Best Light Roast Coffee Brands in 2022

Recent years have found light roast coffee beans growing in popularity. Rather than hiding behind the dark and toasted flavors and aromas of the roasting, light roasts let the beans’ natural characteristics shine through; no wonder the consumers are developing a taste for their bright acidity and mild body.

If you’re looking for great beans that showcase these characteristics, read on for our top nine picks for thebest light roast coffeethis year.

Note:This guide will focus on light roasted coffee only. For other great coffee beans read our guide to thebest coffee beans here.

The 9 Best Light Roast Coffee Brands in 2022

First off, what makes coffee light roast? Simple. The answer lies in thelengthof the roasting process. Light roasted coffee beans are roasted for a shorter period of time. But what makes light roasted coffee beans great for making real good coffee?

With their ability to showcase thenuances of a coffee’s flavor, light roasts have been growing in popularity. With so many on the market, from single acidic origins to mellow blends, it can be hard to choose the right one, so here are nine great options.

Lifeboost Coffee was founded by nutrition expert Dr. Charles Livingston to deliver delicious coffee with a nutritional boost. He achieved this through a commitment to sourcing only the top quality coffee, with just 0.5% of beans grown worldwide, meeting their stringent standards.

This organic light roastconsists of quality arabica coffee beans from the mountains of Nicaragua. They’re organically grown in the shade of guava trees on a small plantation located at 5,700 feet on the slopes of Mt. Kilambe.

The beans are hand-picked, sun-dried, and washed in spring water to preserve the purity of the coffee throughout the process. As a result, they are third-party certified to be free from mycotoxins, potentially harmful toxins in low quantities in most coffee beans, notably lower quality ones.

The dominant flavor profile isnutty, with undercurrents of caramel sweetness. Vibrant aromas ofvanillaand榛子accompany such features. It’s so good that we can’t help but call it our best light roast brand.

We’ve also reviewed Lifeboost coffee in one of our video reviews. Check it out here:

Founded in 2019 by two brothers, and still run as a two-man operation, Coffee Bros. is a young company with big dreams. They want to roast high-quality coffee without compromise, and they want to do it sustainably while also supporting growers. And so far, they’re pulling it off!

This coffee is an exceptional example of a light roast, with sweet and delicate flavors of honey, citrus, and florals. The body is mild and silky. It’s a blend of only two origins, Keffa, Ethiopia, and Nariño, Colombia, each chosen to enhance the other. Rather than packing a wallop of flavor, this is a gentle coffee, perfect for easing into your day.

A top-of-the-line coffee bean from Ethiopia usually comes with a price tag to match. Still, the Ethiopian Sidamo Guji coffee from Fresh Roasted Coffee is the rare exception, making it our pick for thebest value light roastwhole bean coffee this year.

The growers choose their beans carefully and sustainably, considering origin, flavor profile, and quality. Afterward, they roast the beans in a specialty Loring Smart Roaster, which offers enhanced roasting precision while cutting carbon emissions by up to 80%.

Guji is in theOromiacoffee-growing region of Southern Ethiopia. This region is said to produce some of the highest quality coffees in the country. It features a dry climate and acidic soil that grows coffee beans renowned for its remarkable fruity flavors.

Sidamo Guji咖啡是由fruityand wine-like flavor notes, featuringcherryandstrawberry, and the use of natural processing further enhances this. Expect a medium body, bright acidity, and an excellent earthy finish.

Founded over 50 years ago in the San Francisco Bay area, Peet’s Coffee is renowned for its signature blends. They’ve put their decades of experience to good use in crafting perfectly balanced flavors designed to showcase each roast.

Rather than tone down the inherent brightness of a light roast, their Cost Rica Aurora blend puts it front and center.

The first step in creating any blend is quality sourcing, and Peet’s worksdirectly with farmersto ensure they are getting the top specialty coffee beans. They have even pioneered a Farmer Assistance program, which assists farmers who have the potential to grow specialty coffee but lack the techniques needed to do so.

This both expands Peet’s supply of high-grade beans and provides economic assistance in coffee-growing regions.

The Costa Rican beans in this blend are thehighest qualityStrictly Hard Fancy grade, sourced from the mountains of Tarrazu and Naranjo. They offer notes ofclean, sweet citrusreminiscent of a lemon bar.

The flavor is with the addition of Kenyan beans, which deliver the deep, silky flavors ofmolasses,brown sugar, andblackcurrantfor which the region is known.

With their unique design and high-quality coffee, Kuju’s single-serve pour-over coffee packets were impossible to leave. These single-serve packets, made from environmentally friendly compostable and recyclable materials, turn into small pour-over filters, prefilled with measured amounts of ground coffee beans and designed to anchor on any coffee mug.

