How To Brew Better Dark Roasts

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this one!

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[maxpower]

Love how James needs to put more time into defending the concept of drinking dark roasts than drinking donuts in coffee.

[ashleyjholding]

Hi James - I'm a chemist and I do a lot of work on extraction and solubility. If I were to hypothesise, the reason this works is because you will first extract more of the low molecular weight compounds: the carboxylic acids, esters which give the bright, fruity and sweet flavours, which are "easier" to extract, because they are smaller. With more heat you will extract more of these initially. With increasing time, you will be extracting more of the bitter, high molecular weight compounds formed, and reducing the temperature here means you will slow the extraction of the more undesirable compounds.

[gwynethsoria]

Got into coffee because of James and I am constantly amazed he never runs out of coffee knowledge to share!

[humphreychiu]

I think what you call darker roast in the video is more like a medium roast for common supermarket beans. The ones labelled ‘french style’ or ‘Italian style’ are scarily shiny black beans. Those are expected to be served with dairy. Really appreciate the video, we consume a lot of coffee and a lot of the time we just have to buy from supermarket which tends to be the darker roast. I notice the boiling water bloom, it is exactly like when I bloom with just boiled water! I’ll definitely try 80C brew with my v60!

[lucasmunoz]

These intros are seriously YouTube hall of fame.

[DaveCalx]

I am often impressed by the depth of James' knowledge and how he consistently articulates the concepts in an interesting and compelling manor without sounding pompous.

[christianelbertbudiman]

I really appreciate what James done for coffee. His experiment, his eagerness, his explanation is superb, even for the type of coffee he personally said does not prefer (this time, about darker roasted coffee).

I salute you James! Hope this video really broadens the view of many people around the world.

[wizendwizard]

James: "You really wanna be using it within 2-3 weeks."

Me: *cries with my 3-month old dark roast beans*

[TrizzaW]

Thanks for sending some love to those of us that prefer the dark side! I'm one of those that *hates* acidic coffee. Less about the flavour and more because it feels very unpleasant in my stomach. The roasty, toasty flavours of dark coffee are very warm and comforting too.

[MelvinHughesatp]

James, your video inspired me to experiment with two dark roast today. First, I do not care at all for acidity or bitterness. At 70, I've had too much bad coffee in my life to want more. So I am one of those you describe as using sweetener (in my case, honey, ) to mask bitterness. So trying out your formula, 35 grams of coarser ground coffee for 500 ml of water, doing a 100 degree C bloom, followed by 80 degrees C for the remainder, I used a blend this morning. Peet's Major Dickason was indeed much less bitter and completely drinkable without anything added. But adding a little less than a teaspoon of honey made it superb for me. This afternoon, I repeated the experiment with a single-source Columbian coffee which had been problematic for me before with its higher rates of acidity. The coarser grind, 100 degree/80 degree C brewing did tame some of the acidity as well as the bitterness. For me, it was drinkable without anything but I didn't love it. Again, a bit less than a teaspoon of honey made it much more palatable for my tastes. The only two downsides for me are juggling the temperatures of the water and the fact that you end up with a much cooler cup of coffee. Even served in a pre-warmed Yeti cup, it seems (my perception is?) that the cup cools down from 80 degrees C much faster.

Will I continue? I do like the the Major Dickason and will probably do it this way occasionally. I think the acidity of the Columbian doomed it from the beginning. That said, it is much better done in this fashion for me.

[danielsoukup]

I love that you’re super into specially coffee but you want to help people enjoy what they like. You don’t try to convince people that your preferences are the correct way to brew coffee.

[BruceWalkerPhotography]

I really like dark roasts for a change and to get that special rich, chocolatey, syrupy combination of flavours and body that seems to come only with something like a dark roasted quality Brazilian bean.

But one additional technique for getting the best from dark roasts that I feel you missed mentioning here is to pour gently. After the bloom pour while starting each additional pour I use the bowl of a long handled spoon held under the kettle spout, and close to the coffee surface, to moderate the agitation of the grounds. I remove the spoon after there's enough hot water on the grounds bed. I also pour from closer to the water surface then I do for light/medium roasts.

By doing this I avoid a lot of bitterness and a kind of nasty stridency or harshness I'd get otherwise.

Thank you for all the great tips and research you do, James!

[lisakaramba]

I never considered myself as a nerd. Then I discoverd James Hoffmann's Youtube-Channel... well, here we are. <3

[PhantomPhoton]

Thank you for finally covering dark roasts! Please continue to include dark roasts in your reviews and guides!

[srikaran]

Dark roasts are criminally underrated. I've followed the exact trajectory that James described, I began my coffee journey with darker roasts since I wasn't used to the acidity. Today my daily is always a medium/light, but I always have a dark roast packet in my kitchen. I'll make a cup once in a while and the palette change ALWAYS blows my mind. Just get a good dark roast obviously lol

[matthewweaver]

I will say this, getting a good dark roast from a local roaster is completely different than getting a cheap dark roast from the supermarket. I thought I didn't like dark roast, but I got a dark roast Sumatra from a local roaster, and holy moly is it good. As I brewed it, I was met with scents of chocolate and caramel, and it had a depth that I didn't think coffee had. Zero acidity, but not really that bitter either. Because of your 'ultimate aeropress method', I went from someone who didn't like coffee to someone who can't wait to taste it in the morning in about a month.

[hikuwai]

Really appreciate this, thank you! I'm a medium/dark roast fiend, because I prefer deeper coffee flavors to acidity, but I often feel snobbed-out (is that a word? It's a word now) for it. Thanks for giving us plebes some support. :)

[lachlanhoughton]

Your production quality has just gone through the roof in the last 12 months. So glad to have been along for the ride for all of this

[yumyumhungry]

Thanks for making this, people snob over this saying dark roasts are like a well-done steak. There are some wonderful earthy chocolaty notes in something like a nice Sumatra.

[oussamasaidi]

"because i want everyone to enjoy coffee a little bit more" thank you James ^_^ how sweet of you