Types of Coffee Roasts: Roast Levels, Methods, and How to Choose

If you are new to roasting - or new to buying specialty coffee - the language around roast levels can be confusing. Light, medium, dark, City, Full City, French, Italian, Vienna, Cinnamon, blonde, espresso roast - some of these describe the same thing, some overlap, and some mean different things depending on who is using them.

This guide cuts through it. It explains the main types of coffee roasts, what each roast level actually tastes like, how to achieve each level when you are roasting at home, which coffees suit which levels, and the different roasting methods available. Whether you are choosing a roast level for your first batch or trying to understand why your medium roast tastes different from someone else's, this covers it. (If you are brand new to roasting, our guide on roasting coffee beans at home covers the full process from start to finish.)

What is coffee roasting?

Coffee roasting is the application of heat to green coffee beans to trigger a series of chemical reactions - principally the Maillard reaction and caramelisation - that develop the flavour, aroma, and colour you recognise as coffee. Raw green beans are dense, pale, and taste grassy. Roasting transforms them into something you would actually want to brew.

The degree to which you roast - how long, how hot, and how far through the chemical reactions you go - determines the roast level. That level is the single biggest variable you control as a roaster, and it fundamentally changes what ends up in your cup.

The main types of coffee roast levels

There are broadly four roast levels that most roasters work within: light, medium, medium-dark, and dark. Within each, you will encounter traditional names that are still used in parts of the industry. The boundaries between them are not rigid - there is no universal standard that defines exactly where light ends and medium begins - but the descriptions below reflect how these terms are used in practice.

Light roast

What it looks like: Light brown, dry surface, no visible oil.

What it tastes like: Bright acidity, floral and fruit notes, origin character at its most expressive. Sweetness can be delicate and nuanced - more white sugar than caramel. Body is lighter, sometimes tea-like.

Where it sits in the roast: At or just after first crack. The beans have expanded and undergone the initial chemical transformations, but caramelisation is still in its early stages.

Traditional names: Cinnamon roast, Light City, Half City, New England, blonde roast, Scandinavian.

How to achieve it when roasting: Drop the beans during first crack - either as crack is underway or shortly after it begins to taper. Development time at this level is measured in seconds, not minutes. The challenge is applying enough energy through the earlier phases so the bean is fully developed internally by the time you reach crack. Too little energy and the coffee will be underdeveloped rather than genuinely light.

Which coffees suit light roasting: High-quality washed East Africans (Ethiopian, Kenyan), floral Panamas, delicate Central Americans. Coffees where you want to showcase origin character and bright acidity. Also well-suited to filter brewing - V60, AeroPress, Chemex.

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Medium roast

What it looks like: Medium brown, dry surface, no visible oil.

What it tastes like: Balanced acidity and body. Caramel sweetness, chocolate notes developing, some fruit character still present but rounded rather than sharp. Medium roasts balance origin character with roast sweetness, work well as both filter and espresso, and are the most forgiving to roast consistently.

Where it sits in the roast: Past first crack, progressing through the development phase but stopping well before second crack.

Traditional names: City, City+, American roast, Breakfast roast, Regular roast.

How to achieve it when roasting: Continue the roast past first crack, managing heat to maintain a smoothly declining ROR. How far past crack depends on the coffee, the equipment, and the profile - there is no universal number. The key is sufficient development time to caramelise sugars and build body without pushing into the heavier territory of medium-dark. If you lose momentum here, the coffee can end up baked rather than medium-roasted.

Which coffees suit medium roasting: Versatile washed Colombians and Central Americans, balanced Brazilians, approachable Ethiopians. Medium roasts work well across brewing methods - espresso, filter, and immersion.

Medium-dark roast

What it looks like: Darker brown, slight sheen of oil beginning to appear on the surface.

What it tastes like: Fuller body, lower acidity, roasted nut and dark chocolate notes, gentle bitterness beginning to develop. Origin character is still present but increasingly sharing space with roast character. Some of the brighter, more delicate flavour notes have been replaced by deeper, warmer ones.

Where it sits in the roast: Approaching or just entering second crack. The sugars are heavily caramelised and the cell structure of the bean is beginning to break down further.

Traditional names: Full City, Full City+, Vienna roast.

How to achieve it when roasting: Continue past the medium window, watching for the first signs of second crack - quieter, sharper sounds than first crack. The gap between medium-dark and dark is narrow and moves fast. If you are aiming for this level, stay close and be ready to drop. Charge temperature and airflow management matter here - too much heat at this stage causes scorching and tipping.

Which coffees suit medium-dark roasting: Coffees with natural sweetness and body that benefit from deeper development - Brazilians, Sumatrans, some Colombians. Also well-suited to espresso, particularly milk-based drinks where you want sweetness and body to cut through the milk.

Dark roast

What it looks like: Deep brown to near-black, oily surface.

What it tastes like: Bold, smoky, bittersweet. Body is heavy. Origin character is largely replaced by roast character - the flavour of the roasting process itself dominates. At the extreme end, the cup tastes of carbon and ash.

Where it sits in the roast: At or beyond second crack. The bean structure is heavily carbonised, sugars are degraded, and oils have migrated to the surface.

