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Third wave coffee roasters, like Revolution or Counter Culture, always taste distinctly sour. I can't drink those at all. I personally prefer medium to dark roa

Third wave coffee roasters, like Revolution or Counter Culture, always taste distinctly sour. I can't drink those at all. I personally prefer medium to dark roasts.. even when I'm drinking them black. I wish I could find the word that describes the lighter roast taste that I don't like (to me, it's the IPA of coffee) because I have yet to be able to walk into a coffee roaster and ask them, "Is your coffee <term of art>?" so I know not to even bother.

NoThisIsMe 1y ago
This! Whenever I mention that to me fancy light roasts taste sour, the response is almost always puzzlement, even from those who prefer dark roasts. Nice to know it's not just me.
- browningstreet 1y ago
  I don’t know how may of us there are but yes, you’re not alone.
rectang 1y ago
Your IPA analogy is apt. (I love IPAs!) As an experiment, try Starbucks Kenya. It’s one of the most aggressively citrus-y among the coffees they serve — that sharp flavor even survives the darkish Starbucks “medium” roast.
- browningstreet 1y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation. Starbucks and Peet’s and Red Bay and Equator are all good for me. When I was in Europe I didn’t have a single bad espresso. Here I dislike many of them and stick to espressos from classic roast establishments. I wish it was easier to feed my occasional espresso kick.
  - rectang 1y ago
    Just to be clear, my recommendation is more to confirm what it is that you don't like. :) Kenya might be the most IPA-ish thing Starbucks sells.
pests 1y ago
Does it taste at all like skunked beer?
kasey_junk 1y ago
Sour coffee frequently means the grind is too coarse for the bean or the coffee is not brewed long enough. Both of those are more common problems when working with lighter roasts. You might experiment with the same bean and different grind settings to see if that helps with the taste you don’t like. Though age of the beans messes with this too which is maddening. Generally speaking though lighter roasts are more fiddly to brew so get messed up more frequently.
- rectang 1y ago
  This doesn’t ring true to me. My understanding (and experience) is that coffee beans have abundant flavor components which get burnt away by the roasting process. Brewing issues like grind and proportion of beans/water are a separate class of problems. Is it not possible in your mind that someone just doesn’t like the sharp flavors which are left uncharred in light roasts?
  - chii 1y ago
    > someone just doesn’t like the sharp flavors which are left uncharred in light roasts? that is always a possibility. It why you want to have a pro brew up the best cup that is possible from those light roast beans, and test out the flavour. If you're a self taught brewer, you might find that you've made mistakes, and also mistakenly took those mistakes as the flavour of the bean, thus incorrectly dislike it.
  - kasey_junk 1y ago
    It’s certainly possible people just don’t like light roasts, but _sour_ is a specific flavor profile which frequently has a specific cause, and that cause is more likely with lighter roasts. Which is why I mentioned it.
    - jghn 1y ago
      What you say is true, but it is also possible that someone describing the flavor as "sour" isn't experienced enough to have built up the official vocabulary. You see this a lot in tasting cultures of various products, what one person means by X isn't necessarily the same as another person.
peterlada 1y ago
Ask for medium roast, not light. You might like dark roasts, especially if you drink with milk or fakemilk. There are two kind of "sourness" in coffee, one is of acidity, which is a (for some highly desirable) feature of the beans, which can be toned down with darker roasting levels. The other is astringency (tea-like) which is a sign of extraction defect and generally not liked by all. This can be controlled with grind settings.
deleted 1y ago
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randomcarbloke 1y ago
it's the terroir, I love light roasts but can't stand sour, stone-fruity coffees, try island coffees or south american (specifically colombian) for nutty, earthy, chocolatey flavours.
- browningstreet 1y ago
  Thanks!

NoThisIsMe 1y ago

This! Whenever I mention that to me fancy light roasts taste sour, the response is almost always puzzlement, even from those who prefer dark roasts. Nice to know it's not just me.

browningstreet 1y ago
I don’t know how may of us there are but yes, you’re not alone.

rectang 1y ago

Your IPA analogy is apt. (I love IPAs!) As an experiment, try Starbucks Kenya. It’s one of the most aggressively citrus-y among the coffees they serve — that sharp flavor even survives the darkish Starbucks “medium” roast.

browningstreet 1y ago
Thanks for the recommendation. Starbucks and Peet’s and Red Bay and Equator are all good for me. When I was in Europe I didn’t have a single bad espresso. Here I dislike many of them and stick to espressos from classic roast establishments. I wish it was easier to feed my occasional espresso kick.
- rectang 1y ago
  Just to be clear, my recommendation is more to confirm what it is that you don't like. :) Kenya might be the most IPA-ish thing Starbucks sells.

pests 1y ago

Does it taste at all like skunked beer?

kasey_junk 1y ago

Sour coffee frequently means the grind is too coarse for the bean or the coffee is not brewed long enough. Both of those are more common problems when working with lighter roasts. You might experiment with the same bean and different grind settings to see if that helps with the taste you don’t like. Though age of the beans messes with this too which is maddening. Generally speaking though lighter roasts are more fiddly to brew so get messed up more frequently.

rectang 1y ago
This doesn’t ring true to me. My understanding (and experience) is that coffee beans have abundant flavor components which get burnt away by the roasting process. Brewing issues like grind and proportion of beans/water are a separate class of problems. Is it not possible in your mind that someone just doesn’t like the sharp flavors which are left uncharred in light roasts?
- chii 1y ago
  > someone just doesn’t like the sharp flavors which are left uncharred in light roasts? that is always a possibility. It why you want to have a pro brew up the best cup that is possible from those light roast beans, and test out the flavour. If you're a self taught brewer, you might find that you've made mistakes, and also mistakenly took those mistakes as the flavour of the bean, thus incorrectly dislike it.
- kasey_junk 1y ago
  It’s certainly possible people just don’t like light roasts, but _sour_ is a specific flavor profile which frequently has a specific cause, and that cause is more likely with lighter roasts. Which is why I mentioned it.
  - jghn 1y ago
    What you say is true, but it is also possible that someone describing the flavor as "sour" isn't experienced enough to have built up the official vocabulary. You see this a lot in tasting cultures of various products, what one person means by X isn't necessarily the same as another person.

peterlada 1y ago

Ask for medium roast, not light. You might like dark roasts, especially if you drink with milk or fakemilk. There are two kind of "sourness" in coffee, one is of acidity, which is a (for some highly desirable) feature of the beans, which can be toned down with darker roasting levels. The other is astringency (tea-like) which is a sign of extraction defect and generally not liked by all. This can be controlled with grind settings.

deleted 1y ago

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randomcarbloke 1y ago

it's the terroir, I love light roasts but can't stand sour, stone-fruity coffees, try island coffees or south american (specifically colombian) for nutty, earthy, chocolatey flavours.

browningstreet 1y ago
Thanks!