It is a new epidemic, and it seems like everyone is under the influence of it, and the’s no way to escape. Yeah, coffee. The morning cup has become an addiction and the afternoon pick-me-up is a must. It feels like you don’t even distinguish the taste anymore, you NEED the caffeine to function. But what if we told you there’s a way to make your coffee drinking experience much better? Try light roast coffee!
For you, we’ve tasted 29 different brands and selected 10 of the best light roast coffees. Our Editor’s Choice nomination went to the Real Good Coffee Co Breakfast Blend Light Roast Whole Bean Coffee. All coffees on the list are made of 100% Arabica beans that get much more nutrients, resulting in more diverse flavors than Robusta beans. There are single-origin coffees for connoisseurs of an exotic, bolder, and more robust taste and blends in which the beans complement each other for a balanced cup of coffee.
More features: roasted in Seattle, has no additives, preservatives or artificial ingredients, suitable for Aeropress, pour-over, drip machines, espresso makers, and moka pots
Highly popular in North America, the Real Good Coffee is a light roast coffee roasted in Seattle, with South and Central American origins. The best part about this coffee is that it has high caffeine content. It provides the drinker with a serious caffeine kick and charges them for the day. Only organic and fresh Arabica coffee beans have been used to make this coffee blend, ensuring the drinker gets a superior tasting product. The coffee beans can be inconsistent and some beans may be dark roasted instead of light, but this is rare.
For a person that needs to wake up fresh in the morning, a cup of this powerful brew is just what we recommend. Real Good Coffee Co Breakfast Blend Light Roast Whole Bean Coffee isn’t too expensive; you get no less than 2lbs of coffee at a reasonable price. The Real Good Coffee is amazing and is a top-rated light roast coffee for heavy coffee drinkers.
More features: organic shade-grown Arabica coffee, Probat drum roasting
A highly preferred light roast coffee is the Tiny FootPrint, which mainly focuses on quantity, and the minimum bag size that can be purchased is no less than 3lbs of lightly roasted coffee beans. Despite focusing more on quantity, the Tiny FootPrint coffee beans don’t lack quality. The coffee beans are of superior quality and are grown in Ecuador. These 100% Arabica beans create smooth and bold tasting coffee. Another aspect of these coffee beans is that they have a fruity undertone like orange and lemon.
Just keep in mind that with the Tiny FootPrint beans, you’ll get very light coffee. Nevertheless, this is something that you might be looking for.
With regards to taste, the Tiny FootPrint is one of the best coffees to try. For heavy coffee drinkers, this light roast coffee is recommended as an option as well as for ones who like the cold brew method. You get a high quantity of organic light roast coffee beans with this purchase.
More features: monsooned and sun-dried, fresh beans with no additives, roasted, blended, and packaged in the USA
This coffee has a mellow flavor and an unmatched smoothness that is missing in many other coffee brands. The drinker can taste the mild, creamy and chocolaty mouthfeel with this product. As the name suggests, the Indian Monsoon Malabar undergoes through a monsooning process that impacts its original form to create a new shape, size and color. The bag may contain some medium and/or dark roasted beans.
When green coffee was still being transported through ships from India to Europe, the concept of monsooning coffee appeared. During transportation, the green coffee beans had been changing the appearance due to the gusty sea breezes and high humidity by the time it reached Europe. The beans were much different from the first day they had been harvested and now contained a pale yellow color and were swollen in size. The monsoon coffee beans became immensely popular when it was discovered that the coffee had a very mellow and smooth flavor. Because of this process, the coffee also gains earthy notes and a mild body. Today, the whole monsooning process is replicated in warehouses, and green coffee is exposed to similar elements and sold to coffee companies around the world.
More features: mellow and soft, no bitterness
Another incredible pack of light roast coffee beans is the Veranda Blend by the Starbucks. It is the best if you want to drink a coffee cup full of flavors, which is also not too bold. One of the newest coffee brands, introduced by Starbucks in 2012, it achieved instant success. Starbucks started roasting coffee in 1971 and was always known for their dark roasted coffees. Then they introduced light roast coffee beans with the Veranda Blend to allow consumers to enjoy the taste of coffee that farmers have been drinking for decades in Latin America. This is one of Starbuck’s most popular blends. To gain the best out of the beans, store them in a cool, dark place and use cold and filtered water.
