Which Has More Caffeine, Light Roast Or Dark Roast?

Many coffee drinkers drink coffee for the caffeine content, which makes it worthwhile to understand which type of coffee has the most caffeine. After all, does the stronger, smokier flavor of dark roast coffee indicate that it has more caffeine than light roast coffee? This question has two separate answers; the first answer is, "Actually, light roast coffee has more caffeine than dark roast"; the second answer, on the other hand is, "But at the same time, it's complicated."

It is extremely beneficial to understand how coffee becomes "dark" or "light" roast before ever trying to understand which has more caffeine. Many people incorrectly assume that a bean is "light" or "dark" based on the bean itself. The truth is, the beans used in light roast coffee and dark roast coffee are usually the same exact beans, and the difference comes from the roasting process.

The coffee bean expands and loses both water and caffeine when it is roasted in preparation for brewing. This means three distinct things: 1) The longer a bean is roasted, the more caffeine it loses; 2) The longer a bean is roasted, the more water it loses; 3) The longer a bean is roasted, the more it expands, and the larger it becomes!

Most coffee houses will make your coffee by measuring the beans for your coffee with a scoop. When you order dark roast coffee, each bean scooped up for your coffee will have less caffeine than light roast beans have, and each bean being scooped up will be a bit larger than light roast beans are. This means that a scoop of light roast beans not only has a few more beans than a scoop of dark roast beans, but also, each bean has more caffeine in it. In other words, light roast coffee has more caffeine than dark roast coffee in any place where the beans are measured by volume instead of by weight, which is the case in just about any coffee shop.

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