COFFEE OPINION - In Defense Of The Dark Roast

so today I want to talk about the lowly dark roast and that's been the historical standard in coffee for decades and there's a good chance that you and me and everybody we know other than maybe the youngest generation coming up maybe in coffee now that was the first type of coffee we ever tasted but now in today's coffee scene contemporary coffee and when I say today I don't mean like today today I mean the last 10 to 15 years the dark roses found itself in a bit of a public relations Fiasco and there are a few words that really draw the ire or get a barista all up in their feelings when strung together as dark roast and just for a bit of background the first wave of coffee was coffee sold in bulk commodity coffee think hotels diners grocery stores and the like the second wave of coffee was the rise of big Brands think Starbucks peats Tim Hortons and things like that who aim to produce higher quality coffee but also implementing a basic Cafe experience and finally the third wave and that's the only wave I've known within my whole coffee career and that way of sort of transitioned its focus to transparency and only serves coffee that met a certain quality standard meaning it hit a score of at least 80 out of 100 points by a trained grader but circling back to the point the third wave was where roasts began to get lighter and the tides seemed to change on how dark roasts were perceived at least within the industry and I feel confident saying this because I was there I was one of them and as most bad habits are it was learned and when I came into the copy scene I was being fed a steady diet of dark roast bad basic from the people who were training me the people I was talking to and the Coffee Culture at large whether it be memes or just conversations with other Baristas and of course even to this day my preferences still lie with the light to medium roast and much like 53 percent of the folks who responded to my polls on Instagram I rarely drink a dark roast and this comes down to some factors that I think could and honestly should change and starting with the biggest one and probably the entire reason many of us even drink coffee and that's taste I mean why spend our hard-earned money on whether that be a cup or a bag of coffee if we don't like the taste and based on another poll that I did the vast majority of those who either rarely or never drink a dark roast is because of the taste and I can't deny that that's a huge deterrent but I think the broader issue of taste is the effect of a history and an attitude that sort of trickles down for example in the early waves of coffee roasting darker was a way to sort of mask any sort of being quality issues and also have a consistent flavor over a large quantity or maybe over a large area think how Starbucks tastes the same in the U.S as it does anywhere else in the world this approach to roasting dark was basically an Open Secret and was more or less the standard and it left a bad taste in our mouths both figuratively and literally speaking and of course it was essentially against everything that the third wave coffee was all about which I think clearly leads to 75 percent of my polar respondents to agree that specialty coffee is anti-dark roast and even further down that same path 18 of folks polled say there isn't even a place for dark roast in specialty coffee which is pretty Illuminating considering a significant portion of my audience are either industry insiders or home enthusiasts who are just interested in coffee as a hobby to me this shows that many of the people who are either coming in or coming up in specialty coffee are either being told or telling people that dark roasts are bad or low quality or inherently are ruining the flavor of the coffee as it is and all this despite a customer base that's looking for it because nearly every roaster myself included has been asked if they do a dark roast and I can't help but think that the general negative or at best neutral view of darkos within specialty circles shows there's just a lack of availability and a lack of exposure to dark roasts done well I feel like it's clear that if specialty Coffee Roasters would approach a dark roast the same way they approach a light or a medium roast the differences would be night and day so I feel like I can just flat out say a quality green bean coupled with a dialed in dark roast will produce a tasty coffee even Tim Wendell bow who's a Pioneer in light Nordic style roasting told the perfect Daily Grind that high quality material will always taste better than the lower even when roasted dark of course even if Stark roasts to get a little more love and especially seen I'm not saying that everyone should drink them or that they would be to everyone's preferences I think we should just take ourselves just a little less seriously and consider that we're maybe missing out on a whole other side of coffee not only as Baristas and Roasters but also as consumers I know that inside our specialty bubble we see what we're doing as moving the industry forward and in some cases that may be true a lot are aiming to be more sustainable engage in more direct trade with farmers and paying a fair price so where's the downside in trying to pull in those who enjoy drinking coffee in a darker roast profile and just increasing the number of people who are drinking specialty coffee coffee that's trying to at least do some good in the global market I see that as a win-win just all across the board so the tldw of this video is dark roasts aren't inherently bad they've just been neglected underrepresented and forgotten by the broader specialty coffee Community but if they were given the same care as our light or medium profiles it can still be good and also expand both our experience and the customer base but with all that said I think it's time to wrap this one up and pass the conversation on to you what are your thoughts on dark roasts and where do you land on those poles that I posted on Instagram drop your answers to those questions and any others you may have in the comments section down below and as always I'll see y'all next week thanks for watching and if you enjoyed the video don't forget to like share and subscribe hit that little bell button for notifications of new videos posted every Friday check out my Instagram at Prometheus for Content throughout the week my blog at prometheus.com and as always stay caffeinated Ponyboy

Channel: The Real Sprometheus

Views: 37,694

Keywords: Coffee, Espresso, Coffee Roasting, Dark Roast Coffee, Third Wave Coffee, Specialty Coffee, Coffee Culture, Second Wave Coffee, Starbucks, French Roast, Roasting Coffee, James Hoffmann, Morgan Drinks Coffee, Coffee Makers, Barista, Home Barista, Starbucks Reserve, Coffee Opinion, Beverage, Filter Coffee, Pour Over Coffee, Modern Coffee, Cappuccino, Flat White, Cold Brew, Eureka Libra Mignon, La Marzocco, Lelit, Breville, Gaggia, Rancilio, First Wave Coffee, Coffee History

Id: 2r6kGNtehFw

Length: 6min 8sec (368 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 24 2023