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Barista at a shop in Asheville told me to stop buying dark roasts and now my mornings taste totally different
So I was at this little place in Asheville last month and the barista saw me eyeing their dark roast beans. She said something like 'most people buy dark roast because they think it's stronger, but it actually just hides the flavor of bad beans.' That hit me hard because I've been buying the same oily dark roast for like 4 years and always wondered why it just tasted like burnt toast. I picked up a medium roast from a small farm in Colombia and brewed it in my $20 pour over and the difference was nuts. I could actually taste cherry and chocolate notes instead of just ash. Now I'm second guessing every bag I ever bought at the grocery store. Has anyone else had a barista change their whole bean buying habit like this?
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ryan_nelson5d ago
That bit about the barista saying dark roast "hides the flavor of bad beans" is real and it saved me a ton of money once I figured it out. I did the same thing for years, buying the darkest, oiliest bag on the shelf because I thought darker meant more caffeine. Turns out it's the opposite, dark roasting burns off some of the caffeine and just leaves you with that ashy taste. One thing to watch out for now that you're into medium roasts, check the roast date on the bag instead of the expiration date. Anything over a month old has already lost most of those cherry and chocolate notes you're tasting. Also don't sleep on light roasts for your pour over, they can be even fruitier if the beans are good. Grocery store beans are usually the problem, not you, since they sit on shelves forever.
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