Best Medium Roast Coffees in 2023

Coffee which is medium roasted usually have a brown color, a fuller body than the light roasted though lesser than the dark roast and notes of nutty flavor. This type of roast is also referred to as American or the city roast.

#1 Coffee Cup News - Caribou Coffee, Medium Roast Ground Coffee - Caribou Blend 20 Ounce Bag
  • Contains one (1) 20 Ounce Bag of Caribou Coffee Caribou Blend Medium Roast Ground Coffee
  • Caribou Blend: Medium Roast with a combination of sweet, spicy, and berry notes, Caribou Blend is harmoniously balanced for a relaxing, down-to-earth cup
  • Quality Ingredients: Rainforest Alliance certified, 100% Arabica coffee, small batch roasted and hand-packed in Minneapolis
  • Brewing Methods: Our ground coffee is formulated to make drip or a pour over in your Chemex. For other brewing methods - espresso, cold brew, or French press - consider our whole bean coffee and griding at home
  • About Caribou: Coffee isn't just our business, it's our unrelenting passion. We love to roast it, brew it, smell it, and (DUH) drink it. But most of all, we love how it brings people together and inspires adventure, big and small
#2 Coffee Cup News - Dunkin' Original Blend Medium Roast Ground Coffee, 12 Ounces
  • Delicious taste and rich aroma of Folgers medium roast coffee, ready in seconds — no coffee maker required
  • Decaffeinated coffee that’s 99,7% caffeine free  lets you enjoy The Best Part of Wakin’ Up, even when you’re already awake enough
  • Folgers instant coffee crystals can be mixed with hot water or milk
  • Makes up to 120 suggested strength 6 fl oz servings per canister
  • Contains 1 - 8 Ounce Easy-Open Flip-Top Jar of Folgers Classic Decaf Instant Coffee Crystals
#3 Coffee Cup News - Tim Hortons Original Blend, Medium Roast Ground Coffee, Perfectly Balanced, Always Smooth, Made with
  • Medium Roast: Our original blend coffee is expertly roasted, delivering a perfectly balanced flavor with a smooth finish. Our signature blend has not changed in over 50 years and only three lucky people know the recipe.
  • Brew It Your Way: Use your favorite blend in your automatic coffee maker, french press, pourover, and even for cold brew.
  • Top-Quality Beans: We only use 100% Arabica beans from the most renowned regions of Central and South America that are carefully selected by our experts to consistently deliver the best blend possible.
  • Signature Flavor: Our beans are expertly roasted for the taste and aroma you know and love. We can deliver an amazing cup of coffee, no matter where or how you enjoy it.
  • Cup of Canada: Whether you like a dark roast, a classic cup of tea, or the rich flavor of french vanilla, we have a wide variety of coffee, tea, and specialty beverages that feature our signature flavors, ready for you to enjoy any time of day.
#4 Coffee Cup News - Maxwell House Original Medium Roast Ground Coffee (30.6 oz Canister)
  • MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE: One 30.6 oz canister of Maxwell House Medium Roast Original Roast Ground Coffee
  • MEDIUM ROAST COFFEE: Medium original roast coffee has a classic, smooth flavor
  • GREAT TASTE: Maxwell House Medium Roast Original Roast Ground Coffee has a consistently great taste
  • 100% COFFEE: Made with 100% pure coffee
  • CUSTOMIZE YOUR COFFEE: Great served black or with cream and sugar, or try it with Maxwell House International Cafe as creamer
#5 Coffee Cup News - Peet's Coffee, Medium Roast Ground Coffee - Big Bang 18 Ounce Bag
  • Contains one (1) 18 Ounce Bag of Peet's Big Bang Ground 100% Arabica Coffee
  • Flavor and Roast: Medium Roast. Our most loved medium roast. Smooth with a balanced richness. Some have described Alfred Peet as the “big bang” of craft coffee—the one who started it all
  • Brewing Methods: Our ground coffee is perfectly suited to make drip or a pour over in your Chemex. For other brewing methods - espresso, cold brew, or French press - consider our whole bean coffees and grinding at home
  • Sourcing With Impact: The coffee you buy can impact the welfare of the people and planet. Peet’s is actively engaged in driving positive impact in communities where our coffees are grown
  • Rich. Complex. Incomparable. Masters of our craft for over 50 years, we hand roast the very best coffees in the world.

Medium Roast Coffees

Medium roasted beans are characterized by brown and darker color than the light roasted coffee. It is also richer in flavor though not as rich as the dark roast coffee. It is actually symbolizes a flavor balance between a light and dark roast. This means it has mild floral, fruity and sweet juicy flavors with mild acidity at the same time with some hints of nutty and dark chocolate. The coffee can also have some notable oils in it.

The body and acidity of a medium roasted bean is well balanced. With roasting of the coffee beans being longer, natural coffee qualities becomes weaker while the roast properties, aromas and flavors start developing stronger.

How coffee is roasted as medium

In the event the first crack of the coffee bean is heard or witnessed, the beans expand in size while realizing CO2 and vapor pressure with a pop sound. This is the stage in which the beans start building the flavors in line with brown aromatic sugar. This is the taste of vanilla, butter and nutty.

