dark roast

noun

plural dark roasts

: a coffee roast (see roast entry 2 sense 3) that is characterized by dark brown coffee beans with an oily texture, low acidity, high bitterness, and low caffeine content and that is produced by roasting coffee beans at temperatures typically between 440-480°F (230-250°C)

A dark roast is useful for smoothing out imperfections in beans that have little flavor or an unbalanced acidic range, because chlorogenic acid, the main acid in coffee, is destroyed at high temperatures.

—Corby Kummer

Dark roasts actually have less caffeine than their counterparts. While a cup of dark roast coffee will have the boldest flavor, it will lack the same potency.

—BostonBean Coffee Company

compare light roast, medium roast

Examples of dark roast in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Higher temperatures used for dark roasts can decrease the caffeine content.9 The Grind Water will travel through your coffee differently depending on the grind. —Lauren O'Connor, Ms, Health, 7 Oct. 2024

This lends a brighter, fruitier flavor that lets the raw ingredients shine (kind of like light roast versus dark roast roast coffee). —Megan Wahn, Bon Appétit, 19 Sep. 2024

Lighter roasts are more powerful than dark roasts because longer exposure to high temperatures during roasting could destroy polyphenols. —Rachel Murphy, Verywell Health, 9 Sep. 2024

Light roast coffee has the most anti-inflammatory properties, and dark roast coffee has the fewest.11 Consider choosing a lighter roast coffee made from beans grown in high altitudes to get the highest antioxidant content from your morning cup. —Isabel Vasquez Rd Ldn, Health, 12 Aug. 2024

The Highwire name was inspired by the idea of finding balance along a tightrope that spanned Peet’s and Starbucks-style dark roasts and lighter roasts that had become popular during that era, serving up high-quality coffee while remaining inclusive and unpretentious. —Kate Bradshaw, The Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2024

The Charged Lemonade has 390 milligrams of caffeine, close to the amount of caffeine in three Red Bulls, but previous language on Panera’s website and in-store container stickers compared it to the same caffeine as a cup of their dark roast coffee. —Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 7 May 2024

My favorite stops during my days out included ordering the chocolatey dark roast coffee from Cafe Rostro and walking just around the corner to Nata de Cristiano for their sublime eggy custard tarts. —Kristin Braswell, Travel + Leisure, 21 Apr. 2024

This premium dark roast is blended with lion’s mane mushrooms. —Bestreviews, Sun Sentinel, 10 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined above