Pastry, cheese, wine, and much more are the things that France is known for. Coffee is no exception to this rule. In fact, they even originated a roast, which is now emulated all over the world. French Roast coffee beans are dark-roasted, giving them a rich and robust flavor that is perfect for espresso coffees.
So we’ve tasted 16 products and compiled a list of the 7 best French roast coffees. Our Editor’s Choice nomination was won by the Real Good Coffee Co Whole Bean Coffee French Roast. On the list, you’ll find whole bean options for taste preservations and grind-it-yourself convenience, pre-ground coffee for saving time, and even K-Cup compatible pods. There are also Kosher-certified coffees prepared in accordance with Jewish dietary law.
More features: Kosher; caffeinated; roasted fresh
The best French roast whole bean coffee in our review, this is a 2 lb fresh caffeinated French dark roast coffee pack. The coffee contains a rich taste of dark chocolate, raspberry, as well as an exotic taste of anise, a Mediterranean spice.
Made from quality Arabica type of coffee beans from South and Central America, they are grown, sourced, and also packaged responsibly. The coffee is a product of Real Good Coffee Company, a Seattle company that has been in the business for over 30 years. This is not a bitter coffee, but it has a bold and slightly sweet taste. Roasted from premium-quality whole beans, you have a full-bodied coffee drink. Not too sweet and not too bitter, even hardcore drinkers will love it. The coffee is a product of 100% Arabica kosher beans and is without preservatives, additives, or artificial ingredients.
What we liked: The whole coffee beans can be ground in any type of coffee machine – whether Aeropress, espresso makers, Moka pots, drip, or pour-over.
What could be better: These beans are not organic.
More features: roasted in New York; sealed bags
Olde Brooklyn is offering you its French Roast coffee, a pack of dark whole bean coffee that weighs 5 lbs in total. Roasted in batches in New York with blends acquired from Guatemala, Colombia, and Brazil, this dark coffee will certainly delight you with its aroma and freshness
You have a large variety to choose from. This can range from dark Italian roast, French toast, Brazilian Santos roasts, dark roasts, breakfast blends, house blends, and more. There’s always something for all types of coffee drinkers and connoisseurs. Also, there’s something for those who love sweet or strong coffee. The coffee blends are always fresh as Olde roasts the coffee every week do you can have a fresh coffee taste in your cup.
What we liked: We like the freshness and the packaging of the French coffee roast.
What could be better: The coffee could be better with a flavor finish of its own. Also, it looks a bit over-roasted. This is just an opinion anyway.
More features: full-bodied; sustainably grown; Kosher
This Coffee French Roast from SF Bay is a dark roast that is made available in two sizes options – 28 ounces and 32 ounces. The coffee beans are a blend of Central and Southern America sourced. They are roasted until the flavor of the brand rise to the surface. This, therefore, results in a dark and full-bodied coffee with a tasty flavor of chocolate and toasted cinnamon.
The coffee is 100% Arabica whole kosher beans. The coffee beans provide robust cups of coffee for all tastes of coffee drinkers and connoisseurs – whether you love drip coffee, pour-over coffee, or finely or coarsely ground coffee.
What we liked: The product is made from 100% premium-quality Arabica coffee beans.
What could be better: The coffee, as expected from a dark roast, is a lot bitter. This is good for some and a disadvantage to others.
More features: from an Amazon brand; bold taste
Made by Solimo, an Amazon brand, the dark French roast coffee, has a bold smoky taste. This coffee is ideal for 1.0 to 2.0 Keurig K-cup coffee brewers and those who are on the move. For an under 30 price, you have up to 100 pods. The dark roast pods are made of 100% Arabica coffee.
The coffee product consists of a blend of coffees from Africa, Indonesia, and Latin America. With mild acidity, the finish of the coffee beans are smooth and delivers a very hearty punch.
What we liked: If you don’t like the taste or overall quality of the coffee pods, Solimo offers a one-year satisfaction guarantee during which you can return the product and get refunded.
What could be better: The coffee comes at a low price, but the robustness and flavor could improve.
More features: caffeinated; 100% Arabica
The French roast dark coffee is a pack of 6 products with each bag weighing 12 ounces. When you choose the caffeinated dark roast, you’ll have an intense and smoky coffee taste.
The full-bodied coffee has low acidity and is muted with oil. Loved for the smokiness, it has been popular among coffee lovers since 1971. For the finest taste, the manufacturer recommends using cold and filtered water to prepare it.
