trying different roast levels but never achieve the dark, tiger striped crema on top of my espresso shots. Its color is very often too light, the mouth is great, all flavors I am after are there, but no crema. If I try illy, jolly or any other italian espresso beans (100% arabica announced!) They are giving that espresso taste with a great colorization & almost olive oil consistency! Sometimes getting the feeling if those beans are prepared with externals as colorization, co2 addition and what not... how is it possible even that silly 7-8 gramms nespresso give triple more crema and darker colors than my single origins? Any tips would be great. Have a good one.🤙
Robusta is the obvious answer to additional crema. It's very potent. But if they claim it's 100% arabica, I can only attribute it to roast style, freshness and bean selection. Also, washed coffees produce less crema compared to honey/naturals, so maybe they use a lot of brazil/indonesian for their blends?
@@simonmonty7171 so what you are saying is they are the thing essentially or rather coffee beans are coffee beans and espresso beans is coffee beans as well, yes? Espresso is or comes from just coffee beans but brewed different so it's not coffee anymore from coffee beans its espresso from coffee beans? So people label coffee beans as exspresso beans 🤔 sometimes which in turn makes them espresso beans. Now im wondering if just hypothetically it was so good the supple ran out of espresso beans so now can i take coffee beans and brew them in the espresso appliance and serve it up as espresso or with steamed milk, will it be or you just cant do it and they're not the same thing from before the brewing processes they might be not the same type of bean. Like needing to have espresso beans to make a latte is a step in the process that has to for certain you can't make that younknimow what yo nvm yo im out this car ya dig if iwas driving my bad yo tuck n roll
@@jawnjawnUP depends, if you serve it with milk, probably best with dark roast beans but an espresso made with medium dark roast is usually best. What is labelled as espresso usually is really really dark roast but sometimes too dark to really enjoy the coffee complexity.
The good thing about coffee: every one can drink to their own taste. I roast my own beans, most of them Columbian, Ethiopian, Kenian or Central African. In my taste dark roasted coffee loses most of the complexity, most of the pleasant fruitiness, a lot of the sweetness and if going into 2nd crack all interesting acidity. I marvel in exactly these characteristics of coffee, that is why I prefer single origin medium to medium-light roasted beans for both pour over as well as espresso. Robusta tastes in my perception not interesting, rather earthy and very bitter. And crema in my opintion is not a value to strive for - in the end it is foamed oils with CO2 in it. But again: if anybody prefers dark roast I am absolutely fine with it. Roast or buy espresso to your taste (going back to my current Columbian Pink Bourbon Carbonic Macerated medium roast).
hey im very new to espresso I was wondering when you roast espresso should you cook it to second crack and if so for how long after second crack. also what flavor profiles are good for espresso keeping in mind lattes
There are no hard rules - some roasters will go to the second crack and others will go really light. It all depends on preference. If you're going to use it with milk drinks, I'd suggest dropping the batch just when second crack begins.
Dude, I am in the Dominican Republic I go to a Local coffee bas and they have 3 4 different origins from the DR. I try the Barahona region too much acidity for me and I hate it. Jarabacoa is better but no crema comes out. I love my crema. Got an inexpensive espresso machine with non pressurized porter. Got a very bad grinder. Considering buying Baratza 270 before i even consider to buy a new espresso machine. So what i understood coffee beans dark roast and robusto for crema. You sound from Germany, thank you. Please get back to me.
Robusta usually gives more crema than arabica. But most fresh beans will give a nice crema. About the beans, the acidity level is probably due to the roast being on the lighter side.
Thanks for the enlightment. Do you think blend before roasting is better compare to blend after roasting? I usually like to blend my left over bean and they create something quite special
@@coffeechronicler do they have to be the same roast level? can i mix medium roast bean with medium dark or dark bean? will it be a challenge for consumer to extract?
Well, it's a bit like in chef competitions where they make burgers with kobe meat and truffles :) I'm sure they taste good, but don't really think it has much of a place outside that setting.
@@coffeechronicler I've had geshas that just aren't worth the price. But I also had a gesha from Royal Dutch that was amazing - one of the best espressos I've ever pulled on my home set up. Floral, sweet. Gorgeous.
I hate dark roast there's no flavor . I don't like blend for espresso maybe for milk drink. i prefer single origin Ethiopian beans and Panama katwi varietie medium roast . These beans are great for espresso.
Dark roasts can have very good flavor. The best dark roasts have very distinct dark chocolate, spices, and depending on the source of the blend, dried fruit and wine flavors as well. Traditional Italian blends are great if you are looking for a caramel and nutty and chocolate espresso.
I just got into coffee and I noticed a couple of my local grocery stores have an expiration date from a month to two months. However I want the best shot! Help?
Hi Michael, it would be better if you're able to find the roast date and get beans within 1 month. Expiration date can be anything from three months to two years after roast date, so the beans could be very stale.
Thank you for this video Asser. It seems like we have converging tastes with regards to what beans to use with what brewing method. For pourover/French press etc. I have a preference for medium roasts. Lighter roasts tend to contain flavour notes that I simply do not enjoy in a coffee context - I’m talking about overly fruity and citrusy flavour profiles.. Although I have a distaste for dark roasts (French roasts) in pourover, I feel that with espresso, this is really where dark roasts come into their own. And I have a particular fondness for Neapolitan roasts. No third wave espresso has ever come close, in my opinion, to deliver the level of gustatory je-ne-sais-quoi as Neapolitan blends. And this is a school of roasting where choice blends makes for more interesting results than single origins. My favourite blends tend to be a mix of about 80% Arabica to about 20% Robusta, give or take a bit. The complexity of a blend of this caliber I tent to find more interesting than straight Arabicas. And as for flavor notes, instead of coffees that are heavy with fruits and acid, here we are talking, hazelnut, chocolate, bourbon, tobacco. And the «grey ashy flavour» that many people with a distaste for dark roasts tend to point out (and which I myself recognize in many a French roast coffee used in pourovers) is non existent here, if properly extracted (And being the proud owner of a single group Neapolitan lever machine, I think I am able to come as close as possible into making my own kitchen into a bar in Naples 😎 So - do I have any favourite roasters and coffees? Personally, though I am always eager to try new brands, I tend to return to Passalacqua (Miscela Napoli, Mexico Plus, and Cremador are blends I gravitate towards). And here were are at the core paradox of traditional Italian vs. third wave coffee culture. Passalacqua (as well as many other Italian roasters) having been in business since 1948, provide no information on the bags about which coffees go into the blends (aside from Ara/Rob percentage ratios), nor farms, or roast date (even though roast month can be backwards deduced through the use-before date). Yet their coffees taste superior to any third wave coffee brewed as espresso I’ve ever tasted. On that note, may I also add that I have yet to taste any coffee advertised as Southern Italian Style, made by roasters outside Italy, to be of equally excellent taste as ones coming from the Campanian heartland themselves. Other coffees I have cherished are i.e. Toraldo Arancini, Salimbene Superbar, Kimbo Espresso Neapolitano. Anyway, keep up the good work, Asser! Love your channel! Hilsen fra Norge! 🇩🇰🇳🇴
I think you are oversimplifying. There are a lot of lighter espresso roasts that taste good. There are also a lot of single origin espressos where you can taste the origin characteristics. And in the end, it's all up to taste anyway. Given how many people consume Monster energy, there seems to be a market for battery acid drinks. And I mean that quite unironically - there is a place for unbalanced drinks. On the other hand, I personally don't enjoy dark roasts. But if there are people that do, why not. There are things I personally dislike in my brews too. I dislike bitterness. My girlfriend dislikes acidity. And that's totally okay. Also for espresso.
