It’s not just a few thousand kilometres of Europe that separate Sweden and Sicily, but also their differing coffee preferences. The further north a European countries is, the lighter their favourite coffee beans. Even within Italy, the deep south loves their espresso beans darker than the South Tyrolese. The roast makes all the difference.

Experts distinguish between five degrees of roast. They range from “very light” for the classic filter coffee with a fine accent of fruit acids, to “very dark” for espresso beans. This is the longest and hottest roast of all varieties, which removes most of the various acids. Instead, bittersweet notes are created. With subsequent preparation and 1 to 3 mm of thick crema: typical espresso. 

Theoretically, the same raw coffee can be roasted to produce both fruity-aromatic filter coffee, and strong, bitter espresso. However, the results will not be perfect, since each raw coffee develops best at a different degree of roast.