A potential con is that it’s a bit on the expensive side. This premium blend contains light and medium acidity, resulting in a soft and mellow cup of coffee. The Veranda Blend flavors include hints of lightly toasted nuts and soft cocoa.
More features: made of top 10% of Arabica coffee beans, hand-crafted, small batch roasting, beans are immediately cooled after roasting
Cameron’s Coffee Breakfast Blend is one of the most wonderful packs of lightly roasted coffee beans, and these beans are flavorful, have a smooth finish and a rounded body. The best part about Cameron’s Coffee Breakfast is that they are not overpowering or bitter, despite being stronger than others. This pack of light roast coffee beans has many other great features that sets this product apart from the other coffee brands.
These coffee beans are slow-roasted to a mild, yet rich flavor, and this is the perfect blend of South and Central American coffees, which is the major reason why these beans are popular and so sought after. The lightly roasted coffee is made with the top 10% of beans in the world that are the 100% specialty grade Arabica beans. The beans are immediately cooled and packed after the roasting to keep them fresh. However, some users found that these beans too dry and had no oil. The Breakfast Blend lightly roasted coffee blend has a scintillating aroma that will make your morning beautiful.
More features: roasted and packed in the USA, individual batch roasting, one-way valve, high-quality and freshness
AmazonFresh is an outstanding pack of light roast coffee beans known for its freshness, as the name tells. The secret to keeping them so is that the company packs the coffee right after the roasting and that each bag has a one-way valve to prevent the air from getting in. If this is not enough, you can choose between ordering one large 2-pound bag or a package of three smaller 12-ounce bags of AmazonFresh, so when using it, you don’t have to expose the entire pack to air. This gives you great value for many and the highest and freshest quality coffee.
Furthermore, the AmazonFresh Just Bright Whole Bean is packed and roasted in the USA that ensures its quality. There is an instruction on the side of the package that highlights how to brew and store the coffee.
Bear in mind that this is not as strong compared to other light roast coffee bean products. The coffee is lightly roasted and provides a crisp and clean flavor. The blend is made with 100% Arabica beans.
More features: small batch roasting in the Texas Hill Country, fire roasting on the 1923 Jabez Burns Roaster
Wink Coffee Single Origin Blonde Roast is made with 100% Arabica and comes from Colombian farms. From Columbia, the beans are transported to Central Texas Facility of Wink Coffee, and a team of experts roasts the fresh beans to perfection there. The company aims to provide their products at a reasonable price, as they believe that flavorful, single-origin coffee should not be an expensive product.
Some users have complained of finding dark roasted coffee beans mixed with the light roasted ones. Wink Coffee Single Origin Blonde Roast is a silky smooth light roast coffee that will give you a kick to start the day. A cup of coffee has a pleasant nuttiness and vibrant citrus hints with a taste of milk chocolate. The coffee beans are roasted in small batches to keep them fresh. Each large 2.2-pound bag or small 12-ounce pack has an airtight ziplock. The product is made with 100% high-quality Arabica coffee beans grown in the Columbian Andes. This coffee is ideal for espresso makers, drip coffee machines and moka pot.
More features: USDA Organic and Fair Trade certified, smokeless roasting technology
White Knight light roast coffee has a clean and very bold flavor. The company created this blend by using a combination of only the purest and fairest single-origin coffee beans. We put the White Knight on our list because we liked the royal flavor of cocoa and bing cherry in every cup. The best part about this product is that you get five pounds of light roast coffee at a fairly reasonable price, which is ideal for heavy coffee drinkers. Keep in mind that the bag isn’t airtight, so you will have to find a container for coffee.
The White Knight Coffee is very flavorful and has a bold body. The caffeine level is high enough to wake you up in the morning with a strong cup of coffee or to get you through a tiring day. If this is what you want, the White Knight coffee is the best option for you. The product has several certifications like USDA Organic and Fair Trade, and a smokeless roasting technology is used in production.
More features: roasted in Seattle, fresh roasted coffee
Caffe Umbria Leone Blend is a pack of light roast coffee beans that are known for many unique characteristics. They are flavorful, distinct and balanced. Stefano, the creator of the Leone Blend, adhered to these characteristics and introduced a limited edition blend to the coffee enthusiast. He worked hard to make a light roast coffee blend with fruity, earthy and bright flavors that would maintain the philosophy of having balanced coffees. This blend is perfect for moka pots because it won a gold medal in 2018 at the International Coffee Tasting competition in that category.