I'm probably a bit black and white here, but generally I don't believe in omni roasting. And I think most home users will never be able to dial in those really light beans.
It’s simplified for the a general understanding. Which he’s right about. Obviously you’re going to have instances where things change but in general, I’d say he’s spot on. High acid milk drinks taste like piss. But if you like that flavor, of course don’t activate your gag reflex. Everyone should do what they enjoy 🙂
Thank you for this video Asser. It ended with me wanting to hear more about your experiences with blending and roasting. I've been a home roaster for many years though I would still not consider myself an expert at developing roasting profiles. 90% of my roasting is for pour-over coffee and when I do roast espresso, I usually go with the blends that my supplier (Sweet Maria's from Oakland California) creates but of course their blend is their secret so who knows how many beans they have added. Looking at the green bean sizes and colors, it looks like at least 4-5 different beans. I certainly enjoy their blend but would like to know more about blending ratios. I also wonder if you have ever heard of roasting the components separately and blending afterwards where, for example, one might roast the Brazilian to a Full City, Ethiopian to City and a Guatemalan to City+.
Hi Elbert, it's common to roast the beans separately and then mix them after. If you roast them all at once the beans would need to have a very similar size, density and processing level. And then you also have to think about the espresso extraction - if the beans are too different in terms of development it makes even extraction difficult. For home roasters I would not recommend more than 3 different beans in a blend. I know there are some pros using 4 but IMO it's just too difficult to keep consistent :) But I should say, I'm the same as you, also mainly roasting single origin for pour over :)
Somewhere on RUclips I learned to begin your experiments with 1/3 Brazilian, 1/3 African, 1/3 Central American. Roast separately. Tinker with the ratios until you love it. I only had to buy Brazilian. I was impressed with the outcomes, especially when I increased the Brazilian a bit. I keep my 3 coffees separated so I have freedom to vary an espresso any direction I want. Sweet Maria’s green beans.
Okay. You seam like you know what your talking about. I have been all over United States Philadelphia and other parts of the United States and 99% of the espresso are terrible! It doesn’t matter what fancy place I’m going to no one seems to know how to make a good espresso at these coffee shops. Can you please make a video of what machine I should get to make a good espresso at home? Please!!! I bag you! What is an average Italian in Italy using to make an espresso?
Thank you!! I have a Moka pot. What beans do you recommend for Moka pot? What beans do you use for a Moka pot? Last request then Ill leave you alone, but I have subscribed😊
Not surprised that you got all these hipsters pooping their skinny jeans. Yes there is a place for your “peachy, floral, pretty, delicate, blah blah blah” roasts. Not usually for espresso though.
What you say here is true of your generic milk blend espresso , or Italian style espresso. But in Australia at least it is no longer true . Top Barristers do fantastic gooey high end espresso, which has more flavour not less than the v60s we were drinking 7 years ago. For milk based coffees the trend has been towards blends of 2-3 single origin espressos that go really well with milk . These are lighter roast coffees with incredibly floral or fruity notes, usually heavy on the high altitude Ethiopian and low on the choc notes of usual basic milk coffee. A famous example is Onas raspberry candy blend, which won a world barrister championship milk blend section. It’s a 94-96 grade coffee made of 30% Ethiopia Midnight Supernatural, 30% Ethiopia Aricha White Washed, 20% Ethiopia Indigo CM 1212, 10% Ethiopia Addis Supernatural, and 10% Ethiopia Webanchi Supernatural . As a pour over its sour and not nice, but as an espresso dialled very fine , it’s mind blowing
I hand roast, hand grind and hand pull my espresso. It's pretty much the only coffee I drink. I usually roast single origin beans to a lightish medium level, and grind for a ~30second extraction at ~8bar. Comes out pretty good, acidic but with a lot of fruit and floral characters, with the richness and mouth feel of espresso. Occasionally I'll roast a bit darker, but I prefer the lighter roast. boo ya
Really disagree with this. Saying that light roast coffee for espresso tastes like lemon or battery acid is just untrue. You need more technique to pull a good shot of light roast, but it makes great espresso when done correctly.
Obviously there's spectrum from light to medium. What you consider light might be more of a medium to me. However, the beans I showed in the video are so light that they are difficult to brew for pour over, so espresso wouldn't be a good idea.
this is more about only your personal taste and preference and not what you say in your title.U can have fantastic espresso with light roasted beans.(If you like acidity)
yes, but light roasts don't even have to have acid taste when a barista knows what to do, I've had light roasts that don't taste like acid at all, and I'm a traditional Italy Rome/Naples dark roast type person. Nor do single origins mean they have to be light roasted. Conversely, I've had medium roasts that tasted like battery acid, because the barista sucked.
As a professional I totally agree that even a light roast can be great for espresso. But is more complicated than that. We tend to measure solubility/acidity/sweetness/body from roasts with Agtron, colorimeter. A light is from 82-84 agtron to over 100, but 2-3 points in color can define the balance in acidity. body and sweetness for espresso. So if you know you have a high acidic coffee like a Kenya and you still want the full espresso experience in a light range you roast it for 82-84 agtron, not 88 Brazil. On eye is almost impossible to define in roast that change, but on flavors is totally different. Plus you have RD (roasting development) where you can destroy more or less from acids and increase sweetness and body without passing a certain color. It's to complicated to explain in a few words, but what this guy do... more simple: take a big poop on our job. And look at those beans you present for espresso, those oils define a dead coffee (that bean literally bleed good stuffs beside coffeeine/caffeine and acidity), those black spots at the edge of beans represents tipping, I even see scorch from a high drop. I bet is baked and flat, that is not muted acidity, that is roasting defect. That dense bean represent a slow growing, the bean had more time to absorb nutrients, sweetness, amino acids in blocks as proteins, antioxidants, sucrose, vitamins B5, B2, B1, B3, potassium, magnesium, some essentials nutrients etc. It can lower the risk of Diabetes, lower the risk of liver cancer and I can write here many pages. The darker you roast, the more you destroy those, the higher the altitude, the more good stuffs. Don't stop on lemon vs chocolate, is more complex than that, much much more complex. Don't destroy something extremely healthy for a personal opinion
Hi Laiu, I don't know why you get the idea that this guy (me?) poops on your job. The bean I use in the video to symbolize light roasts is already so light that it's extremely difficult to brew as a pour over coffee. Don't tell me you want to turn it into a shot. Even Tim Wendelboe has a different roast profile for espresso. I know lot of people like to add some kind of ethical dimension to roasting (light is good / dark is bad) but I don't think that's really helping anybody. Many people enjoy dark roasts. They are easier to brew as espresso and great for milk drinks. Why imply they are bad people? Do you really want regular people with a 15 bar pump machine to pull sour shots at home? I can guarantee you that a light roasted coffee is as dead as a dark one (dead/alive is binary - there's no inbetween). None of them are alive. It's okay if you have a special roasting philosophy that favors certain characteristics, many roasters do. But don't come here and say that it's the only way.
