Alright. This is a coffee argument as old as time. Probably 100 years more realistically.
What roast has more caffeine? Light roast? Dark Roast? Medium Roast?
Well, we're going to do a deep dive on this subject.
First off, we need to know what kind of coffee we got. Arabica or Robusta?
The reason this is important is because Arabica coffee is known for its flavor and Robusta is known for its caffeine content.
For the purposes of this write up we're using Arabica coffee and it's also all we use at Viking Coffee.
Say you've purchased a light roast coffee.
Does it have more than the dark roast coffee you've got on the counter?
Well, it's as simple as this... What are you measuring the beans with?
By weight or by scoop?
With a scoop, the light roast beans will have slightly more caffeine than your dark roast. Not by much. But it will have more!
If you're measuring by weight, however, dark roast is your bet for more caffeine content. Again, not by much. But it does have more!
You can just take my word for it and tell all of your friends that they're wrong but we should probably back up our claim with some logic.
Why is it one or the other?
Well both bags of coffee you have, with both being the same size, and amount of coffee in them...
Both roasts have the same amount of caffeine in them.
But how you measure your morning coffee dose matters.
Roasting coffee essentially is pulling moisture out of the coffee bean and turning them to carbon in a very short explanation.
Light roasts typically spend 9 to 10 minutes in the roaster.
Dark roasts typically spend 11 to 12 minutes in the roaster.
This varies origin to origin but this is pretty consistent with all coffee's.
When coffee is roasted, it expands.
Light roasts and dark roasts alike.
However, the difference is that dark roast beans are bigger and weigh less.
Light roast beans are smaller and weigh more.
So by scoop (Volume) light roast coffee will give you more caffeine because there are more beans compared to measuring a dark roast by volume.
By weight, dark roast will give you more caffeine because they weigh less, you need more beans to get the same dose as light roast.
At the end of the day the difference is negligible. The weight difference is that of 1 or 2 grams sometimes and the difference in caffeine is very small.
In short. If more caffeine is what you're after use more coffee beans for your morning coffee.