There are thousands of coffee roasters worldwide, many producing fantastic coffees from light roasts to very dark. In this article, we look to unpack some of our favorite Light Roast Coffees on the market and share some education about this sometimes-underappreciated roast.

First, we would love to introduce ourselves. We are Coffee Bros., a specialty coffee roaster based out of NYC founded in 2019. We pride ourselves on what we deem as the four pillars of running a coffee company: sustainability, quality, consistency, and freshness. You can read more about our company and mission here.

As coffee roasters, we are constantly sampling coffees for our business and trying everything on the market. As roasters, we sample and cup thousands of coffees a year between what is sent to us from our partners and through the quality control of our own coffee. We also love to see what else is on the market and explore what amazing things other coffee companies are up to.

The list below showcases some of our personal favorites along our coffee-roasting journey and tips our cap to our roasting friends.

Say hello to the Coffee Bros. Light Roast coffee and yes, this is us!

When you first started roasting coffee back in 2019, Light Roasted coffee was not much of a focus as both Nick and I were big enthusiasts of bold and rich naturally processed coffees. While we still love our medium roasted coffees, light roasted coffee has become an important cornerstone to our coffee program for several reasons.

First, to showcase a coffees true flavor profile or "terroir" one must roast the coffee light. When purchasing award-winning coffees through auction like the Cup of Excellence, we prefer to roast those coffees light to highlight its full and true flavor potential.

We carry this same principal when sourcing and roasting for our Light Roast coffee blend. Our Light Roast is an extremely sweet and delicate blend of washed Ethiopian and Colombian coffees sourced specifially to hit on citrusy and floral notes.

“I recently purchased the light roast and this coffee is amazing! I'm not normally a person who can drink my coffee black and usually have to add a creamer to have tasteful coffee. With Coffee Bros I can drink my coffee black as the flavor is smooth and delicious with out any cream, milk, or sugar.”

– Alex L (Customer)

It is not always easy to find high-quality and great-tasting Light Roast Coffee. If you are a consumer, your best bet is to find a reliable coffee roaster that you know is sourcing sustainable and high-quality coffee. Most coffee roasters who want to showcase the true terrior (the impact of flavor due to how and where the coffee is grown) of the coffee will roast on the lighter side. As soon as a coffee pushes toward a “medium” or “dark” roast, the roaster itself starts to impart flavors into the coffee (think roasty or smoky notes).

An excellent roaster will put every coffee they purchase through the paces before offering it to their customer base, especially for Light Roasted coffees. For roasters, this often means obtaining pre-ship samples (samples of the coffee before it leaves the country of origin) and then getting samples again when it arrives in the country of import. Coffee roasters whom roast light have little room for error when purchasing and roasting their coffee. Coffee with subtle imperfections will be spotted much easier upon brewing than darker roasted coffees.

As a consumer, you don't always have the option to try before buying high-end specialty coffee. In cases like that, there are a few things you want to look out for that might indicate you are dealing with an exceptional coffee.

The best way of brewing Light Roasted Coffee is with the pour-over method. The pour-over method, such as using a v60 or Fellow’s Stagg brewer will allow you to extract the full potential of your coffee. We like the pour-over method because of how much control the barista must influence the outcome of the brew. The three most important factors of brewing the perfect cup include time, temperature, and brew ratio (water to coffee weight), which you have control over when doing a manual pour-over.

We find that pour-overs extract the most flavor from the coffee and work extremely well for Light Roasted Coffees. Let’s remember, light roasted coffees are meant to be drunk black (you can certainly add milk, but then you are missing the point of why it roasted light in the first place), which is why we prefer the control and precision of the pour-over method to extract the most flavor.

We also love Light Roasted Coffees such as espresso but know they will be very bright, acidic, and sweet. You can certainly add milk to a lightly roasted espresso drink, but the coffee will get lost in anything above a 1:1 ratio (40g espresso shot to 40g of milk).

When it comes to light-roasted coffees, these ten highly skilled roasters are a great place to start! We suggest brewing your light roast coffee as a pour-over and then expanding to other brewing methods like French press, espresso, and the AeroPress.

As mentioned earlier, start by drinking your new bag of light roast black, as the roaster intends to showcase the intricate taste notes of that coffee’s origin, and most of the flavor gets lost when milk and sugar are added.

Finally, we would love to hear from you and some of your favorite light roast coffee experiences. Do you have a favorite light roast that we don’t have listed here, shoot us an email, and we’ll give it a try and potentially add it to the list!

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