*⚠Please note:* I have been getting a lot of comments from third wavers who are angry that I discourage the use of lighter roasts in espresso. The terms light, medium, dark mean different things in different parts of the world. In my view, Starbucks' blonde roast is a dark roast. Likewise, with Illy's medium roast.
What I refer to in this video as a light roast is a coffee that is dropped during 1st crack with a moisture loss under 12%. Maybe the exact agtron color is hard to pinpoint from this video. But this is a REALLY light roast. Maybe this is your jam. But I don't think so. Even light roast gurus like Tim Wendelboe and The Coffee Collective use different profiles for espresso and filter.
So instead of leaving an angry comment, let's have a civil discussion about different preferences.
I have to say, I started out brewing espresso exclusively with 100% arabica single origin beans based on what everyone was recommending (even the manual of my barista oracle recommended to do so). I was also typically looking for medium roasts (typically Ethiopian) as also every RUclips video was raving about how good espresso tastes with it. I typically drink milk based coffee drinks, so needless to say what was coming out didn’t taste right to me, but I thought maybe that’s my pallet adjusting to proper espresso and coffee. I was in a local cafe recently and the barista recommended the house blend (70% arabica and 30% robusta - darkly roasted), I took a bag home and brewed a cappuccino with it. And wow, that’s was really night and day difference. Really really enjoying it. Glad I made this discovery and stopped listening to all the hype. 1000% agree, lighter roasts single origin arabica should be exclusively used for low pressure longer extractions like pour overs, not for espresso and particularly not for milk based beverages.
Completely agree! It’s funny how hard it was to sift through the hype and info out there just to figure out what they were doing all along.
Nah, drink flat white.. and I like medium roast
Cannot agree more.. i have been doing the same mistake and the 70-30 blend is just perfect. Sometimes I do half caf with a dark roast (swiss water) beans and 70/30 blend and the taste is on a different level
I have been drinking various Italian brand coffees for about 20 years. I’ve been on a tour of specialty roasters for the last several months with a great deal of disappointment with my espresso. Really expensive coffee that gave me sadness in every cup.
As I’ve learned more about the differences with arabica beans I’m realizing that I prefer at least some robusta in the mix for my espresso.
Enlightening and informative. I've recently started with espresso and have been wondering since about what type of coffee to use.
I like your style that's down to earth and far from pretentious and snobby about coffee. Thanks for the video.
It’s easier to pull light roasts with higher ratios 1:2,5 up to 1:5
Yeah but then you lose body and that’s what makes espresso so unique.
What percentage of Robusta do you suggest for a traditional Italian espresso? i'm using a specialty Vietnamese Robusta- 30 / 70 Ara.
And i enjoy your comments, very unbiased and I see you're more interested in the coffee, not just in what's trendy
Honestly 50/50 Robust to Arabica for a nice espresso. IME
here in indonesia, we usually play around 40/60 or 30/70 [arabica/robusta]
we love to use more robusta
My favourite espresso is usually a 40/60 (arabica/robusta) south American blend from Brazil and/or Columbia
Nice video! As a new roaster I was swept up into the crowd of coffee tasting professionals and cupping scores. Basing what beans I should purchase to start roasting with. I quickly discovered that most of the coffee elites like the light roast floral/fruity coffees. That might be good for the writers of article's and content creator's but for those who purchase coffee a medium roast with nutty and chocolaty flavors are vastly preferred. In fact, I still haven't met anyone in person who enjoys a light roast. But if I were to just read content produced by the coffee experts and guru's, the cupping experts and the SCA and roasting competition judges, you would think light roast fruity coffee was all that the world wanted. There is a major disconnect between the coffee establishment and the regular consumer.
I think some commenters are missing the point. While I am a die hard light roast fanatic for both espresso and filter, some roasts are simply too light for espresso. I drink the lightest offerings for both brew methods, but if you pull, and I have many times, very light filter beans for espresso it’s almost impossible to get an ideal extraction. Possible? Yes. Worth it? No.
I also agree that when it comes to espresso the extra dollars spent on really unique high quality ultra light roasts is not as well spent when compared to filter. But still it is fun to try every now and then.
Earlier this year I tried the same green beans as an espresso roast and a filter roast. I did attempt pulling the filter roast as an espresso and I think it really highlighted the benefit of a slightly more developed roast for espresso despite both being “light”.
In general I use a respectable but fairly conservative medium blend for day to day milk drinks and espressos. But I still save some light roasted beans for the weekend pulls.😂
Great video and channel just discovered you and watching all your videos!
I'm only drink espresso these days, and I think it's fun and interesting to get the roast level just right with a single origin where the balance is hitting several markers based on the roast level: sweetness (if there's any to be found in the origin), sourness, bitterness, floral notes, body, aroma, etc. Grind size, dose, compaction, pre-infusion, brew temp, water quality, there are just so many aspects to play with along with the origin and roast. Starting with ten pounds and roasting a pound a week has been super fun to see what results you can get when playing with all of these different dimensions to create a recipe. I used to pretty much hate the sourness of a lighter roast, but I think a lot of that was due to my expectations of what coffee should taste like. Pushing my "sour" roasts further into darker levels (Full City, Full City+, even to a Vienna darkness) and playing with the recipe though, helped me begin to see some beauty from the lighter side (as long as the body and extraction were right). A few times I just didn't have time to re-roast to a darker level, and had to spend the week drinking my sour lighter roasts. Afterward, roasting a darker batch, I found I missed the sour ones sometimes, though again, it depended on how well the recipe brought out the body and other aspects of the extraction. The variability of it all means I don't have a lot of consistency, but I've found that to be part of the joy of it all. Even the best cup would get boring after years of drinking it. This way, I never have to worry about that, and from light to dark (and with some developing intuition) I'm finding a lot of joy across the whole spectrum : )
could you possibly share what roaster you use? I'm interested in jumping in the roasting game
Nice
Thank you for your comments, I suspect you are right about the espresso beans... I have tried the expensive single origin beans of all types and still can't get the espresso flavor I remember from the cafe's in Italy... even when done in a Moka pot, the flavor just isn't the same as my mothers Moka pot coffee Medaglia D'oro... As espresso has become "trendy" lately .. it has lost it's way imo... I'd like to find fresh beans that will reproduce that old flavor.
