Coffee is delicious. And it’s got quite a nice kick to it.
The flavour and buzz inducing caffeine within each cup of coffee is an unbeatable combo.
For a third wave speciality coffee roaster, it’s all about extracting the best flavours out of every coffee bean. But customers often want to know, how much caffeine is inside my cup of coffee? For starters, robusta beans, which are cheaper to grow and less flavourful have more caffeine than an Arabica bean.
The Art and Science of Coffee Roasting
The Coffee Bean’s Journey from Grassy to Classy
Coffee roasting is a science. The roasting process takes into account heat, air, climate and a whole lot of chemistry. And like any good science experiment, a bit of creativity and instinct goes into every batch of coffee that is roasted.
The roasting process does have an effect on the caffeine levels within every cup of coffee, but it’s not what you may think.
A coffee bean starts out as a seed that blooms into a fruit. This fruit is then processed so that only the green bean remains. This green coffee has a neutral grassy flavour. But like any good coffee roaster will tell you – that’s just a façade! The real flavour of the coffee, already inside the bean, is released through the coffee roasting process.
How Does Roasting Effect Caffeine Content in Coffee?
This is where it gets tricky.
There was a misbelief and prevalent rumour that lighter coffee roasts contain greater caffeine because they are exposed to the heat less. This is simply not true. Caffeine content within a coffee bean does not undergo much change until it reaches a charcoal like state.
When measuring by cup and volume, there is more caffeine in a darker roasted coffee than lighter coffee. But this has less to do with the roast level and more to do with density!
A dark roasted coffee bean is less dense than a light roasted one – thus yielding a greater concentration of caffeine for when it is made. This point is illustrated in great detail in a 2019 study entitled Correlation Between Caffeine and Roast Levels.
Coffee is a beverage is meant to be enjoyed for its rich characteristics, breathtaking aroma and engaging body. But if you are caffeine conscious, now you know which types of coffee have the higher amount of caffeine!