The medium roast allows well developed flavors without destroying the coffee bean intrinsic flavors and acidity. The major outstanding characteristics of the medium roast is a fully body while retaining the coffee sweetness. It’s roasting extents slightly for loner period than the light roast.

Features of a medium roasted coffee

  • The color of such beans is more brown darker shades as compared to the light roast but not as darker as the dark roast.
  • The medium roast coffee beans are also denser but not as light roasts. They are slightly brittle and not easier to crutch using the finger.
  • The beans are smoother (relatively little) than the light roast and reflect light a bit also.
  • They do not appear much shiny on direct right.
  • They are not oily to the touch.

Flavor profile

  • The coffee is characterized by mild acid lower than that in the light roast. Acid is lost with increase in the roasting period making the darker roasts even the lowest in acidity.
  • The delicate nuance flavors are still present in the beans though not as strong as in the light roasts.
  • If brewed as fresh as possible, the beans with have an intense aroma.
  • They the beans are characterized by less bitterness; it is much than that of the light roasts.
  • Medium roast beans have fuller body which is significant than the lighter roasts. This is one of the characteristic that makes it common in the UK where coffee is mostly milk based especially to highlight the great body.
  • When the coffee is well roasted and also brewed, is basically sweet in flavor though not as prominent like in the lighter roasts.
  • The coffee tends more to the traditional flavor of coffee commonly with chocolate, caramel, nutty, fruity and pleasant flavor hints. It is richer than being complex flavored.

Some pros of the medium roast

  • The coffee roasted using this level are very common especially in the coffee Arabica specialty coffee since they are most available and also capability for use with majority of the popular methods for coffee brewing at the same time maintaining the coffee properties and flavor.
  • The rich flavor profile of the coffee sits well with most of the with most coffee choices which include the delicate flavor, lower acid which make them easier to drink plus also offer the consumer a balanced coffee flavored drink.
  • Another thing is that the medium roasted coffee will offer commercial coffee makers as well as the consumers a good variety type of coffee for milk based brewed coffees. This as attributed by the well balanced and full body. The coffee will give a sweet coffee dink even with very little milk due to the lower acid levels, and slightly lower body

Since the UK prefer the milky brewed coffee, most medium roasted coffee brands will come from the roasters based there.

Some cons of the medium roasted coffee

There is no consistency in medium roasting from one roast to the other thus quality control and storage is not well managed.

With a medium roast you will not achieve the intense strong and darker flavor. If not roasted properly, a medium roast may still ted to flat tasting and not fully developed flavors.

Some time to access the short coming of roasting degree of coffee whether medium, dark or light will depend on the drinker.

Beans to roast using this type of method

Medium and light roasted are usually preserved for the high end, rich and pleasantly flavored Arabica specialty coffee beans ad so with this degree of roasting you can always have the best.

However, some roaster may use this method for inferior coffee resulting to unpleasant tasting coffee. The low grade coffee will outline its defect more strongly when roasted using this method.

Medium roast unlike the light roast will also sit well with the denser specialty coffee beans which grow in very high altitudes and harsh conditions making them bolder and harder. This beans will require more heat to extract the flavors and some of them will give a medium roast like flavor when dark roasted and the medium roast will taste similar to light roast.

Best quality coffees for medium roasting

Indonesian coffee beans

Indonesia produces coffee beans in both quantity and quality. Most of the high quality beans come from Sumatra and also java and Sulawesi. The coffee is very deep in body and low in acidity. With a medium roast you can have these flavors fully developed and richer which are also earthy at some lever.

Brazil

Besides producing most coffee in the world, Brazil also offer a wide variety of good coffee which you would want to taste the original flavors. The common flavor aspect of the Brazilian coffee is heavy body with a peanut tone.

Kenyan Arabica coffee beans

Kenya coffee beans are grown in high altitudes and without any shading unlike most Arabica producing countries. The bean have a great flavor which you don’t want masked in dark brewing though may not full develop in the light brewing since they are denser. The flavor profile is mostly black currant, winy, fruitier, sweet and savory with some times having tomato hints. The acid is mostly citrus and got a great fuller body.

Jamaican blue mountain coffee

This is a popular certified coffee which is very rare, expensive and very good quality. Since the coffee grows in high altitudes with harsher conditions the coffee is denser and will require high temperatures to extract the flavors fully. For this reason, the coffee will favor a medium roast to light roast. Dark roast may damage some of the sweet, fruity and floral flavors if you prefer them than the dark flavors.

Ethiopian coffee beans

Yirgacheffe coffee from Ethiopia is most popular in the world not to mention that the country is the ancient home of coffee. The country coffee is mostly wild growing and organic. The coffee flavor is tea like with strong floral, fruity and wine like taste coupled with a heavy and fuller body.

Colombia, panama specialty coffee (geisha), Guatemala is also some of the countries with rich flavored coffee which you would like in your cup of coffee with a medium roast.

Peaberry coffee variety for instance the Tanzanian peaberry can also produce great coffee with medium roasting. Since peaberry bean is one coffee bean per cherry, it got rich flavor fit for two beans than the other coffees. It also roast uniformly and this easier to extract the different flavors. For this reason you can be sure to have an exceptional cup of medium roast coffee with peaberry beans and more so from good best crops.

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Last Updated: 04/02/2023