It’s not a whole bean product. However, it is coarsely-ground and a bit close to powdered coffee. Users who have tasted it say it’s one of the best-caffeinated coffee on Amazon.
What we liked: The coffee doesn’t leave a bitter after-taste.
What could be better: It seems a bit tasteless. It needs more flavor.
More features: caffeinated; Kosher; from a Sweden founded the brand
This is a Kosher-certified caffeinated dark ground French roast coffee product. Made from 100% Arabica coffee by Gevalia, a brand from Sweden, it has a full-bodied, intensely dark, and complex taste.
The beans are sourced from many parts of the world. The coffee with the best value for money, it’s premium-roasted and has dark fruit and smoky notes. The single bag of coffee weighs 20 ounces and contains ground coffee beans. You can make a one-time purchase. However, if you are an ardent lover of French roast dark coffee, you can choose to subscribe for regular delivery and save between 5 to 15%.
What we liked: We like the aromatic, complex, and dark roast of the 100% Arabica coffee. It has a smooth finishing and is Kosher-certified. It’s our best ground French roast coffee.
What could be better: There’s nothing to criticize.
More features: Kosher-certified; 100% Arabica
The Eight O’clock coffee product is a kosher caffeinated dark French roast coffee made of 100% Arabica coffee beans. The processing of the beans is carefully done. It is done in batches, from the selection stage, roasting, to the packaging stage. This ensures the natural flavor of the coffee beans doesn’t leave them.
It is made in the U.S. by a brand that has been producing good-tasting coffee for more than 150 years. The coffee is made from dark, medium, and mild blends.
What we liked: We like the complex flavor and smoky overtones of the coffee. It is Kosher-certified and made by a company that has been around since the 19th century.
What could be better: A few drinkers say it contains no flavor.
Have you decided to give French dark roast coffee products a try? Take the step further from what you’ve seen in the reviews and discover how to buy a bag of this coffee in our buying guide
Studies have shown that French roast coffees, especially the dark ones, effectively restores glutathione concentration, vitamin E, and red blood cells in the body. Roasting the coffee helps reveal all the aromas. Roasting coffee, such as pine nuts or hazelnuts, allows the oils to rise and the development of volatile or non-volatile compounds.
Suffice to say that there are as many flavors and roasting processes as there are coffee consumers! Knowing this, we have put together a few important characteristics to consider when it comes to getting great French roast coffee.
First, you should know that of the many existing varieties of coffee, only two types of coffee beans are used in commercial production: the Arabica and the Robusta. What are the differences between the two, and which should you choose? Arabica: Considered top quality and popular with consumers, this coffee contain less caffeine and bitterness than the Robusta variety. It is, therefore, the choice that we recommend if you appreciate soft and delicate coffees. Like the SF Bay Coffee French Roast and the Real Good Coffee Co Roast, they are cultivated mainly in Central and South America, on the east coast of Africa, and in parts of Asia. It requires special soil conditions, high altitudes, and a precise balance between heat and humidity.
Robusta: This contains more caffeine than Arabica. This gives the coffee a strong, slightly bitter taste. It is always mixed with Arabica beans. The presence of Robusta provides a nice creamy layer. So ideal for lovers of strong and bitter coffees!
Each coffee bean contains at least 800 different aromas and volatile flavors. The art of preparing coffee consists of extracting from each bean the richness of the aromas it contains. Note that only coffee beans can be used with the French press and some machines. However, some French dark roast coffee products such as the Real Good Coffee Co Roast are compatible with all coffee brewing machines, whether French press, Aeropress or pour-over machines.
The aromatic profile and strength of coffee vary in part thanks to the roasting, the process by which the beans are heated to a high temperature or roasted. This intensity, generally indicated on the packaging (on a scale of 1 to 12), can be estimated by the color of the beans. Each coffee requires a different degree and roasting time to deploy the richness of its aromas. But, often, the darker the coffee (and therefore roasted for a long time), the more bitter and stronger it will be. French coffees often have less roasting than Italian coffees. Light, medium, or dark roasted?
Before choosing the beans, it is worthwhile to determine whether you prefer lighter or darker roasts. Depending on that, the taste of the coffee beans is no longer that important.
