Thanks for all the suggestions!

I do have an empty bottle of Friedhats sitting on my windowsill, I use it as a measuring cup at the moment, to grind into ditting's reception can. It was good!

And I did jsut order a kilo of coffee from manhattan, jsut before seeing your comment. Soodhisha was amazing last time I tried it.

I have three more carts saved for later - coffee collective, substance and tim windleboe. Will order when I go through manhattan's stuff to try everything fresh.

I tried Nordbeans (czech roaster) and it was the worst roast I've seen in my life. Extremely inconsistent with underdeveloped and charred beans in one bag. Sigh.

maxmaut wrote:I have just recently moved to EU (Czech Republic). I am completely new to the scene.

My previous two favorite coffees were Nicaragua Los Pinos and Ethiopia Worka Wuri, both by Ukrainian boutique roaster Mad Heads.
The roasts were both quite light, 'scandinavian style' light. Worka Wuri is naturally processed, so was Los Pinos, so I guess I'm into that.

My favorite flavors are fruit compote, grape juice, plums. Los Pinos was super heavy on grape juice and I just loved it.

I heavily dislike 'burnt wood/charr' taste and I feel it really stands out to my taste buds.

I brew Hario Switch in combo mode (first half immersion, second half percolation), but occasionally do pure V60 and French Press. Grinder is 807 lab sweet. Papers are hario tabless japanese 02 bleached, from carton boxes.

I lived in Austria for the past few months and got recommended a lot of local roasters, and their 'light filter roast' is what I would call medium/dark. I found out they typically do omni roasts and they were too dark for me. Same thing happens here in Czech Republic - most of the local stuff roasted in Prague is too dark for me, and quality so far is not great - roast variance in the bag is huge, flavors are really muted.

I would appreciate any suggestions (I guess excluding UK due to VAT for all imported goods).

Thank you!

I unfortunately do not have a tremendous amount of experience with said roasters from that region. So far I only tried The Naughty Dog from the Czech Republic and it falls well within your description of other Czech roasters as "darker". In Poland I have experienced the same degree of roast with coffeedesk, Audun and Coffeelab. In Slovenia I tried Goat Story, in Rumania I tried Meron and Yume And Lithuania Crocked Nose and overall it has been the same overall experience, far darker roast then I normally like.

The typical place you would go shopping for lighter roasts within the EU have been Denmark, Sweden, "Norway", Finland, Holland and Germany most other roasters outside those specific countries have generally been darker as you already have experienced, although Italy and Spain do have a few roasters that falls within the light roast category.

The roasters that are often mentioned are La Cabra ( Dk), The coffee Collective (DK), April (DK), Stiller Coffee (DK), Clever (DK), Wendelboe (Norway), Coffea Circulor (Norway), Koppi (Sweeden) Morgon (Sweeden), Friedhats (Holland), JB (Germany), Fjord (Germany), Frukt (Finland), Gardelli (Italy) Nero Scuro (Italy) I also heard good about Rum Baba, Keen and Three Mark but those 3 I yet to actually try so cannot really verify.

Please be aware that the lighter coffee roasters in Germany are generally not as light as those found in Scandinavia and Holland. You do find roasters that are not nearly as light or where the offerings can wary in development, of those you could mention roasters such as Prolog, Roast, Drop, Shokunin, Manhatten, Barn, 19grams, Talor Made, Lippe, Jucu, Ild og bønner, Slurp, Lehmus, etc. there are also other light roasters I have not mentioned.

That said Manhatten are really on the more developed side, so typically really not my preference. The same with Man versus Machine, Five Elephants, Röststätte Berlin, Leucte feuer, populus, Black Delight, Nomad, the same goes for pretty much all English roasters that is also noticeable more developed.

I find it a bit funny people find La Cabra darker, many of their coffees I gotten over the years and of late have been on the brink of being so light that these would be underdeveloped and therefore needed + 3 weeks of rest. They where every time certainly noticeable lighter then Manhatten, I tried to much from Manhatten and none of it I would define as specially light so I given up on them! Friedhats on the other hand is light, but again certainly not super light either and I get from them on a regularly basis. I tried Nomad a few times, neither times it was very that light, but the coffee was fine but not spectacularly so.

