Hi all! Happy to find this community!
Just wondering if some might be willing to help with some confusion I’ve had.
I was talking to someone here (Masto actually) about the best forms of coffee, and espresso hadn’t been mentioned. So I said, how about just espresso … clearly the best form of coffee.
They responded with “I don’t like dark roasts”. And I said it sounds like you just haven’t had good espresso and that you don’t need to have use dark roasts with espresso, as it can be quite light, floral and fruity. They didn’t seem to like what I said and didn’t respond.
This person comes from Canada, and I come from Melbourne Aus. From what I know, we have different coffee culture from Canada, or at least used compared to the US. For instance, I’d never really seen espresso be tightly bound with the “dark roasts”.
Naturally, being a snob, my impression was that this person and their coffee culture don’t know what good espresso can be, but I truly don’t know what’s going on over there.
Any insights?!
EDIT: This conversation was much more polite than this … I was just trying to summarise it and the feeling I had that they didn’t quite appreciate that I thought there was more to explore in espresso than what they knew.
Otherwise … thanks to those who answered and more or less confirmed my suspicion that some think espresso must be made from dark-roasts but it’s not true and one’s understanding is probably due to what they’ve been exposed to.
From what Ive experienced, Canada is has a dark-roast culture. I’m from Canada and I never really went out for coffee (just made standard drip coffee with cheap pre-ground) so I remember my first exposure to espresso drinks. I worked shipping/receiving in a small, high-end retail store that had an espresso machine in the back. One of the ladies there used to own a coffee shop and would make me lattes occasionally. One day I was tasked with buying more beans and was specifically told dark roast. The brand they prefered had a medium-roast on a really good sale so I called them up to present the option. I was very sternly told no and when I returned to the store had the idea of a non-dark roast shot down by a couple more employees. It seemed everyone there, ex-coffee shop owner included, were all under the idea espresso was dark roast only. Medium and light roasts were too weak for espresso. Since this was my pre-snob days I just assumed they were right. We also have a very popular roaster in town that has close to a dozen dark and very dark roasts, one medium-dark, one medium, and no light roast. From my conversations with people in my pre-snob days I’d say 100% of people I’d brought it up with only purchased dark roast for at home. At one point I switched to medium-roast in a French press and whenever I had guests I was told the coffee was too weak.
Tldr; from my experience non-snob Canadians see a strong tasting dark roast as “proper” coffee. I feel like a lot of people think they’re getting more caffeine from it.
Thank you!! This makes sense!
I don’t know when it happened, but where I’m from, light-roasts for espresso definitely became a normal thing at some point. Just yesterday I was in a nearby cafe checking out the beans they sell and there were plenty of “natural” and “light-roast” beans. Though that place really do like their fruity espresso. Generally though, we’ve developed, even amongst “non-snobs” (unless we’re all snobs) an idea of coffee as not needing to be dark etc. I’d never thought about it before, but I’d say we’ve developed an almost dessert like taste for coffee?
Thanks again for the reply … just what I was hoping for!
Do you have any insight on where the culture comes from?
I know in the case of where I come from (Melb, Australia) that the common understanding is that the majority of our Italian migrants came after WWII, not before, and so we imported a coffee and espresso culture quite different from other Anglo-phonic countries that was also allowed a blank canvass to shape our coffee culture.