There's some beans that can be found that cater to that more classic Italian style, like Rave Coffee's "Italian Job" blend?
Thank you! I like to drink espresso neat or with a little bit of foam as a macchiato, and I like a smooth, sweet, nutty/dark chocolately taste with an intense body, as I have tasted when travelling in Southern Europe. Many independent/modern cafes in the US tend to use the lighter roast and/or single-origin beans as espresso, but I very often find the taste very sour and not enjoyable. I'm only now just realizing that I am not alone in this preference for a traditional Italian-style espresso, that some hipster brands label as "blue-collar". I hope that cafes start catering to both modern and traditional styles.
whats a good go to bean company for chocolate tasting dark espresso beans? im lookniig
@@thepatternforms859 To be honest, I'm also still looking. I've only just gotten a 2nd espresso machine, after a 6-year gap, and have tried 3 beans so far: 2 locally from Blue Bottle in San Francisco (17ft Ceiling blend, and Hayes Valley blend), and some 'stale' beans from Caffe Borbone Miscela Blu (medium-dark blend, 1kg bag from Amazon), which I had been using with Aeropress. I'm still trying to dial these in - haven't reached the sweet spot yet with my Lelit Anna PID machine and Eureka Mignon Silenzio grinder. None of those beans are bad, just haven't reached that chocolately/nutty/sweet goodness yet.
I've ordered some Kimbo Supreme to try out, which is a 80/20 Arabica/Robusta blend, medium-roast I think. Will let you know if it works out!
@@ericscavetta2311 I was just instructed by some espresso pros on what to buy last night! Here is what they said: Onyx coffee company (Monarch)(southern weather), intelegencia coffee company (black cat classic espresso), dogwood coffee company (bear hug).
These are what I bought!
@@thepatternforms859 Thanks for the tip! I just ordered some black cat classic (Brasil/honey & Costa Rica/washed) & analog espresso (Brasil/honey) too. I've been wanting to try a honey-processed bean for some time. Excited!
Interesting insights! I just recently started dabbling with an espresso machine, admittedly mostly (attempting) to make flate whites & cappuccini but I started experimenting with the popular Italian espresso beans regularly available here in the UK; Lavazza (about 5 different types?) and Segafredo are fine, Illy is very nice but twice the price, but my favourite was probably Kimbo. Mind you, probably not wise to pay too much attention to my taste buds, I think they are a bit trashed with regular exposure to Scotch Bonnets, Golden Virginia and Islay malts.... Thanks for the great video.
I think it definitely depends on what kind of drinks you like. I drink my esspresso straight every morning so it is important to me that I have complexity in the cup. For me that means a medium roast 9 times out of 10. Dark roasts are often just 1 note or too smokey and ashy while lighter roasts take extra effort to fight off sourness. However, if you drink milk drinks and add sugar or other flavors then a dark roast is going to be a good consistent base for you as the milk and sugar balance those "roasty" notes. As with all things coffee it's really just subjective.
I agree. Light roast espresso is possible, but best left to the good specialty coffee bars. Very hard to do well at home.
💯%
Great points and I do the same (not the milk stuff though)
My first specialty bag of coffee for espresso was a light roast and I had a terrible time trying to get a balanced shot, nothing but sour lemon tasting shots! My second specialty bag was a darker roast and it was amazing. Super smooth and chocolate notes in every cappuccino with that bag. Lesson learned.
You're absolutely right. I've tried both light-roast Speciality coffees and more generic but darker coffees. I was determined to use these very expensive coffees, but I got very poor results with the light roast coffees in my espresso machine. The taste was like barley coffee, a little straw-like and fermented. On the other hand, I've had amazing results with cheaper, darker coffees, especially when I drink cappuccino or latté, so the chocolate and hazelnut taste is perfect.
I agree with this video. Getting a decent shot from a light roast bean isn’t worth it and doesn’t work with milk IMO. Dark all the way.
Regular milk? I feel like I need sugar 😆
I just want to say I appreciate your content, I have bought my grinder off of your 1zpresso reviews and now I have a better understanding of why my espresso taste like a lemon. Thanks keep doing what you do its a blessing. God bless and look forward to your next video...
So I roast my own coffee, if I were to buy in bulk a bean do you think brazilian is a good bean for espresso? Bc I have noticed im using a lot of coffee trying to dial in what will be an enjoyable shot. Thanks again (:
I’ve tried so many beans now ranging from expensive small independently roasted to mass produced widely available. I’ve found my favourite to be lavazza gusto forte, cheap and the best crema and probably the strongest I can make with my machine. I can’t get any other bean nearly as good and I am purchasing dark roast espresso beans.. I am grinding them myself with the dose control pro and have tried almost every possible grind size from 20 to super fine. Any advice ??
Thanks for this video. I have an overkill for home espresso setup and our family enjoy about 5 espresso based drinks a day. I have dabbled in "specialty" type coffees and found them interesting but always gravitate back to one of the Lavazza blends readily and cheaply available online for my espresso needs. True to your video, I find that I am able to get my desired taste profiles (whether acidity, sweetness, chocolate) from these cheaper blends through the amplified espresso extraction process.
Which Lavazza blend do you recommend and isnt it usually stale?
That's been my experience as well. I made the mistake of buying expensive single origin coffee beans thinking they would taste better but since I only drink milk-based espresso drinks like Cappuccino or Latte, the higher quality beans with floral and acidic notes tasted horrible! So I went back to cheaper, lower altitude blends, with medium to dark roast, and the coffee is so much better balanced and tastes more like what you would get in a café in Italy!
@@gnosis7662 I’m looking for exactly that experience, what coffee beans do you buy?
Yeah, that's the general rule, and I agree. But it's just a rule, and it's meant to be broken. With some knowledge, you can use those light roasts in espresso with results far exceeding anything coming from a dark roast. But yeah...knowledge and skill...they're in short supply.
Yes, not to mention patience. It's a lot more difficult to dial those light roasts in and extract the sweetness 🙂
Light roasts taste great as espresso when developed properly. Not all “light roasts” are the same.
Indeed. But just like light drip coffee it requires a lot more extraction knowledge to get the best out of them.
So how would you coach a consumer to pursue such coffees?
@@pushslice use as hot of water as you can and don’t be afraid of over-extraction as it’ll take more to over-extract light roasts than medium roasts. Brew modern ratios and use a really uniform grinder.
@@EB-coffee how about the number of atmospheres? Can you describe the taste, compared with a classic espresso, and compared with same beans with pour over.
Not really. They could taste good but not usually as good as a darker roast. And I don’t mean charcoal dark lol
Thanks for the video, very informative. But I have to disagree - those dark beab espresso are awful, in my opinion. Yes light roasts are much much harder to get right. But medium roasts are great. Lots of crema is pointless, unless you like bitter coffee. Also, it just gets boring doing dark roasts. Thanks again!