Update;

Also the reason you don't find much experimental stuff at Scandinavian roasters, is partially because these have long standing cooperation with a few farmers, so more refinement of the existing product then necessarily experimental (although they do offer some limited run of what ever successful experiment they done from time to time) or they like Wendelboe own their own farm. Also many of them prefer washed coffees, so many of these roasters aren't really convinced yet about the quality and gain of these experimental processing and only buy the ones with washed characters and that doesn't taste overly fermented or of the fermentation method.

La Cabra and Coffea Circulor are some of the very few who dived into it.

Not every roaster is into buying on the global market and buying what ever is hyped right now.

I think you got some great recommendations here. However I am a tad confused. Some recommendations are contradicting, some call specific roasters nordic light and others say the roaster is not capable of nordic light roasts. There were some more examples than what I will name in the following, but I will focus on the roasters I personally know even though I would be more interested in the opinions about the roasters I don't know
I personally enjoy JB a lot (currently every second order I do is JB) but I am well aware that he doesn't roast as light as it gets.
I also don't remember Friedhats to be as light as it gets, but I only ordered there twice and it is a while back.
On the other hand I remember all 4 packs from the Barn to have grassy flavors. I might very well have just been unlucky. Also grassy doesn't necessarily mean underdeveloped but might just be a roast defect or actually the beans themself.
Anyway it brings me to my point here. Isn't consistency more important once the roaster reaches a certain lightness. Avoiding roast defects and great sourcing are more important to me than actual roast level as long as flavors are developed properly and there are no roast flavors.
Are the contradicting recommendations maybe just that? Bad experiences with a few packs of beans or don't we have a common understanding of what light means?

Actually what I call too light is not necessarily too light but might very well be roast defects that I associate with too light, like lack of aroma, grassy flavors, or lack of body.
And frankly in some cases I might just not have used the best preparation method / recipe to make the roast shine.

In case you are not necessarily looking for light roast recommendations but for roasts people liked I will throw in a recommendation for a roaster that is surly not nordic light but who's naturals I enjoy a lot: https://schoenkaffee.de/
While not nordic light, his filter roasts are surly lighter than any omniroast I ever came across.
I really love his naturals, never had a fuller more flavorful natural anywhere (recommendations are welcome).

Also noteworthy is a tiny business, actually so tiny that I am not sure if they will get back to work, as they are closed right now: surfshoproastery.com
The coffee is amazing and I never had lighter beans from within Germany.

coffeeOnTheBrain wrote:I think you got some great recommendations here. However I am a tad confused. Some recommendations are contradicting, some call specific roasters nordic light and others say the roaster is not capable of nordic light roasts.

It probably have to do with when and what you buy from them, as hardly any roaster just roast a very light profile, hardly anyone of those mentioned do this consistently and it will also be bonkers to do so, as not all coffee benefits from it, also many of them have realised it's not really what the locals want. I seen roasters who at one point did this always super light roast, the consequences where underdeveloped roast that tastes of pea soup and cardboard boxes and customers complaining of thin undrinkable coffee . I even got more medium light from Wendelboe, although he dos keep a rather predictable profile and probably more so then the rest also at a more consistent basis, you can still however encounter something that isn't that light on occasion. So if you only buy in rare occasions or just once you can run into a more developed roast, that is why I typically give roasters more then a couple of chances as you could basically be unlucky.

There were some more examples than what I will name in the following, but I will focus on the roasters I personally know even though I would be more interested in the opinions about the roasters I don't know
I personally enjoy JB a lot (currently every second order I do is JB) but I am well aware that he doesn't roast as light as it gets.
I also don't remember Friedhats to be as light as it gets, but I only ordered there twice and it is a while back.

Your correct in your assertion that neither is as light as light goes.

On the other hand I remember all 4 packs from the Barn to have grassy flavors. I might very well have just been unlucky. Also grassy doesn't necessarily mean underdeveloped but might just be a roast defect or actually the beans themself.

Definitely unlucky, I used to get from them often, but my preference changed so I didn't like the omni roast style as much anymore, I must say I rarely experienced defects at them and where in fact one of the most consistent roaster some years back, but as I wrote I stopped getting my coffee because of their roast style and increased inconsistency just as I experienced with Squaremile.

Anyway it brings me to my point here. Isn't consistency more important once the roaster reaches a certain lightness. Avoiding roast defects and great sourcing are more important to me than actual roast level as long as flavors are developed properly and there are no roast flavors.

