We’ve put together a list of the best Medium roast coffees on the market. If you are a specialty coffee lover like us, these are the coffees for you!

Like all specialty coffee lovers, you have many options from roast type (light, medium, dark), processing method like natural or washed, and origin. We wanted to shed some light on our favorite medium-roasted coffees we drink daily.

Medium roast coffees are our personal favorite, and we tend to roast most of our coffees in the range of light to medium. We find that medium-roasted coffees are incredibly versatile and lend themselves well across brewing methods like pour-over and espresso.

Before we dive deep into our favorite medium-roasted coffees, we would love to introduce to you who we are. We are Coffee Bros., a specialty coffee roastery out of NYC founded in 2019. We pride ourselves on roasting some of the best coffees on the market and anchor our mission on what we call the four pillars of coffee: sustainability, quality, consistency, and freshness. You can read more about our company and mission here.

There are many other lists on the internet about who has the best coffee, so why listen to us? As coffee roasters, we are constantly sampling coffees for our business and trying everything on the market. We sample and cup thousands of coffees a year from our partners, and continuously do 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 and what we consider the best medium-roasted coffee on the market.

Our most versatile coffee, our Medium Roast, is perfect for many brewing methods, from pour-over to espresso.

We wanted to create a Medium Roast that blended the classic taste notes, like nutty and rich, with a sprinkling of unanticipated flavors, like red fruit and a slight winey acidity.

To do this, we combined a classic Brazilian coffee with notes of brown sugar and chocolate, with low acidity and heavy body, with a fruit-forward Ethiopian coffee. What we are left with is a coffee that starts off as your classic Medium Roast but finishes off smooth and sweet with notes of red fruit like strawberry.

Our Medium Roast is everything we were looking for that we didn’t find much of in the market. It was a coffee that was classic but fun and adventurous that could carry across any brewing method. We love this coffee as much as a pour-over as we do as an Espresso Roast, and many of our customers feel the same!

Don’t just take our word for it; read the countless reviews of customers who love brewing with this coffee!

“I don’t know how these guys do it. I order a bag of the Medium Roast almost every week and consistently good and consistently fresh. I like it more than the stuff my local coffee shops are pumping out. Thanks, Coffee Bros.!”

– Austin (Customer)

When looking for a high-quality Medium Roast Coffee, search for coffee roasters who label their coffee as a medium roast. While this seems an obvious suggestion, not every roaster lists the range of roast colors on their coffee bags or product detail page. While we understand why roasters may do this (another conversation not suited for this article), we think listing the roast color is helpful for the consumer. For example, knowing that coffee is a light or medium roast, consumers would better understand roast development and its impact on the coffee’s body and flavor profile.

Let’s take the above example one step further. If a roaster does not list roast color on their coffee bag or detail page but lists a taste note of strawberry, how would you expect the difference between light and darker roasted coffees to be? For one, a light roast coffee would signal that the notes of strawberry will be sweet, bright, and more acidic than its darker roasted counterpart. If the same coffee were roasted medium, we expect a heavier body with a more cooked berry flavor than bright and acidic strawberry. Further, light or medium-roasted coffees perform better with specific brewing methods. While you can easily understand the depth of roast of the coffee you purchased when it arrives, it is often helpful to know before you buy in case you prefer one specific brew method over another.

Brewing the perfect medium roast coffee takes time when trying to home on time, temperature, and brew ratio.

Here are some general guidelines for brewing a solid cup of coffee.

The three most important factors across any brewing method are time, temperature, and ratio (coffee to water). Without understanding each one of these pieces, you will be playing a guessing game on why your medium roast coffee is not coming out the way you want it to.

Time:

The time corresponds to the time it takes to reach your recipe’s end weight. For example, if you are brewing a 12oz (340g) pour-over, your goal should be to finish brewing in or around 3 minutes. Please note that 3 minutes is average, but it does not mean you should be shooting for 3 minutes on every brew. Testing anywhere between 2:30 – 4:00 minutes will give you vastly different results. We often brew two coffees at the extremes and then adjust to our preference.

There are a few parts of brewing a pour-over that impact your total time.

1. Grind Size: The grind size matters across all methods and will impact your coffee’s total brewing time. Finer ground coffee will brew much slower (and may choke your brewer) than one that is ground coarser. We often shoot for a medium coarse ground coffee when brewing for pour-over, but slight adjustments may be needed.
2. Pouring frequency and method: The way you pour your water into the brewing vessel makes a big difference. Stick to a planned frequency (pouring “x” grams every 15 – 30 seconds) and then your grind size if your brew comes out too slow or fast.

We often suggest pouring water into your brewer once the water is roughly 1cm above the coffee grounds. Doing this will keep an even and consistent flow, and you repeat this process until you reach your final brewing weight.

Temperature: Temperature refers to the temperature of the water leaving your kettle and into your brewing device, such as a Fellow Stagg [XF] brewer.

We suggest starting at 208 – 212F (right off boil) and then letting the water sit for about 30 seconds before you start your first pour.

Just like any brewing method, the temperature you brew your coffee can have a big impact on how the coffee tastes in the cup. If brewing a darker espresso, consider lowering the temperature below 200 - 205 to offset any bitterness. A lighter roast coffee will do well at higher temperatures.

As always, and with the above suggestions for time, make one change at a time, record what works and what doesn’t, and then move on to the next factor.

Brew Ratio or Recipe:

Finally, your brew ratio (coffee grounds to water) is another significant factor to watch out for when making a pour-over.

You will see suggestions ranging from 1:13 up to 1:18. We tend to brew on the lower side at 1:13 – 1:15 (more coffee to water), but we know that is only a preference and not written in stone.

Example of brewing ratios:

1. Start with the amount of coffee you want to drink; let’s say a 12oz cup equals 340g of water.
2. Next, pick your brew ratio; the lower the ratio, like 1:13 or 1:15, the stronger the cup of coffee will be.
3. Finally, divide 340g of water by 15, and you will get the number of grams of coffee to use for a 1:15 brewing ratio, ~23g.

While this is not a full tutorial on how to brew the perfect pour-over, we do think this is a great start!

When it comes to finding the perfect medium roasted coffee, these ten highly skilled roasters are a great place to start!

Finally, we would love to hear from you and some of your favorite medium roast coffee experiences. It doesn’t have to be a coffee you purchased but maybe a cafe where you had an outstanding pour-over or drip coffee. Do you have a favorite medium 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!