This. This is exactly why I use a blend of all three bean roasted categories. I use a perfect mix of light, medium and dark beans and it comes out absolutely perfect every time. I feel like with that combination, it's both the easiest to make _and_ the best tasting!
@@NippleSauce do you roast your own coffee beans, what kind of blends are you using? Do you use a manual or automatic espresso machine? What grinder are you using? Sorry for the many questions, but not to much information on the web...
@@rbmanb Understandable. Everything that I like to learn about can't really be found on the internet....yet. But anyway, I don't roast my own coffee beans, however, I get the same beans in select roast methods of light, medium and dark. I usually mix even amounts of the light and medium beans with a bit less of the dark beans. As for my bean grinder, I have a Porlex Mini II (on setting 5, 6 or 7). For brewing, I happen to use an Aeropress and do this weird, upsidedown brew method that's best suited for an espresso like brew.
Hopefully your next brew comes out great!
@@NippleSauce sounds interesting to try this kind of mix, although as I'm drinking smaller doses of coffee a day, if I buy more than one bag, I'll end up with old coffee.
So seems like blending my own coffee is somewhat unachievable unless I find a roaster whom can get me quarter a pound or less a bag.
@@rbmanb I only have one cup of coffee per day. So doing what I do should be achievable so long as you can buy roasted beans from your source in smaller quantities. If you buy whole beans, they'll stay good for more than 12 months. So no worries about old beans here! It's another awesome thing about coffee.
I like it that your page is all about coffee ⭐️✨
Thank you ! I learn a lot ! 🧡
I found dark roasts are too ashy and too bitter for espresso. Medium worked much better for me so far.
How do you make your medium roast espresso? I'm struggling to dial in. I had some taste of chocolatey-ish, but now it's just acid. I'm already pulling really fine. Sometimes a pull is even 35-40 seconds. I'm using a double filter with 14 grams. Maybe I should go less fine and go to 16 grams?
check what temperature you have, and also, see how much volume liquid you are getting out in ml vs the grams you are extracting. When you are in a 1 to 2 ratio, and that is working at about 25 seconds. If not happy, then perhaps temperature setting may need to be adjusted. Lighter roast will like hotter water, in general. @@highmastdon
The best coffee that I have tasted was dark and shiny just like yours! A week ago I was talking to a professional at a coffee rosters company. He said that they aim to roast their coffee in a way that it comes out dry and not silky/shiny. He added that shiny coffee is a sign of “over-roasting” so the fat inside the bean carrying most of the flavor evaporates as it is having direct contact to the air surrounding the bean. Is that true?
Now I wonder what is right for me and what difference does it make? Again the coffee (cappuccino with cow milk) that I liked the most was dark and shiny 🤷🏻♂️
Thank you so much. I have had a long love story with coffee but I somehow missed the 3rd wave. I got back to espresso 2 months ago but I hadn't be able to brew one the way I used to enjoye, which is, now I realize, classic. How could I forgot Robusta ?!
What about the importance of freshness in these dark, robust containing espresso roasts? Is it still important to have them fresh roasted, or am I not going to loose much when using a 3 months old bag?
I buy the Starbucks french roast beans at Costco. I use them in a reusable k-cup. I have been thinking about an espresso machine for americano's. Do you think the mentioned beans would favor well through espresso?
Great video! I learnt so much in less than 10 minutes! Can't thank you enough
what i like about the old italian espresso , is that the espresso is for the common working man looking for a fast pick me up
I wonder if an espresso brew is possible without using any special high-pressure equipment. I tried using Aeropress to brew with increased pressure but this just squirts much of the liquid out through the filter basket and makes a mess, spilling too much of the liquid onto the table-top.
My taste generally leans towards city+ so medium roast with a few oily patches on the beans. I’ve been roasting my own lately and when they hit that range they taste great. Dark roasts are good with milk drinks to offset that burnt taste and light roasts are better neat to pull out the flavors.
I hear dark roast brings out more oils which gum up your grinder.
You mean light roast would be good for black coffee and dark roast would be good for milk coffee?
I personally prefer mid-roasted specialty beans on their own and as blends and single origins. I’ve been enjoying them for a long time. While I’m not a fan of Illy due to its aftertaste, I do appreciate specialty coffee blends and single origins as espresso, especially in a single shot latte. I find that a single shot allows me to taste the subtle, interesting flavors more easily compared to a double shot, unless it’s in a larger cup with double the milk. For me, a double shot tends to drown out all the nuanced flavors with just the coffee taste.
Thank you for the imparted wisdom! I just ordered (but have not yet received) as espresso machine with flow control, mainly with the hopes of being able to dial in the lighter roasts. Do you have experience with this? My understanding is that light roasts become truly viable with the proper extraction method. Interested to try. . .
What ratio of Brazil beans to Columbian beans? I want to experiment with an espresso blend. I roast my own.
This is a wonderful video by the way! I really appreciate all the info that you put so well and articulately. Thank you!
Thanks for the video. I like this paradox of espresso that treading high end coffee may not apply.. Due to the amplicarion of the extraction.
Totally agree with this video. Been trying (a lot) to enjoy light roast with my Robot, but personally prefer a dark medium roast much more and then save the light roasts for the v60. Best results I can get from lighter roasts is with preheating piston, basket and portafilter, grinding fine, 14g dose, long preinfusion and then damaging my hands with 9 bars. Still too sour for me though. Might try sugar next!
Do you think it's a torture doing light roasts with a manual espresso machine?
@@sriwahyanibudianingsih1534 Not sure about torture! but frustrating and unsatisfying. I've currently given up with it. Even medium medium roasts are tricky. I would rather just enjoy a more traditional espresso roast on the darker side of medium (at around 6 bars). Nice textured, sweet chocolatey espresso. The internet says light roasts can be good with an electric machine with a PID, small doses and finer grinds but I have no personal experience of it. It so easy to enjoy light roasts with a £8 v60 so there is no need to miss out. I get the feeling light roast espressos is kind of like riding around a mountain bike trail on a cyclocross bike - certainly possible, just not very pleasant.
I did brew my regular pour over fuitty-floral light roast kenyan bean using my friends cafelat robot, i was hoping to get some nuances with those bean.. but, it ended up very2 citrussy, astringent, and even greenish 😂
Haha, I know that situation! 😅 It takes a lot of patience to dial in roasts like that and often isn't really worth the effort and price of the beans
interesting experience...i am learning a lot
Kenyan beans are known to be pretty acidic...
can you do a video on your top favorite espresso coffee beans?
Maybe in the future :)
great video. I like the delta espresso beans myself. best I tried is their delta diamond beans for my espressos.
I’ve always avoided dark roasts, blends and robusta. I was lead to believe high altitude single origins are best and I hated the robusta in James Hoffmann’s worlds largest coffee tasting but I gave it a try after watching this video and am honestly blown away!