Yes it's more important to be consistent at sourcing and roasting etc. if your at a good enough level, that said I don't really like anything more then a medium light roasted coffee due to being bitter sensitive.

Are the contradicting recommendations maybe just that? Bad experiences with a few packs of beans or don't we have a common understanding of what light means?

I think it's mostly likely that, unless you live next door, your more likely to only get from the roaster on occasion, if you had one bad experience your probably unlikely to return and you make a judgment from that, no matter how unfair that might be. I live next door to several (TCC, Prolog, La Cabra, April, Roast, among others) several of the others I mentioned as light I can find on the shelf in my city or I can easily and fast get hold on as it's from neighbours countries so I know them very well, in other words I tasted their coffee often over many years and in large quantities.



Bad roasted coffee is bad roasted coffee, but underdeveloped is certainly one of the biggest and pronounced issues with light roasted coffees, I think I tried it at most light roasters.

Also the Scandinavian roast is and has always been an odd term invented by foreigners. We don't use it ourselves as it would just not make sense to do so, a few however do call it Nordic but many don't and most of the roasters who do is because they come from other countries go figure.

Has anyone recommended Father's yet? They are local to you and a world class roaster. I've had phenomenal Ethiopian coffees from them before.

coffeeOnTheBrain wrote:Anyway it brings me to my point here. Isn't consistency more important once the roaster reaches a certain lightness. Avoiding roast defects and great sourcing are more important to me than actual roast level as long as flavors are developed properly and there are no roast flavors.

malling wrote:Yes it's more important to be consistent at sourcing and roasting etc. if your at a good enough level, that said I don't really like anything more then a medium light roasted coffee due to being bitter sensitive.

Consistency is a big issue with light roasts in my opinion and frankly I'm happy if I like more than 50% of a roastery's offerings.
I'd encourage the OP to buy sample packs when possible to get a good idea of what their coffee is like.

Examples local to me:
https://www.dropcoffee.com/products/dro ... sting-pack
https://muttleyandjack.com/products/sea ... asting-box
https://www.morgoncoffeeroasters.com/co ... ample-pack
but I hope there are many more.

It's gotten noticeable better over the past decade, some years ago it was noticeable worse in terms of consistency, one week could be excellent and then the following could be the polar opposite, it was frankly a bit of a hit and miss back then, today I do think there are more hit then miss but you do get the below par roast on occasion.

I think science, knowledge and better understanding of processing and roasting and the use of better more reliable and consistent equipment play a key role here, there is less stick the finger in the air over it and pray that it turns out well also I do believe the coffee is better today then 6-10 years ago, I don't think I actually would like the coffee that was served back then to be brutally honest.

Agree with the buying samples is a good approach to figuring out of what to get at a specific roaster.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions again.

I come from Ukraine and the coffee scene was very saturated before the war. I did a few blind tests over the years and the constant winner was always https://en.madheadscoffee.com/

I think I agree that consistency is what made them stand out to me, I look at the contents of the bag every time I open it, and their beans are always the milk chocolate sort of color, on a very light side, all exact same color with no exceptions. No matter what the coffees were, all beans inside the bag were always uniformely colored, no matter what origin/roast/processing they are.

I now have 6 different coffees while I'm waiting for manhattan to ship their ethiopias to me, and the experience I have so far is pretty meh.

Here are some pictures I took few days ago:


1. Drip It. I live right next to this shop. This is their 'light roast' for Guatemala.


2. This is Nord Beans roaster. Doesn't look so bad anymore, after I have sorted out all the burnt and green beans (discarded about 100g of the bag). This actually brewed very very tasty after I discarded the fauly beans, but I brewed it as I would brew a medium or dark roast - with much lower temp and slightly coarser grind. Honestly if this coffee was roasted nicely it would be amazing. I reached out to their instagram and they got all defensive and told me to have a good day.


3. Coffee collective HALO. Not light in my book, I would still call this medium. The bag cost me 20 bucks and it brewed OK.


4. This one is interesting. 20 bucks for 200 grams. Flavors from opening the bag were amazing but I could not brew a good cup with it. You can see that the beans are super inconsistent, but they say it's due to natural/anaerobic processing. I have tried a few amazing anaerobic coffees from ukrainian roasters before, none of them looked like this, can anyone confirm that processing can cause uneven roast level of the beans? The photo does not do it justice, but some beans are on the verge of black, while others are barely developed. They were super nice when I reached out with questions though.


