What Our Roast Levels Mean

If you've spent much time buying coffee, you've probably noticed that roast levels aren't exactly standardized. One company's medium roast can look suspiciously like somebody else's dark roast, and terms like City and Full City don't necessarily help unless you already know what they mean.

So here's what we mean by them.

At Cast 26 Coffee, we roast coffee in cast iron, in small batches, and we pay attention to what each coffee is doing in the skillet as it roasts. Some coffees shine when they're kept light. Others get better with a little more heat and time. And some are just asking to be roasted dark.

Our roast levels give you a pretty good idea of what to expect in the cup.

City

This is as light as we go.

At City Roast, we're trying to preserve as much of the coffee's natural character as possible. This is where you'll find the bright fruit, citrus, floral and sweet notes that make coffees from different origins so distinctive.

City roasts tend to be lighter-bodied and livelier in the cup, and the differences from one coffee to another are often most noticeable here.

This is where we roast Skillet Blend and Namaste, along with most of our single-origin coffees.

Think: bright, aromatic, lively and distinctly coffee-driven.

If you're a light-roast drinker, start here.

Full City

This is our version of a good, solid medium roast.

We've taken the coffee far enough to develop more body and bring out deeper caramel, chocolate, nut and baking-spice flavors, while still letting the character of the coffee come through.

Runner's High and Espresso No. 2 are both roasted to Full City.

Think: balanced, smooth and slightly richer, with plenty of the coffee's original character still showing through.

If you normally reach for a medium roast, Full City is a good place to start.

Full City Plus

The "plus" is exactly what it sounds like: we take a Full City roast a little farther.

That extra development adds body and brings the deeper flavors forward. Bright fruit and acidity begin to settle into the background while chocolate, caramelized sugar, toasted nuts and spice become more prominent.

Dad's World Famous is our best example of a Full City Plus roast.

Think: rich, full-bodied, low-acid and deeply developed without being truly dark.

If you usually drink medium-dark coffee, this one's for you.

French Roast

Now we're getting dark.

Our French Roast has the deep color and bold flavor you'd expect from a dark roast, but without the harsh, burnt edge that can sometimes come along with it. The brighter characteristics of the coffee have mostly stepped aside at this point, making way for dark chocolate, caramelized sugars and deeper roasted flavors.

But it's still smooth. That's important to us. Dark coffee doesn't have to taste burnt.

Blacksmith Mokha is our classic French Roast.

Think: dark, bold, full-bodied and smooth, with deep chocolate and roasted flavors.

If you like a traditional dark roast, this is probably your sweet spot.

Dark Roast

This is as dark as we go.

Our Dark Roast is closer to an old-school Italian espresso roast: deep, intense and unapologetically dark. At this point, the roast itself is doing most of the talking.

What it isn't, though, is harsh or burnt. Even at this level, we're looking for a remarkably smooth cup—all that dark, roasty depth without the bitterness people often expect from very dark coffee.

Dark Side is, appropriately enough, our standard-bearer for Dark Roast.

Think: very dark, very bold, deeply roasted and surprisingly smooth.

If your usual instruction when buying coffee is simply, "Give me the darkest thing you've got," you've found it.

From Light to Dark

City → Full City → Full City Plus → French → Dark

Or, in more familiar terms:

Light → Medium → Medium-Dark → Dark → Very Dark

There isn't a "best" roast level. There's just the one you like.

And When You Order Online, You Get to Choose

The roast levels above are how we normally roast these coffees. They're the levels we've chosen because we think they bring out something particularly good in each bean or blend.

But they don't have to be the way you drink them.

When you order coffee through our website, you can choose your roast level. Want your favorite single-origin coffee a little darker than we normally roast it? No problem. Love Skillet but prefer a Full City roast? We'll take it a little farther. Curious what one of our darker coffees tastes like with a lighter roast? We can do that, too.

That's one of the nice things about ordering coffee directly from the people who roast it: we're roasting your coffee for you.

We'll always have our preferred roast. But you're the one drinking the coffee.

Choose the roast you like. We'll take it from there.

Enjoy the coffee.