The Italian Job blend number 2 from Rave is my new favourite and so cheap! It’s like drinking melted chocolate but without the sickly feeling.
Still loving the Ethiopian beans for morning v60’s though.
That's great to hear! I have had amazing coffee from Rave in the past.
There is a problem with the sound in this video.
i think light roast can be brewed right only with machines that we can adjust the pressure, coarser grind than for medium/dark roast, around 5-7 bars of pressure so we can get a slow flow, then i think it would be balanced. so far with my home espresso machine i can only brew very sour light roast hahaha
pressure is the key we are able to pull sweet and syrupy shots at under 3 bars and 20%+ extraction but when with standard 7 - 9 bars yes you will get super astringent coffee
Anything is better than starbucks. Great vid man
very interesting..love your explanation about espresso beans
Thanks Nindy!
I can understand the appeal of the challenge of dialling in a light roast bean for espresso, but it’s just too much effort for me- especially for an African bean.
I would always choose a South or Central American medium roast bean, sometimes washed, sometimes natural. For Christmas/winter time maybe an Indonesian bean. Never an African. I always go for single origin because I like to know exactly where my coffee has come from and I enjoy the differences between them.
That’s how I personally like it, but each to their own... just got to find what you like 👍🏼
Care to share more about your experience with different kinds of beans and espresso?
I like costa rican honey processed for pour over, I wonder if it would benefit as much as an espresso.
@@rbmanb I think that would make beautiful espresso! Honey and other naturals are my favourite at the moment... but as always what I like might not be what other people like.
I enjoy exploring the different flavours that single origin beans offer, even beans from the same country or region can taste really different. So I would say just experiment with different beans and if your technique is consistent and repeatable you’ll have a good time I’m sure 👍🏼
Great information
So good coffee! Amazing!
Being served an light roast Ethiopian espresso once, that tasted horribly bad in the sense it makes me feeling like drinking a cup of 60ml lemon juice. I can't appreciate the flowery or citrus note at all when the coffee is highly concentrated.
Does a coffee bean size make a difference?
Sometimes I buy coffee beans from some place and they're small and some of the places I buy it from they are big.
If it's from the same farm and coffee variety, bigger is usually seen as more premium. But from one brand or roaster to another, there's no correlation between size and quality.
Peaberry packs a lot of flavor. They are smaller and a GREAT medium roast bean for pour over and espresso.
💚You had me hello. Great info.
Is it true that the Flair can't handle light roasts? I just talked to someone that told me he's with his Flair for 2 years and still couldn't get his light roasts right, always sour.
Flair can handle light roasts, but preheating the brew chamber is very important
@@coffeechronicler do you have any interesting tips on pre heating that other people might have missed?
Great video Asser!
Of course I am going to ask about the Flair and medium-light roasts (say 15% to 20% DTR) of specialty coffee: Don’t you think that with a manual espresso machine like the Flair you can get really good results with high temp, long pre-infusion, and 5-7 bars of pressure? Waste of time? 😆
Would you still advise not to invest on specialty coffee for espresso?
Haha, good question. Yes, I do think the Flair can do those well. I'm not really advising against specialty coffee for espresso (which is anything above 80 points) but just saying that those attributes you pay for in a 85-90 point lot are harder to appreciate when concentrated down to espresso. So the best ROI might be found in a medium roast 83 point coffee.
@@coffeechronicler helpful! thanks for the reply Asser!
Try Blackpool Coffee from Ceylon
Hi Asser. Lil question:
I roast 12 different single origins from Columbia, Ethiopia to Brazil.
Trying different roast levels but never achieve the dark, tiger striped crema on top of my espresso shots. Its color is very often too light, the mouth is great, all flavors I am after are there, but no crema. If I try illy, jolly or any other italian espresso beans (100% arabica announced!) They are giving that espresso taste with a great colorization & almost olive oil consistency! Sometimes getting the feeling if those beans are prepared with externals as colorization, co2 addition and what not... how is it possible even that silly 7-8 gramms nespresso give triple more crema and darker colors than my single origins?
Any tips would be great. Have a good one.🤙
Robusta is the obvious answer to additional crema. It's very potent. But if they claim it's 100% arabica, I can only attribute it to roast style, freshness and bean selection. Also, washed coffees produce less crema compared to honey/naturals, so maybe they use a lot of brazil/indonesian for their blends?
@@coffeechronicler thanks man very helpful!
What are your thoughts about Cubita coffee beans?
Don't know anything about them to be honest 😄
@@coffeechronicler It's a Cuban espresso, we like it but cant buy it in the US. We have had it is Aruba and St. Maarten on travel.
Can you make exspresso with regular coffee beans?
Yes. It's all about how fine it's grinded and the way you brew it.
@@simonmonty7171 so what you are saying is they are the thing essentially or rather coffee beans are coffee beans and espresso beans is coffee beans as well, yes? Espresso is or comes from just coffee beans but brewed different so it's not coffee anymore from coffee beans its espresso from coffee beans? So people label coffee beans as exspresso beans 🤔 sometimes which in turn makes them espresso beans. Now im wondering if just hypothetically it was so good the supple ran out of espresso beans so now can i take coffee beans and brew them in the espresso appliance and serve it up as espresso or with steamed milk, will it be or you just cant do it and they're not the same thing from before the brewing processes they might be not the same type of bean. Like needing to have espresso beans to make a latte is a step in the process that has to for certain you can't make that younknimow what yo nvm yo im out this car ya dig if iwas driving my bad yo tuck n roll
@@jawnjawnUP depends, if you serve it with milk, probably best with dark roast beans but an espresso made with medium dark roast is usually best. What is labelled as espresso usually is really really dark roast but sometimes too dark to really enjoy the coffee complexity.
I have a super automatic machine. I can’t use oily beans in my machine.
The good thing about coffee: every one can drink to their own taste. I roast my own beans, most of them Columbian, Ethiopian, Kenian or Central African. In my taste dark roasted coffee loses most of the complexity, most of the pleasant fruitiness, a lot of the sweetness and if going into 2nd crack all interesting acidity. I marvel in exactly these characteristics of coffee, that is why I prefer single origin medium to medium-light roasted beans for both pour over as well as espresso. Robusta tastes in my perception not interesting, rather earthy and very bitter. And crema in my opintion is not a value to strive for - in the end it is foamed oils with CO2 in it. But again: if anybody prefers dark roast I am absolutely fine with it. Roast or buy espresso to your taste (going back to my current Columbian Pink Bourbon Carbonic Macerated medium roast).
hey im very new to espresso I was wondering when you roast espresso should you cook it to second crack and if so for how long after second crack. also what flavor profiles are good for espresso keeping in mind lattes
There are no hard rules - some roasters will go to the second crack and others will go really light. It all depends on preference. If you're going to use it with milk drinks, I'd suggest dropping the batch just when second crack begins.
