The Great Strength Debate
We often get asked which is our strongest coffee. This is a much more difficult question to answer than you might think. When people ask this they often mean the darkness of the roast and the intensity of those flavours.
When we think of strength we think of brewing ratios (the amount of coffee to water used). Strength of flavour is a subjective thing, a strong burned flavour or a strong floral flavour, whereas the ratio of coffee to water is a true and accurate measure for brewing strength. All our roasts contain roughly the same amount of caffeine.
Our Roasting
We think a lot about our coffee, and put a lot of time and great care into developing our roasting profiles to make sure we get the most out of our beans.
We choose the finest quality beans and our goal is to roast each batch to its full potential. While we appreciate that lots of people prefer our darker, French style roast, we'd urge you to try our lighter Medium or City roasts to bring out the richness and complexity of the beans natural flavours.
Our coffees are roasted to be delicious drunk black, whichever roast you choose, but the lighter roasts really bring out the sweet, complex, fruity deliciousness.
Let’s finish with a bit of mythbusting
1. Dark roasts have more caffeine than lighter roasts.
Dark roasts can pack an intense flavour, which many people associate with a stronger taste and couple this with meaning the coffee must contain more caffeine. Equally there are people who will tell you that the lighter roasts contain more caffeine since the dark roast burns out all the 'kick'.
The truth is that the caffeine content in one bean is roughly the same however it's been roasted. The difference is caffeine content comes from the volume of coffee used when it's brewed. Light roasted beans are a little smaller as they don't expand as much during the roasting process and so if you are using a scoop to measure your brew you will get more when you use a bean which has been lightly roasted. On the other hand, darker roasts beans are a little lighter as more moisture has been extracted so if you weigh your coffee you're going to get a stronger cup.
2. Lighter roasts are milder than dark ones
When it comes to flavours, strength is not the issue, moreover character, complexity, uniqueness and personal preference are all more important things to consider.
A lighter roast is far more complex. It will have intense sweetness, fruity tanginess and a high floral aroma. It is far more representative of the country of origin of the beans and the growing conditions and methods, and the skill of the roaster to bring out those unique elements.
A darker roast is more representative of the roast profile used and the roaster's ability to create richness and flavour out of a less complex character.