The Leone Blend is an organic 100% Arabica coffee from Ethiopia, Colombian and Peru regions. This award-winning coffee is full of different fruity flavors and contains a high amount of caffeine to wake you up in the morning.
However, some customers report that they got coffee beans from bad batches. Remember to check whether the beans are fresh or not.
More features: well-rounded body and cheerful, bright tartness, blend contains 10% of real Kona coffee
This fantastic Hawaiian Kona Blend of light roast coffee beans is quite popular among coffee fans. However, the major issue is that the demand for Kona coffee is extremely high while the supply lags behind. As a result, this blend is quite expensive. Hawaiian Kona Blend contains 10% real Kona coffee, and this is a blend of 100% Arabica beans.
The Coffee Bean Direct company tries to provide the same aroma and flavor of a full Kona coffee with this Hawaiian Kona Blend but at a more affordable price. This true artisan Kona blend is light roast and contains many different flavors. These include buttery macadamia nut, coriander and mocha. This Hawaiian Kona Blend offers a cheerful and bright tartness with a well-rounded body. You’ll appreciate the high caffeine content of these light roast coffee beans, especially if you’re a coffee enthusiast who isn’t discouraged by the high price tag. This blend is perfect for brewing coffee with drip machines, pour-over method, French presses, percolators, and reusable K-cups.
All right, now you know about the ten best light roast coffee beans. A lot has changed in the coffee business in the last few decades. Long gone are the days when dark roasted beans were the only option on the shelf. Light roast coffee beans have become incredibly popular due to their richness in taste and their inherent characteristic of delivering the ideal taste with every cup. This buying guide will go over the different aspects of light roast coffee and can help you to make your decision.
When choosing light roast coffee beans, there’s no one right answer which one you should buy. Everything depends on your preferences and taste. However, you need to know about the origin of the beans, roasting, bag size, flavor, freshness, and many other things before you making a purchase. Let’s go over these important aspects that can be very helpful when choosing the best light roast coffee beans.
While there are tens of coffee plant species, the main battle happening is between two popular types: Arabica and Robusta. If you look at the two plants, Robusta has more branches, can withstand harsh weather, while the Arabica plant looks scrawny, and don’t bear as many cherries as Robusta. However, thanks to fewer branches and cherries, every Arabica coffee bean gets much more nutrients, resulting in more diverse flavors.
Robusta is used more in low-grade blends and instant coffee. For real coffee lovers, Arabica is the way to go.
In addition, there is a Kona coffee. Cultivated in Hawaii, this Arabica coffee is one of the most expensive coffees you can find. Hawaii’s porous volcanic soil, loaded with minerals provides excellent growing conditions for coffee. Due to Kona’s rarity, sellers offer 10% Kona blends, such as Coffee Bean Direct Hawaiian Kona Blend.
There are three main coffee growing regions in the world. Let’s go over these, including the countries in those regions.
Central/South America
Foreign colonists brought coffee plants to America mostly at the end of the 17th century. Coffee from this region usually boasts crisp acidity with a pleasurable sweetness. While Ecuador and Guatemala offer a floral taste and honey-like sweetness, Guatemala coffee usually comes with red apple acidity. Brazil’s low altitude results in coffee with soft sweetness, light acidity and nutty & chocolate flavors. Companies usually import coffee beans from Mexico, Panama, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil.
Africa and Arabia
Thanks mainly to the region’s biodiversity, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa are the birthplace of coffee culture. African coffee beans are famous for their sharp fruity flavor, especially Ehthiopian coffee. Eastern African beans like Kenyan offer a sweet earthiness and floral aromas. The beans come from Ethopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
Asia and the Pacific
Since Asia is the biggest continent, it’s hard to generalize the coffee plantations in this region. Indonesia was one of the first countries to grow coffee, as Dutch settlers brought the plants to the country at the end of the 16th century. Other areas in the Pacific produce similar coffee but on a much smaller scale. Nowadays, coffee is growing in Indonesia, India and Vietnam.
A coffee’s flavor is essentially determined by its mildness and what notes it has. Notes describe the ways in which a flavor subtly deviates from the normal taste. Ideally, coffee beans should have the right balance of smoothness and a rich body.
Light roast coffee has a variety of aromas and flavors. For instance, notes of apricot, brown sugar, vanilla and huckleberry can be found in the Caffe Umbria Leone Blend. These notes contribute to a flavor besides the original coffee taste.