Dude, I am in the Dominican Republic I go to a Local coffee bas and they have 3 4 different origins from the DR. I try the Barahona region too much acidity for me and I hate it. Jarabacoa is better but no crema comes out. I love my crema. Got an inexpensive espresso machine with non pressurized porter. Got a very bad grinder. Considering buying Baratza 270 before i even consider to buy a new espresso machine. So what i understood coffee beans dark roast and robusto for crema.
You sound from Germany, thank you. Please get back to me.
Robusta usually gives more crema than arabica. But most fresh beans will give a nice crema.
About the beans, the acidity level is probably due to the roast being on the lighter side.
Thanks for the enlightment.
Do you think blend before roasting is better compare to blend after roasting?
I usually like to blend my left over bean and they create something quite special
I think blending after roasting is better. But if you have two beans with the same density and size, maybe you can get away with it.
@@coffeechronicler do they have to be the same roast level? can i mix medium roast bean with medium dark or dark bean? will it be a challenge for consumer to extract?
The paradox analogy really hit home. I learned something new. Thank you.
That's great to hear, thanks!
What do you think about the geishas used for espresso at WBC? I assume they're fairly lightly roasted
Well, it's a bit like in chef competitions where they make burgers with kobe meat and truffles :) I'm sure they taste good, but don't really think it has much of a place outside that setting.
@@coffeechronicler I've had geshas that just aren't worth the price. But I also had a gesha from Royal Dutch that was amazing - one of the best espressos I've ever pulled on my home set up. Floral, sweet. Gorgeous.
I hate dark roast there's no flavor .
I don't like blend for espresso maybe for milk drink. i prefer single origin Ethiopian beans and Panama katwi varietie medium roast . These beans are great for espresso.
Dark roasts can have very good flavor. The best dark roasts have very distinct dark chocolate, spices, and depending on the source of the blend, dried fruit and wine flavors as well. Traditional Italian blends are great if you are looking for a caramel and nutty and chocolate espresso.
I just got into coffee and I noticed a couple of my local grocery stores have an expiration date from a month to two months. However I want the best shot! Help?
Hi Michael, it would be better if you're able to find the roast date and get beans within 1 month. Expiration date can be anything from three months to two years after roast date, so the beans could be very stale.
boutique.cafebarista.ca/products/cremone?lang=en&variant=18033418797121
Buy this and thank me later!!!
Beautiful!
Thank you for this video Asser. It seems like we have converging tastes with regards to what beans to use with what brewing method. For pourover/French press etc. I have a preference for medium roasts. Lighter roasts tend to contain flavour notes that I simply do not enjoy in a coffee context - I’m talking about overly fruity and citrusy flavour profiles..
Although I have a distaste for dark roasts (French roasts) in pourover, I feel that with espresso, this is really where dark roasts come into their own. And I have a particular fondness for Neapolitan roasts. No third wave espresso has ever come close, in my opinion, to deliver the level of gustatory je-ne-sais-quoi as Neapolitan blends. And this is a school of roasting where choice blends makes for more interesting results than single origins. My favourite blends tend to be a mix of about 80% Arabica to about 20% Robusta, give or take a bit. The complexity of a blend of this caliber I tent to find more interesting than straight Arabicas. And as for flavor notes, instead of coffees that are heavy with fruits and acid, here we are talking, hazelnut, chocolate, bourbon, tobacco. And the «grey ashy flavour» that many people with a distaste for dark roasts tend to point out (and which I myself recognize in many a French roast coffee used in pourovers) is non existent here, if properly extracted (And being the proud owner of a single group Neapolitan lever machine, I think I am able to come as close as possible into making my own kitchen into a bar in Naples 😎
So - do I have any favourite roasters and coffees? Personally, though I am always eager to try new brands, I tend to return to Passalacqua (Miscela Napoli, Mexico Plus, and Cremador are blends I gravitate towards). And here were are at the core paradox of traditional Italian vs. third wave coffee culture. Passalacqua (as well as many other Italian roasters) having been in business since 1948, provide no information on the bags about which coffees go into the blends (aside from Ara/Rob percentage ratios), nor farms, or roast date (even though roast month can be backwards deduced through the use-before date). Yet their coffees taste superior to any third wave coffee brewed as espresso I’ve ever tasted.
On that note, may I also add that I have yet to taste any coffee advertised as Southern Italian Style, made by roasters outside Italy, to be of equally excellent taste as ones coming from the Campanian heartland themselves.
Other coffees I have cherished are i.e. Toraldo Arancini, Salimbene Superbar, Kimbo Espresso Neapolitano.
Anyway, keep up the good work, Asser! Love your channel! Hilsen fra Norge! 🇩🇰🇳🇴
Single origin coffee beans is expensive that's like saying single origin wine is expensive.. wine isn't grape juice
Great information, thanks a lot !
I think you are oversimplifying. There are a lot of lighter espresso roasts that taste good. There are also a lot of single origin espressos where you can taste the origin characteristics. And in the end, it's all up to taste anyway. Given how many people consume Monster energy, there seems to be a market for battery acid drinks. And I mean that quite unironically - there is a place for unbalanced drinks. On the other hand, I personally don't enjoy dark roasts. But if there are people that do, why not. There are things I personally dislike in my brews too. I dislike bitterness. My girlfriend dislikes acidity. And that's totally okay. Also for espresso.
I'm probably a bit black and white here, but generally I don't believe in omni roasting. And I think most home users will never be able to dial in those really light beans.
It’s simplified for the a general understanding. Which he’s right about. Obviously you’re going to have instances where things change but in general, I’d say he’s spot on. High acid milk drinks taste like piss. But if you like that flavor, of course don’t activate your gag reflex. Everyone should do what they enjoy 🙂
Thank you for this video Asser. It ended with me wanting to hear more about your experiences with blending and roasting. I've been a home roaster for many years though I would still not consider myself an expert at developing roasting profiles. 90% of my roasting is for pour-over coffee and when I do roast espresso, I usually go with the blends that my supplier (Sweet Maria's from Oakland California) creates but of course their blend is their secret so who knows how many beans they have added. Looking at the green bean sizes and colors, it looks like at least 4-5 different beans. I certainly enjoy their blend but would like to know more about blending ratios. I also wonder if you have ever heard of roasting the components separately and blending afterwards where, for example, one might roast the Brazilian to a Full City, Ethiopian to City and a Guatemalan to City+.
Hi Elbert, it's common to roast the beans separately and then mix them after. If you roast them all at once the beans would need to have a very similar size, density and processing level.
And then you also have to think about the espresso extraction - if the beans are too different in terms of development it makes even extraction difficult. For home roasters I would not recommend more than 3 different beans in a blend. I know there are some pros using 4 but IMO it's just too difficult to keep consistent :) But I should say, I'm the same as you, also mainly roasting single origin for pour over :)
Somewhere on RUclips I learned to begin your experiments with 1/3 Brazilian, 1/3 African, 1/3 Central American. Roast separately. Tinker with the ratios until you love it. I only had to buy Brazilian. I was impressed with the outcomes, especially when I increased the Brazilian a bit. I keep my 3 coffees separated so I have freedom to vary an espresso any direction I want. Sweet Maria’s green beans.
