Light Roast vs. Dark Roast Coffee: Differences in Strength, Caffeine Content, and Flavor
The darkness of a roast greatly affects its flavor profile. I'm going to tell you a bit of the why and hopefully teach you some things you didn't know.
The Different Roasts
Coffee starts out as a bean that is pale green in color. As it is exposed to heat, it becomes darker and darker. The terms light roast, city roast, half city, and cinnamon roast are all synonymous with light roasted coffee. This is coffee that has been roasted for the least amount of time. Medium, American, and breakfast roasts are all medium roasted coffee. Dark roast seems to have the most aliases with names such as full city, European, French, Italian, Espresso (typically), and Continental.
These names can be confusing because they are not always labeled as such. Some roasters choose other terminology for their roasts and do not specify the actual degree to which the coffee was roasted.