This is where personal choice is playing a bigger role since different people can prefer for different notes and levels of mildness.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the size of your roasted coffee bags. As a rule of thumb, if you consume a lot of coffee, you can choose a bigger bag. If you want to take a certain kind of coffee with you, smaller bags are more suitable. You can choose among the packages from 12 ounces to 5 pounds. You can check Fresh Roasted Coffee White Knight Light Roast if you are looking for a large bag.
Remember to check if the bag has a valve or locking mechanism. Ultimately, you need to preserve the freshness of your light roast coffee beans for as long as possible. So spend a little time considering what size of the bag would be right for your use.
There are five main types of coffee roasters:
Coffee can be roasted either in a continuous or batch mode.
Small batch roasting results in a more consistent and fresh roast. That way, it is possible to control the quality of every batch. With this type of roasting, the beans are immediately cooled and packed to preserve the flavors and aromas of the beans.
Unique techniques are used to ensure lower emissions. These include using single burners and reducing the need for afterburners. Therefore, although roasting coffee traditionally involves consuming a lot of energy, the industry is moving towards more efficient methods that not only benefit the environment but also reduce production costs. So that’s a double benefit for coffee lovers!
Remember, coffee beans are an agricultural product. To brew the best cup of coffee in your life, you must be sure that coffee beans are fresh. Freshly roasted beans have full flavor and aroma. But it doesn’t take long for the flavors to start deteriorating. The notes that differentiate the flavor begin to fade, the coffee tastes dull, and the aroma starts disappearing as time goes on. Coffee beans retain their ideal freshness only for 2 to 3 weeks after being roasted.
On average, you have 20 to 30 minutes for your ground beans to start losing their freshness. Remember to grind your coffee beans just before brewing.
Coffee certifications help you see the various official standards that certain light roast coffee beans live up to. Among other things, they tell you the different farming practices used in the production, as well as the coffee company’s adherence to environment-friendly standards.
Here are some important certifications:
Fair Trade: Comprised of three certifications in the US, they help support better living for farming families.
Rainforest Alliance: This signifies that the coffee farm has been audited for sustainable standards related to environmental, economic and social factors.
USDA Organic: This is the most extensively regulated food system in the US. All organic light roast coffee beans must have this certification.
Not all brewing methods are great for light roast coffee beans. A good guideline recipe for brewing light coffee involves a temperature of 200-205°F, two tablespoons of ground beans for every six ounces of water, and the brewing time of 28-32 seconds. Feel free to make adjustments!
Remember that the higher temperature is needed to extract the flavors because light roast coffee beans are denser than the dark roast coffee beans.
The best methods for light roast include:
We recommend you the Real Good Coffee Co Breakfast Blend Light Roast Whole Bean Coffee. With these coffee beans, you will be able to make your favorite beverage with many various methods.
Generally, the price will correlate to the quality and uniqueness of the product. For instance, Kona coffee is a very rare coffee, harvested in the ideal coffee-growing conditions in Hawaii. As such, Kona blends like the Coffee Bean Direct Hawaiian Kona Blend is quite pricey and costs $57.95. The best organic light roast coffee beans are on the expensive side. But you can go for cheaper options within the organic category, such as the Tiny Footprint Coffee that costs $35.48. If you want to save some money, make sure you check the bag size and the price per ounce.
Overall, you get what you pay for. As long as you follow the recommendations from our review, you can get the best value for money. Based on the price difference among the coffee products, you can calculate how much your weekly or monthly “coffee costs” would be. That’ll give you a better idea of whether you can spend a bit more for the coffee you liked more.
You still might be wondering, which of these ten best light roast coffee beans should you shortlist? To make things even easier, we’ll pull out 3 of the best products from this review.
The first one is the Editor’s Choice – Real Good Coffee Co Breakfast Blend Light Roast Whole Bean Coffee. This coffee is made with 100% Arabica beans and can deliver you the right amount of energy in the morning with a single cup. We loved the brisk citrus taste with smooth milk, chocolate and cream aroma.
Then there’s the Tiny FootPrint. It boasts a rich taste and texture that give you the caffeine edge you need. This is the perfect choice for the cold brew method.
Finally, you have the Indian Monsoon Malabar. These light roast coffee beans are much larger compared to other coffee beans in our list. They provide a mellow and rich flavor of the coffee.
Now you’re in a much better position to pick the best light roast coffee beans to start your day on the right note!