If you haven't tried it yet, give Death Wish coffee beans a try. I like to grind them ultrafine for espresso.
I don't want to die :D
@@coffeechronicler haha great reply. Just perfect 🥰😍
Pp like dank roast..... i never drink that even in my latte
Sumatra for espresso
The best is liberica and excelsa beans
So would light roasted beans work best with immersion brewing, like french press?
It can work as immersion, but most people who brew ultra light beans use pour over like Kalita Wave or V60.
Okay. You seam like you know what your talking about. I have been all over United States Philadelphia and other parts of the United States and 99% of the espresso are terrible! It doesn’t matter what fancy place I’m going to no one seems to know how to make a good espresso at these coffee shops. Can you please make a video of what machine I should get to make a good espresso at home? Please!!! I bag you! What is an average Italian in Italy using to make an espresso?
Most Italians just use a moka pot at home :) Well, a Breville Dual Boiler would be an excellent choice for a home machine.
Thank you!! I have a Moka pot. What beans do you recommend for Moka pot? What beans do you use for a Moka pot? Last request then Ill leave you alone, but I have subscribed😊
@@norajohnson2841 Thanks for the sub :) Some Lavazza beans would fit the brewing method well, for example Qualita Oro
I do agree that the Lavazza Qualita Oro is good choice for Moka pot. My only issue is that I can only find 1kg bags and they go stale quickly.
are u danish
Not surprised that you got all these hipsters pooping their skinny jeans. Yes there is a place for your “peachy, floral, pretty, delicate, blah blah blah” roasts. Not usually for espresso though.
What you say here is true of your generic milk blend espresso , or Italian style espresso. But in Australia at least it is no longer true . Top Barristers do fantastic gooey high end espresso, which has more flavour not less than the v60s we were drinking 7 years ago. For milk based coffees the trend has been towards blends of 2-3 single origin espressos that go really well with milk . These are lighter roast coffees with incredibly floral or fruity notes, usually heavy on the high altitude Ethiopian and low on the choc notes of usual basic milk coffee. A famous example is Onas raspberry candy blend, which won a world barrister championship milk blend section. It’s a 94-96 grade coffee made of 30% Ethiopia Midnight Supernatural, 30% Ethiopia Aricha White Washed, 20% Ethiopia Indigo CM 1212, 10% Ethiopia Addis Supernatural, and 10% Ethiopia Webanchi Supernatural . As a pour over its sour and not nice, but as an espresso dialled very fine , it’s mind blowing
Kimbo
Please amp up your mic
Thanks, I'll try to adjust it
I roast my own beans 95% of the time.
I hand roast, hand grind and hand pull my espresso. It's pretty much the only coffee I drink. I usually roast single origin beans to a lightish medium level, and grind for a ~30second extraction at ~8bar. Comes out pretty good, acidic but with a lot of fruit and floral characters, with the richness and mouth feel of espresso. Occasionally I'll roast a bit darker, but I prefer the lighter roast. boo ya
Care to share more about your experience, and which origins are you using? Do you ever blend?
I do the exact same thing and throw away those acidic drinks. Boo ya
@@carsiotto haha, acidity is an acquired taste. You either grow on it, or drop it. Seems like you dropped it.
@@rbmanb “iTs aN aQuiReD tAsTe” lol
Really disagree with this. Saying that light roast coffee for espresso tastes like lemon or battery acid is just untrue. You need more technique to pull a good shot of light roast, but it makes great espresso when done correctly.
Obviously there's spectrum from light to medium. What you consider light might be more of a medium to me. However, the beans I showed in the video are so light that they are difficult to brew for pour over, so espresso wouldn't be a good idea.
@@coffeechronicler of course not all beans are good for espresso, but lots of light roasts (not medium) work great for espresso.
In your opinion.
@@roberthunt1540 clearly as I’m the one saying it.
It's very true. Light roast espresso is almost always sour. It tastes million times better as a pour over.
this is more about only your personal taste and preference and not what you say in your title.U can have fantastic espresso with light roasted beans.(If you like acidity)
yes, but light roasts don't even have to have acid taste when a barista knows what to do, I've had light roasts that don't taste like acid at all, and I'm a traditional Italy Rome/Naples dark roast type person. Nor do single origins mean they have to be light roasted. Conversely, I've had medium roasts that tasted like battery acid, because the barista sucked.
Cafeto
You are so cute I could watch you talk about anything. :]
As a professional I totally agree that even a light roast can be great for espresso. But is more complicated than that. We tend to measure solubility/acidity/sweetness/body from roasts with Agtron, colorimeter. A light is from 82-84 agtron to over 100, but 2-3 points in color can define the balance in acidity. body and sweetness for espresso. So if you know you have a high acidic coffee like a Kenya and you still want the full espresso experience in a light range you roast it for 82-84 agtron, not 88 Brazil. On eye is almost impossible to define in roast that change, but on flavors is totally different. Plus you have RD (roasting development) where you can destroy more or less from acids and increase sweetness and body without passing a certain color. It's to complicated to explain in a few words, but what this guy do... more simple: take a big poop on our job. And look at those beans you present for espresso, those oils define a dead coffee (that bean literally bleed good stuffs beside coffeeine/caffeine and acidity), those black spots at the edge of beans represents tipping, I even see scorch from a high drop. I bet is baked and flat, that is not muted acidity, that is roasting defect. That dense bean represent a slow growing, the bean had more time to absorb nutrients, sweetness, amino acids in blocks as proteins, antioxidants, sucrose, vitamins B5, B2, B1, B3, potassium, magnesium, some essentials nutrients etc. It can lower the risk of Diabetes, lower the risk of liver cancer and I can write here many pages. The darker you roast, the more you destroy those, the higher the altitude, the more good stuffs. Don't stop on lemon vs chocolate, is more complex than that, much much more complex. Don't destroy something extremely healthy for a personal opinion
Hi Laiu, I don't know why you get the idea that this guy (me?) poops on your job.
The bean I use in the video to symbolize light roasts is already so light that it's extremely difficult to brew as a pour over coffee. Don't tell me you want to turn it into a shot. Even Tim Wendelboe has a different roast profile for espresso.
I know lot of people like to add some kind of ethical dimension to roasting (light is good / dark is bad) but I don't think that's really helping anybody.
Many people enjoy dark roasts. They are easier to brew as espresso and great for milk drinks. Why imply they are bad people? Do you really want regular people with a 15 bar pump machine to pull sour shots at home?
I can guarantee you that a light roasted coffee is as dead as a dark one (dead/alive is binary - there's no inbetween). None of them are alive.
It's okay if you have a special roasting philosophy that favors certain characteristics, many roasters do. But don't come here and say that it's the only way.
Lol Jesus. You went there and the cringe was high.
Can u speak louder? Thank you