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10 years of drinking burnt coffee until my brother's girlfriend spilled the truth
I always thought dark roast was just stronger coffee, right? Been buying the blackest beans I could find for like a decade thinking that was real coffee. My brother's girlfriend works at a shop in Portland and watched me make a cup last month. She goes "you know you're just drinking charcoal, right?" and explained light roast actually has more caffeine and flavor. Took her advice and tried a light roast Ethiopian from a local roaster for $15 and felt like an idiot for all those years of black sludge. Anyone else get caught up thinking dark roast meant better coffee?
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bell.felix19d ago
And that same trick plays out everywhere. People think darker, louder, or more intense automatically means better, but half the time it's just covering up something mediocre.
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carter.casey19d ago
The real trap is that dark roast was originally for covering up bad beans, so people got used to that burnt flavor and started calling it "bold" or "strong" when it was really just damaged coffee. Light roast actually lets you taste the actual bean, like how Ethiopian stuff has those blueberry or floral notes that straight up disappear when you roast it dark. You basically spent a decade drinking the coffee equivalent of overcooked steak and calling it a preference.
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Try starting with a medium roast next. It's a good middle ground that still has flavor but isn't as acidic as light roast can sometimes be.
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