This one surprising fact about coffee will make you think differently about coffee forever!

Chances are if you’re reading this you’ve probably drank coffee once before or do religiously every morning or maybe you have a significant other who drinks it. There are many questions I get asked about coffee, from which roast has less acidity? What’s the best way to brew your coffee? What is the difference between a medium roast and a dark roast?

But, one question I get asked every time: “What roast has more caffeine? Light roast or dark roast? “ It is almost always followed up immediately with something like: “It’s light roast isn’t it! because dark roast gets all the caffeine burnt off!” or “Dark roast because there is no flavor in it anymore so it’s just caffeine!” or “Extra dark roast has the most right?! because the coffee needs to be super dark to bring out the caffeine!”

None of those mentioned above is necessarily correct. But, they’re not wrong either…at least the first half of the statements… the second half of each statement however… lol

There are two different “types” of coffee beans; Arabica and Robusto. Robusto coffee beans contain the most caffeine of these two types of coffee. Arabica contains less caffeine but it is the type that tastes better than Robusto. So chances are if your coffee tastes really good it’s probably an Arabica coffee bean. However, the same rules apply to Robusto coffee beans just as Arabica beans.

Here is where we get into the myth of light roast has more caffeine than dark roast coffee and vice versa.

Coffee beans come from around the world, typically from a region of the world known as the coffee belt.

From these regions Arabica and Robusto come from! Each origin of coffee will likely have varying amounts of caffeine in the bean due to environmental factors, growing conditions, water, elevation, and the genetic make-up of the beans.

However, these rules still apply.

Are you ready?

Light roast coffee has more caffeine than dark roast coffee when it is measured by a scoop. Yep I said it. Light roast coffee has more caffeine than a dark roast coffee… When it is measure by a scoop.

Why is this true?

Here is why.

Coffee beans contain moisture. When a coffee bean is roasted moisture is pulled out of the bean and when moisture is pulled out it expands the coffee bean. A light roast coffee bean will have been in a coffee roaster for less time than a dark roast coffee bean and will contain more moisture than a dark roast bean thus weighing more than a dark roast bean and will remain smaller than a dark roast bean.

Because a light roast coffee bean has been in a coffee roaster less time than a dark roast bean, it hasn’t expanded as much, and retains more moisture. Therefore will be smaller in size than a dark roast bean.

If you were to use a one tablespoon scoop to measure a light roast coffee and dump them onto a table and measure a dark roast coffee with the same scoop and dump them out next to the light roast. Chances are you will have more coffee beans of the light roast than dark roast. Size of the light roast is smaller allowing for more beans to fit into a scoop.

HOWEVER

Dark roast coffee has more caffeine than light roast coffee when it is measured by weight. Wait how can a dark roast have more caffeine when you just said light roast has more?

Well remember what I mentioned in the paragraph above?

“Coffee beans contain moisture. When a coffee bean is roasted moisture is pulled out of the bean and when moisture is pulled out it expands the coffee bean. A light roast coffee bean will have been in a coffee roaster for less time than a dark roast coffee bean and will contain more moisture than a dark roast bean thus weighing more than a dark roast bean and will remain smaller than a dark roast bean.”

A dark roast coffee bean contains more caffeine when measured by weight because a dark roast coffee bean weighs less than a light roast and is larger. So you wont fit nearly as much of a dark roast in the same scoop as you would a light roast.

But, because it weighs less you will need more dark roast beans to get the same dose as the one table spoon scoop of light roast. (For reference one table spoon converts to 15 grams)

If you weigh out 20 grams of a light roast coffee and 20 grams of a dark roast coffee you’ll find more dark roast coffee beans than you would of the light roast.

There you have it. Neither is right or wrong. Just depends how you measure your coffee beans.