Traditional names: French roast, Italian roast, Espresso roast (misleading - espresso is a brewing method, not a roast level), Continental, New Orleans, Spanish.

How to achieve it when roasting: Continue through second crack. The window between a rich, satisfying dark roast and a burnt, bitter one is very narrow. Heat management is critical - you need enough energy to keep the roast moving but not so much that you lose control. Ventilation and chaff management become more important as the beans release more smoke and oils.

Which coffees suit dark roasting: Lower-acid, full-bodied coffees - Brazilians, Indonesians (Sumatran, Javanese), some Indian coffees. Specialty roasters rarely take high-quality, distinctive single origins to dark roast because it eliminates the origin character you paid a premium for. Dark roasting makes more sense for blends or coffees destined for milk-heavy espresso drinks.

Coffee roast levels compared

A note on the traditional naming system

The names listed above - City, Full City, French, Italian, Vienna, and so on - come from an older era of coffee roasting and are still referenced in some corners of the industry. The problem is that they are not standardised. One roaster's "City+" is another's "medium." "Espresso roast" means nothing specific - it is a marketing term, not a defined level. "Italian" in one country might be a medium-dark; in another, it means the darkest possible roast before the beans catch fire.

In specialty coffee, most roasters have moved toward a simpler scale - light, medium, medium-dark, dark - sometimes supplemented by Agtron colour readings or internal bean temperature references for precision. If you are roasting at home, the simple scale is all you need. The traditional names are worth knowing so you can translate what other people mean, but they are not a reliable system to build your own roasting around.

The different methods of roasting coffee

Roast level describes how far you take the coffee. Roasting method describes how you apply the heat. There are three main approaches, and each has a different effect on the roast.

Drum roasting. The most common method in commercial and enthusiast home roasting. Beans tumble inside a heated rotating drum. Heat comes from a combination of conduction (contact with the hot drum surface) and convection (hot air moving through the drum). Drum roasters give you a lot of control over heat application and produce coffees with good body and sweetness. Most home roasters like the Aillio Bullet, Gene Cafe, and most commercial machines are drum-based.

Hot air (fluid bed) roasting. Beans are suspended and roasted by a stream of hot air. No contact with a hot surface - the heat is purely convective. Hot air roasters tend to produce cleaner, brighter cups with more pronounced acidity. They also roast faster than drum roasters. The Kaffelogic Nano 7 is a fluid bed design, and popcorn poppers work on the same principle.

Hybrid methods. Some machines - particularly in the commercial space - combine drum and air roasting. These are less common in home roasting but worth knowing about if you are exploring commercial equipment.

The method you use affects the flavour profile at every roast level. A medium roast from a drum roaster will taste different from a medium roast from a fluid bed, even using the same green coffee and the same end temperature. This is normal and part of what makes different roasting setups interesting to experiment with.

Choosing the right roast level for different coffees

Knowing what each level tastes like is only half the picture. The other half is knowing which level to apply to the green coffee you have bought. Here are some practical principles.

Let the coffee guide you. High-quality, distinctive single origins with complex acidity and floral or fruit character are generally best served by light to medium roasts that preserve those qualities. Pushing them dark burns off the very thing you paid for.

Match the brewing method. Filter brewing (V60, Chemex, AeroPress) tends to suit lighter roasts that showcase complexity and clarity. Espresso suits medium to medium-dark, where body and sweetness hold up under pressure extraction. Milk-based drinks benefit from medium-dark to dark roasts with enough sweetness and body to cut through the milk. (This is a guideline, not a rule - plenty of people pull excellent light-roast espresso.)

Consider your audience. If you are roasting for yourself, roast to your own preference. If you are roasting for friends, family, or customers who are not deep into specialty coffee, medium roasts are the most approachable and least polarising starting point.

Start medium and move outward. If you are unsure where to begin with a new coffee, a solid medium roast gives you a baseline. From there, try taking it lighter to see if more origin character emerges, or darker to see if body and sweetness increase. This is more productive than guessing.

Dense coffees need more energy. High-altitude, dense greens from Kenya, Rwanda, or Colombia need more heat to develop fully. If you apply a light roast profile designed for a soft Brazilian to a dense Kenyan, you may end up underdeveloped. Adjust your energy application, not just your endpoint.

Use the listing as a starting point. The information on a green coffee listing gives you practical clues about roast level. Processing method and origin are the most useful starting points. Washed East Africans with floral or citrus tasting notes tend to show their best at lighter roast levels. Brazilian naturals with chocolate and nut descriptors usually work well at medium to medium-dark. Sumatran wet-hulled lots suit darker roasting where body and earthiness are the goal. You do not need to guess - the listing is already telling you what the coffee responds to.

Wrapping up

Understanding the types of coffee roasts is one of the most useful things you can learn as a home roaster. It gives you a framework for every roasting decision - where to aim, when to stop, and how to adjust based on what you taste.

The labels matter less than the principles. Whether you call it City+ or medium, the coffee does not care. What matters is whether you applied enough energy, stopped at the right time, and matched the roast to what the coffee and the brew method need. Start with a roast level you enjoy, learn to hit it consistently, and explore from there.