Basically, it is like this: the lighter a roaster roasts his coffee, the more you will taste the coffee beans. The darker the coffee is roasted, the more the flavors are similar. Dark roasted coffees taste increasingly roasted the longer they are roasted. Lightly roasted coffees are a reminder that coffee is itself a fruit. The higher quality coffee is, the more complex it is, and this is more evident when it is lightly roasted. But even the most complex flavors are reduced when a roast becomes very dark. Roasting is a process that first chemically converts coffee and then “burns” more and more of the substance. In the end, ashy and burnt notes remain.
The spectrum of coffee tastes ranges from fruity – sweet – chocolate – to roasted. If you are interested in the fruity notes, you should try lighter roasts. If you prefer roasted notes, you would prefer dark coffee such as the Gevalia French Roast and the Starbucks Dark French Roast. The area between the two extremes is recommended for coffee drinkers from both camps who are keen to experiment.
Roasts that are too light are “underdeveloped” and taste grassy and grainy. With dark roasts, there is significantly more smoke. The coffee should, however, taste as little as possible. Bread-like flavors are created if insufficient energy is given to the roaster during longer roasts. This phenomenon known as “baken” is one of the roasting defects. The trick is to master the extremes of roasting in the light or darker range or to combine both with medium roasts.
Note: the darker the roast, the less you can taste the diverse flavors of high-quality green coffee. The lighter it is roasted, the more clearly it can be determined that the green coffee is not good and maybe even has bad tastes. Roasters that buy less high-quality coffee will never roast it lightly but “hide” it behind the roast.
Coffee is usually packed as whole beans such as the Eight O’Clock French Roast or ground to some extent, such as you can find in the Starbucks Dark French Roast. In this section, we are only focused on ground coffee. The fineness of the ground bean is important (it influences the taste of the coffee). Automatic machines make it possible to adjust the grain. For a classic espresso machine, prefer a fine grind. For a French press, for example, it will be necessary to use a coarse grind coffee such as the Gevalia French Roast.
The taste profile of the coffee is the most important after the roasting level. Some can have a raspberry-like flavor, while some can be available in chocolate and toasted cinnamon. There are also intense, complex, and smooth. Also, the level of roasting will determine the taste of the coffee. Too dark coffee will bring about a strong and bitter after-taste. So, to preserve the taste of the flavor, coffee beans don’t have to be over-roasted.
You would have noticed various certifications in some coffee products. Among the most common is the organic and kosher certification. A company having kosher certification in its beverages implies that such products can be safely consumed by observant Jewish people. It’s an indication that the process of production has been certified by the rabbi, and it meets strict standards. On the other hand, certified organic coffees come from organic farming. The best organic French roast coffee guarantees that the coffee has not been exposed to any herbicide, pesticide, insecticide, or fertilizer of commercial origin.
Organic certified coffee is an ideal choice for all those who want to drink a good coffee while protecting the planet.
The production quality is always the top priority. However, it’s also necessary to put the quantity in the bag into consideration to know whether you’re going to get a good value for your money. Assuming they have a similar quality, it’s always logical to choose a $30 pack of six coffee products, which measures 12 ounces in each bag, then choosing a single bag of 20 ounces coffee that costs around $10-15.
You’ll find caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees on the market. However, decaf coffees are free of 97% or more of their natural caffeine. It is extracted directly from the coffee bean in the green state (unroasted). Several extraction methods exist (with water, with C02 as Oxfam does, for example, or via a chemical solvent). It is, therefore, an ideal choice for those with caffeine intolerance who want to enjoy a good coffee or for people who want to enjoy an espresso in the evening. The disadvantage, however, is that you lose some natural coffee flavor.
We have presented the best French roast coffee products in no particular order of value or quality. To help you with your final choice, below is our final verdict. Our overall best and the Editor’s Choice is the Real Good Coffee Co. French Roast. This is a 2 lbs. fresh caffeinated whole bean pack. We have chosen it because it contains a rich taste of dark chocolate, raspberry, as well as an exotic taste of anise, a Mediterranean spice.
Our Premium pick is the FRENCH ROAST by OLDE BROOKLYN COFFEE. It’s a pack of dark whole bean coffee which weighs 5 lbs. in total. This dark coffee will certainly delight you with its aroma and freshness.
Finally, our Best Value pick is the Gevalia French Roast. This is a Kosher-certified caffeinated dark ground French roast coffee product. Made from 100% Arabica coffee by Gevalia, a brand from Sweden, it has a full-bodied, intensely dark, and complex taste. Although it comes in a single pack, many coffee-lovers consider it the best French roast coffee.