所有您需要做的就是添加水。它像我一样简单nstant coffee, but with the quality of a great pour-over brew.

Made from 100% arabica beans from Thailand, Central, and South America, Kuju’s specialty grade light roast ground coffee is known as Angel’s Landing. The beans are a blend sourced from around the world, but primarily from a Thailand grower who employs former victims of sex trafficking as they re-establish their lives.

The dominant flavor notes arefloral,nutty, andcitrus, and this roast features a medium body with light acidity. Each packet is nitro-flushed to remove all oxygen and keep the light roast ground coffee beans as fresh as possible.

Kuju’s state-of-the-art facility functions on 100% wind power, and they are a member of 1% for the PlanetPlanet, donating 1% of all their sales to the National Park Foundation. Kuju coffee is the rare single-serve convenience product that you can feel good about using.

Dune Coffee Roasters is a small-batch roaster based in Santa Barbara, California, and they know good coffee. So much so, one of their employees placed third in the 2018 United States Barista Championship (5）.

The Zip Zinger is their signature light roast breakfast blend coffee, which they adjust seasonally to ensure it features only the freshest. This light roast ground coffee’s current mix consists of Brazillian, Ethiopian, and Colombian beans. Combined with both washed and naturally processed beans, the blend achieves aperfect balanceof bright acidity with rich, darker undertones, yielding an incredibly versatile brew — a great choice for adventurous coffee lovers.

With dominant tasting notes of stone fruit, caramel, and chocolate, this is the rare light roast that shines on its own and is equally delicious with the addition of milk or cream.

You might even like it as an unusual and tasty espresso, with the familiarchocolate notesenhanced by the bright acidity and mellow sweetness.

A top of the line decaf coffee can be challenging to find as not many roasters are willing to put the full weight of their expertise behind a product with such a small fan base. A high quality light roasted decaf is an even rarer beast.

Luckily for decaf fans, Tandem Roastery, of Portland, Maine, is up to the task. Their Sun Lamp blend isn’t just good decaf; it’s good coffee. Like a sun lamp, it isn’t quite the sun, but it’s nearly as satisfying as real good coffee.

The producers decaffeinated it via the sugar cane E.A. (ethyl acetate) decaffeination process. This process is also known asnatural decaffeination. This method makes a lot of economic sense in regions like Colombia, where sugar cane is abundant and avoids excessive heat or pressure, which can radically disrupt a green bean’s cellular structure (6）.

Made of wet-processed Colombian coffee beans, it shines with flavors ofberriesand sweetvanillaand features hints ofmarshmallow,graham cracker, andgreen grape.The result is a bright and exciting coffee experience that perks you up even without the caffeine.

The Colombia Luminosa Breakfast Blend was Peet’s first signature light roast blend, devised after years of research and testing. Roasted in small batches, the result is a carefully crafted combination that perfectly highlights the best features of light roasted beans: its bright acidity, smooth flavors, and mild body.

Luminosa means “shining” or “bright” in Colombia, and that is undoubtedly the defining feature of this peppy blend.

Its foundation is high-altitude beans from the Huila region of Colombia’s mountains. Grown at over 4,500 feet, beans from this region are known for theirsmooth, sweet character. Furthermore, they balance the flavor with beans from Ethiopia, the homeland of coffee. Ethiopian beans are known for their fruity and floral character.

While this light roast whole bean coffee would make an excellent pour-over, we love it even more as a cold brew. The long steeping time brings out the more subtle tasting notes of the dual origins, while the inherently mild body keeps it from swinging from refreshing to overly rich. It’s definitely a great choice for morning coffee.

With its 100% Arabica beans, you can expect a pronounced sweetness with hints of苹果,cherry, and a touch ofcocoain your cup of coffee.

Based in California, Verve is another roastery committed to sourcing only the highest grade specialty coffees from around the world and roasting to just the right level to amplify their natural qualities.

The Kenya Karimikui stems from the Kirinyaga region of Kenya, located at over6,000 feeton the southern slopes of Mt. Kenya. The Karimikui factory purchases coffee beans from over 1,000 nearby small farms, all members of the Rungeto Farmers Cooperative Society.

The society has been a remarkable success story in the region. The Karimikui factory is now known for producing some of the best coffee beans in the world.

The whole beans are wet-processed in Kenya, and Verve selects only the largest A.A. beans. These beans are roasted in small batches to a perfect light roast in California. The result is a dynamic and dense brew that is surprisingly full-bodied for light roasted beans.

