For the past two years, the term "Blonde Roast" or "Blonde Espresso" has been popping up everywhere. But what exactly is it? Is it just a super-smooth light roast, or is it, in fact, the lightest of the light roasts?
Light roast vs. white coffee
The first thing you need to know is that light roast and white coffee are different. While light roast coffee is fully roasted, white coffee typically comes from lightly roasted beans.
A roast with several names
While it may seem like blonde roasts appeared out of nowhere, the concept of an extra light roast has been around for a while. The original term for a brew made with beans removed from the roaster at the beginning of the first crack was cinnamon roast. This is due to the color of the resulting brew rather than specific flavor notes.
What is considered a "blonde" roast has also been called Light City, Half City, and New England Roasts. However, Starbucks popularized the term "Blonde Roast" or "Blonde Espresso" in the U.S. starting in January 2018. They market it as "light-bodied and flavorful, our easiest-drinking coffee" and "a true light roast."
What does blond toast taste like?
Roasting beans just before or just after the first crack produces coffee with a distinctive flavor. Blonde coffee has a higher acidity than darker roasts made with the same bean. The acidic flavor of blonde roasts has a taste that some consumers may perceive as lemony or bitter.
If you compare the flavor of blond coffee with darker roasts, you'll find that the latter have much stronger notes of caramelized sugar or butter. This difference in flavor is due to the fact that blond roasts don't allow enough time for the bean's acidic tones to become more sugary. The longer the coffee beans remain in the roaster, the more the heat will destroy their acidity.
Many people enjoy the flavor notes of a blond roast, which highlights the "true" flavor of the bean rather than the flavors of caramelization. Caramelization tends to make different coffees taste more similar the longer they are roasted. On the other hand, the acidity of a blond roast might put some coffee drinkers off.
The acidity, also known as "brightness," of light roasts is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, many people prefer the brighter flavor. On the other hand, coffees with high acid content can present potential health problems.
Acidity directly correlates with the darkness of the roast. Lighter roasts have much higher acidity, with Half City and potentially Blonde roasts having the highest levels. As the roast darkens, the beans lose their acidity, and darker roasts often have a pronounced bitterness.
Dark roasts, with their very mild acidity, tend to score similarly on the pH scale to milk. Furthermore, black coffee tends to be almost on the same level as bananas. On the other hand, dark roasts score among roasts with green beans and tomato juice.
What else makes blond roast coffee unique?
Blonde roast coffee beans develop a silver coffee skin, a thin outer layer resulting from roasting. This silver skin has antioxidant properties and health benefits similar to those of vitamin C. These properties diminish slightly but do not disappear completely during brewing, and the antioxidants in blonde roast coffee are more abundant than in darker roasts.
During the roasting process, light roasted beans expand and dry out less than other roasts, giving them greater density. As a result, the beans are quite hard, making them unsuitable for chocolate-covered beans. Light roasted beans are harder to grind and will wear down a coffee grinder over time.
Does light roast coffee have more caffeine?
A tablespoon of light roast coffee has more caffeine than a dark roast. However, if you compare a single light roast bean with a darker roast, the caffeine will be roughly the same. The difference depends on the number of beans per tablespoon. Remember that the more you roast a bean, the more mass or density it loses, meaning you'll get more light roast beans per tablespoon.
It's not recommended to use a roast like this for your everyday brew. On the other hand, if you're already enjoying a light roast and want to learn more, our advice is to check the color of your beans because you may find they're actually a regular light or medium roast.