Coffee Myths: Which roast has the most caffeine?

One of the biggest things I have noticed after being a barista for some time now is the amount of myths constantly circling and spreading around the coffee community. These myths are often changing, spreading, and are usually never cleared up or corrected either due to a lack of wanting to learn on the barista and/or the customers part, or because correcting myths does not go hand-in-hand with a positive service in the eyes of most, or it can at least be tricky to do so while keeping ones ego at bay. Let’s face it, no one wants to be corrected or judged while getting their morning cup of joe; it can be embarrassing, seem as unprofessional or hostile, and can leave a bad taste in a customer’s mouth. My goal with these first few blog posts is to clear up some of these myths, offer some positive insight, and hopefully motivate more coffee lovers to educate themselves and find a deeper interest in coffee culture.

Why your light roast doesn’t have more caffeine:

One of the most frequent questions I get asked when at work is: “What roast has more caffeine?” or “Give me a light roast, I hear it has more caffeine.” We even hear the opposite with people swearing to only drink dark roasts because of a higher caffeine content. So, which is it? What is your best option at maximizing the amount of caffeine you get from your daily brew? Many people assume caffeine is burned off in the process of roasting coffee. However, the amount of caffeine in the beans remains fairly stable during the roasting process and any variance in caffeine content from the roasting process is marginal. What DOES change drastically during roasting is mass and volume of coffee. Coffee loses around 30 percent of its mass and expands greatly in volume when roasted. This means a darker roasted coffee will weigh less and take up more volume, which is why you might find a bag of dark roasted coffee to be much fuller than a lightly roasted one.

Volumetric Vs. Weight measurements

Above you can see the difference in volume when looking at light and dark roasts

So, does this change in density and volume affect your caffeine intake? The answer is yes.. but it depends. If you measure your coffee by scoops or a volumetric measurement, you will get more caffeine out of a light roast because the beans are more dense. However, if you weigh your coffee, (this is what the vast majority of coffee shops do), you will find more caffeine in a dark roast because there is less mass.

My last point, which will negate this entire blog post, is that this difference in caffeine is extremely marginal and near impossible to notice a difference. If you’re trying to maximize the amount of caffeine you get out of your brew, I recommend choosing whatever you like drinking the most or throwing an extra shot in your drink. Thank you for taking the time to read this article, we hope you enjoyed it, and if you didn’t enjoy it we hope you at least learned something. The next post will address more myths that we’d like to clear up.