The act of roasting coffee beans transforms the chemical properties of the bean, creating its recognizable flavor. The green coffee beans expand while changing color and smell. The more heat that the bean absorbs during the roasting process, the darker the color becomes. Initially, the bean goes from green to yellow, followed by a light brown that continually gets darker.
There are four roasted coffee color categories: light, medium, full roast, and dark. Each is distinctive in taste and flavor just as much as they are in color.
The typical roast for most mass-market American gourmet ground coffee producers is the "light" roasted beans. This level contains roasting styles such as "cinnamon roast," "half-city," "New England style," and "light city." The beans typically have a dry surface, and create a higher-acidity and lighter-bodied flavor. The roasting process for light roasted beans usually doesn't extend long after the "first crack," the moment when a coffee bean initially pops after several minutes of roasting.
The next roast, medium, contains roasting styles such as "American," "regular," "brown," and "breakfast." The beans are medium-brown in color, and the flavor is typically stronger than its lightly roasted counterparts. Some say the flavor is actually sweeter, with more of a body, a better balance over the acidity-taste, and a deeper complexity. However the beans due remain similar in the feel of their surface, which remains dry. This roast is the apparent preference of United States gourmet ground coffee sellers.
The next-darkest roast style is Full roast, which includes levels such as "high," "Viennese," "Italian Espresso," "Continental," and "Full City." This level is reached once the beans begin popping for a second time, called the second crack. The surface of Full Roast beans are typically shinier than the light or medium roast level beans, as the second crack has allowed oils to rise to the surface of the bean. The less-roasted beans didn't have an oily surface because they weren't heated long enough for the oils to break through to the surface. The taste is somewhat spicy, and even contains a slightly bittersweet aftertaste.
The darkest roast style is Dark, which is simply French Roasted Coffee. Following the second crack, the beans will begin to smoke while its sugars start to carbonize. The surface of dark roast bean will be extraordinarily oily, and the taste will contain zero of the inherent flavors of the bean. Instead, the flavor will be light-bodied while smokey-sweet, since the darker the roast is, the less acidity is found in the fresh roasted coffee.
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