QUESTION: I recently drank some blonde roast coffee for the first time because they were out of dark roast and I didn’t want to wait for them to brew more. To my great surprise, I felt much more stimulated after them than after having the dark roasted Italian coffee I usually drink. Hence my question: Is blonde roast stronger coffee? – Ezra G
DARREN OLIVER AT CLEARLY COFFEE REPLIES: An experience of this type is not at all uncommon! Many people are surprised by the boost that light-roasted coffee gives them. Why? In my opinion, this is mainly due to the lack of a strict definition of what exactly “strong” coffee is. But before we talk about that, let’s briefly explain what a blonde roast is.
It is a well-known fact that coffee has different roast levels – from light to dark. However, the various degrees of roasting have their specific names. Thus, you may come across Italian roast, French roast, Nordic roast, omni-roast, and many others! Blonde roast is a term popularized by Starbucks, which named one of its coffee blends this way. These are lightly roasted beans with higher acidity and less intensity. Why is it commonly considered a “weak” coffee?
That’s because “strong” is often used to describe coffee that is intense in flavor, meaning dark-roasted coffee. Many people instinctively associate the intensity of flavor with high caffeine content – and that is simply a myth! There may even be a placebo effect that makes people feel more stimulated when drinking espresso coffee, even though it contains just as much caffeine as, say, a much milder-tasting latte.
Many factors affect the caffeine content of coffee – the degree of roasting is undoubtedly one of them (which we will get to later in the article). However, the most important is the contact between coffee and water, where caffeine is secreted. The longer it is, the more of it there is. That’s why a mild-tasting cold brew is “stronger” than a “strong” espresso – although few would make this statement when judging caffeine content by taste alone.
I mentioned that the degree of roasting coffee beans is not irrelevant when it comes to caffeine content. While it doesn’t matter as much as the coffee’s contact with water, it’s still an important factor. So it’s time for a little surprise: blonde roast is stronger than dark-roasted coffee. Well… in some cases.
Caffeine is a stable chemical compound, and its levels are subject to only minor changes during the roasting process. However, the level of moisture inside the bean changes with the process. Longer roasting means lower moisture levels, making the bean less “dense” and bigger. It doesn’t make a difference if we weigh the beans before brewing, it does, however, if we measure our coffee by volume. One tablespoon of light roast coffee will be heavier than one tablespoon of dark roast coffee – so if you measure your coffee by volume, the blonde roast would be “stronger” and should give you more of a “kick”.
As for flavor, on the other hand, here too the word “stronger” can be misleading – equating coffee’s “strength” with a bitter taste overlooks the fact that blonde roast can have powerful and pronounced, bold aromas and flavors. Blonde roast coffee can have strong, pleasant acidity, sweetness, and complexity.
This answer will allow you to approach coffee with an open mind and redefine the categories we use to describe it. After all, language creates our perception of reality. So the next time we reach for a strong coffee, let’s think about what it actually means.