For A Fruitier Cold Brew Reach For This Coffee Bean Roast

When the weather is hot, you'll be opting for colder drinks. You could buy store-bought cold brew for your morning coffee, but that stuff is expensive. Instead, if you're willing to put in the time for a good glass of cold brew, you can make your own. For a cold brew with strong fruity notes that's perfect for sunny mornings and patio sipping, you need to find the right roast. For advice, we spoke to Donny Raus, the founder of Raus Coffee Company, a certified espresso sommelier, and a Q-grader (a coffee taster who has been trained to measure quality). 

For a fruity cold brew, Donny Raus said a medium roast is ideal. "While roasting terms are also subjective, too light of a roast can lead to sour notes, and if too dark, you lose those fruity notes that you are looking for," he explained. "Lighter roasts can lean more towards being tea-like, while darker roasts will lean towards a more full, round flavor," he elaborated, which is why a medium roast coffee hits that perfect sweet spot. 

The roast simply refers to how long and to what temperature the green coffee beans were heated. The bag of beans or grounds will usually say if it's a light, medium, or dark roast. It's worth mentioning that we're not talking about fruit-infused coffee or adding something like lemonade to cold brew. This is about using coffee beans that naturally have fresh and floral undertones. 

Donny Raus said he gets the most consistency with fruity flavors from coffee roasts made in a specific part of the world. "For fruity cold brews, you'll want to stick with natural processed coffees from Africa," he told us. "While other regions, such as the Americas, are also producing fruity coffees, the above increases your likelihood of hitting it right."

Depending on how and where they're grown, soil, climate, and altitude can all make a difference in a coffee's final flavor. This is why Raus can name specific places to source coffee from when you're after this characteristic. Certain varieties of coffee will also have more fruity flavors than others, like Ethiopian Yirgacheffe or Kenyan AA.