5. I also tried this Nicaragua, in an attempt to find something like my favorite Los Pinos, but it was very mediocre.


6. This one was a little tastier, roasted a tad lighter, but still just OK.

maxmaut wrote:can anyone confirm that processing can cause uneven roast level of the beans?

I've heard this before, from a roaster, but am not an expert so cannot confirm. Let's see if someone will confirm any which way. Anyway, I also think the roast level cannot be solely judged by the color, especially the surface color, of the bean. Or can it?

Regarding the consistency, I think it is still an issue. Maybe not so much because the roaster would not be able to produce the same roast profile for the same bean over and over, but they for some reason change their style slightly, either to darker or to lighter. A few roasters I have been buying from have definitely changed their roast profiles to darker. One of them first from very dark, to quite light, and then back darker. With my short experience, since September, with La Cabra they were consistently on the light roast spectrum, not once did I notice "roasty" aromas.

Nero Scuro, despite their name, has been consistently very light over the past four or so years. No under developed batches either so far for me.

I do also believe that "lighter it gets better it is" is not always true. This is why I say it's light enough for me if there are no roasty aromas, after that it is up to the roaster to know what roast profile in their opinion best compliments each bean.

Anyway, since you started with images, here come a couple samples from Nero Scuro, just for comparison.



Here's one that I have not yet brewed. Just took a picture now. Looks very light to me. Others can judge other qualities / defects



This one was really nice in my opinion. Nice cinnamon notes in the brew, also something citrusy / fruity (they say orange peel). I brewed most of it as pour over but also some espressos.

maxmaut wrote:I appreciate everyone's suggestions again.

I come from Ukraine and the coffee scene was very saturated before the war. I did a few blind tests over the years and the constant winner was always https://en.madheadscoffee.com/

I think I agree that consistency is what made them stand out to me, I look at the contents of the bag every time I open it, and their beans are always the milk chocolate sort of color, on a very light side, all exact same color with no exceptions. No matter what the coffees were, all beans inside the bag were always uniformely colored, no matter what origin/roast/processing they are.

I now have 6 different coffees while I'm waiting for manhattan to ship their ethiopias to me, and the experience I have so far is pretty meh.

Here are some pictures I took few days ago:

image
1. Drip It. I live right next to this shop. This is their 'light roast' for Guatemala.

image
2. This is Nord Beans roaster. Doesn't look so bad anymore, after I have sorted out all the burnt and green beans (discarded about 100g of the bag). This actually brewed very very tasty after I discarded the fauly beans, but I brewed it as I would brew a medium or dark roast - with much lower temp and slightly coarser grind. Honestly if this coffee was roasted nicely it would be amazing. I reached out to their instagram and they got all defensive and told me to have a good day.

image
3. Coffee collective HALO. Not light in my book, I would still call this medium. The bag cost me 20 bucks and it brewed OK.

image
4. This one is interesting. 20 bucks for 200 grams. Flavors from opening the bag were amazing but I could not brew a good cup with it. You can see that the beans are super inconsistent, but they say it's due to natural/anaerobic processing. I have tried a few amazing anaerobic coffees from ukrainian roasters before, none of them looked like this, can anyone confirm that processing can cause uneven roast level of the beans? The photo does not do it justice, but some beans are on the verge of black, while others are barely developed. They were super nice when I reached out with questions though.

image
5. I also tried this Nicaragua, in an attempt to find something like my favorite Los Pinos, but it was very mediocre.

image
6. This one was a little tastier, roasted a tad lighter, but still just OK.

The TCC still have the silverskin chaff in the crevices and you can clearly see the texture of the bean in fact more so then any of the other. So no it's not a medium roast, it's light if you ask them they will also tell you this, it's just not the lightest of lightest probably more like a medium light. I know every single coffee they have and that coffee is generally not really down my alley.

The surface colour (agtron) isn't really the only thing to valuate a roast level, this is a clear example why we should be very careful at that, flavours also largely depends on variety, processing etc. not just how you roast it, this is flavour vice much darker naturally even as a light roast it been so pretty much since they introduced it, but they are certainly going more developed with it over the last couple of years.

If you get roasty or baked flavours at any light it's because the roaster screwed up, you really should not have any such flavours in the light spectrum.

Also impossible to valuate colours from a picture