The flavor has a sweetness that sings ofcarrot cakeand balances acidic notes oflimeandguava.

How to Find the Best Light Roast Coffee

There’s a lot to consider when choosing the right light roasted coffee. What makes a brand of light roast coffee the best? Well, the answer is it depends. Do you want beans from a single region source or a blend? Arabica coffee beans or Robusta beans? Do you prefer 100% Arabica beans? How important is an organic or fair trade certification? Don’t worry, our buyer’s guide is here to walk you through it all.

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Bean Origin

The source region plays an important role to the quality and flavors of coffee beans. The climate, soil, growing conditions, and processing methods influence the flavors equally. This is particularly true of light roasts because, as compared withdark roast coffee, their flavors are less affected by the roasting process.

A bag of coffee beans can consist of all beans grown in the same area, known assingle-origin, or of a mixture of beans from different regions, which is known as ablend. There are pros and cons to each style. In either case, if you have access to a good grinder, opt for the whole bean rather than pre-ground coffee. In this way, you can be sure you’re experiencing them as fresh as possible.

In a blend, we use different beans to mellow out the overall flavor, making them more approachable and more consistent. In contrast, coffees from single regions are unique and exotic, showcasing the flavors and terroir of a specific area. Still, they can have sour notes or strong acidity that doesn’t appeal to every palate (1）.

Yet, if you’re looking for a light roast blend, they are often labeled as abreakfast blend.

Bean type

There are two commercially grown coffee bean types around the world, Arabica and Robusta. When buying light roasted coffee, you almost certainly want to seek outArabica beans(2）.

Long regarded as the higher-quality bean, Arabicas make up about three-quarters of current commercial crops. Their prized reputation stems from their more pronounced acidity and a sweeter, softer taste, with tasting notes of sugar, fruit, and berries, all of which is perfectly highlighted in light roast coffees (3）.

In comparison, Robusta beans have a harsher, grain-like taste, with a nutty finish. They remain popular, particularly in instant coffee, because they can thrive at lower elevations and are more resistant to pests and weather fluctuations. They also contain twice as much caffeine as Arabicas and have garnered some fans as a result.

The most enjoyable coffee for sale today is Arabica, which is particularly true for light roasts. For a selection of great Arabica beans, check out ourlist of best coffee beans.

That said, some producers experiment with higher quality Robustas. These offer their nuanced flavors that appeal to some tasters’ palates and make an excellent addition to Arabica-Robusta blends. Rich and dark roast Robustas will balance the fruity and acidic Arabica.

Certifications

Shopping for the best light roast coffee by considering certifications is a socially conscious decision. Still, for light roast coffees, this is especially important as they draw the essence of their flavor from the coffee bean origin rather than the roasting process. Thus, the way coffee beans are grown, collected, and distributed is a determining factor in their quality and taste.

There are many certifications available to coffee beans these days, with different countries and special interest groups offering their own. So, it can be difficult for the consumer to determine the legitimacy of each.

Here are some of the most common certifications available and what they mean (4):

Organic

In the U.S., coffees are given the label USDA-certified Organic if they are grown in a way that supports biodiversity and enhances soil health by using only approved substances andorganicfarming methods. This is the kind of coffee that is good for the health and environment.

Fair Trade

Fair Trade is another American certification that ensures that coffee production includes social, environmental, and economic standards that protect the health of people and the Planet. Coffee farmers receive a fair price, community development projects, and establish long term working relationships with buyers. Similar practices might be labeled “ethically sourced” or “direct trade”.

Read more aboutfair trade coffee here.

Kosher

Kosher is a term used to describe food following the strict dietary standards of traditional Jewish law. Coffee naturally complies with Kosher standards, but a Kosher certification ensures that you are getting 100% coffee, with no additives or processing methods that might violate Kosher standards.

Rainforest Alliance

Coffees certified by the Rainforest Alliance take into account biodiversity conservation and community development, a combination that improves both environmental and socio-economic aspects of coffee growing regions.

The Verdict

Brewing light roasted beans is a great way to experience the inherent flavors of the coffee beans honestly. With their bright acidity and typical fruit and chocolate flavors, there’s a light roast out there to satisfy every coffee lover.

Our favorite this year isLifeboost’s signature light roast, made up of whole beans shade-grown in Nicaragua mountains. This brightly flavored organic coffee features tones of hazelnuts, caramel, and vanilla that are sure to please.

If you want to understand the how’s of roasting coffee and how roasting affects flavor, you might want to knowhow to roastgreen coffee beans and learn about light roast, medium roast and, dark roastshere.

We hope you enjoy this real good coffee and experience some nice caffeine kick in the morning!