Light? Medium? Medium-Dark? Dark?

What’s your perfect cup of coffee?  To all the tea drinkers and morning pop drinkers, I apologize now for the rest of the post.  But if you stick with it, possibly you’ll glean a bit of insight to savor over your morning wake-up beverage.

There is nothing better than that first morning cup of coffee.  How many are with me?  No matter how you enjoy it – straight espresso, drip perfection or latte heaven – it can set the tone for the rest of the day.  The aroma alone perks the eyelids open to the new day. (See what I did there?)

Did you know that coffee beans really have little to no flavor without the roasting process?  The coffee bean is the seed inside a coffee cherry.  Before they are roasted, coffee beans are green and have almost no aroma, except for an earthy, grassy smell.  The roasting process is what makes the beans into that delicious cup of coffee you’re drinking.

Coffee roasting comes in four levels – light, medium, medium-dark and dark.  Each stage can change the acidity and caffeine level.  Light roasts come after the first crack of the bean and maintain the highest acidity and caffeine content.  Medium roasts happen right before the second crack and contain lower acidity with a fuller body of flavor.  Medium-dark roasts are during or after the second crack and begin to bring the oils out with a richer, fuller flavor and even less acidity. Dark roasts are reached at a temperature of 462-485 degrees; that’s a lot of heat!  The flavors deepen during the roasting process with the caramelization of the sugars and visible oils all creating a full-bodied flavor with a buttery finish.  The acidity is gone and the dark roast has the least amount of caffeine.

I realize you didn’t tune in to get a lesson in coffee roasting – but wait – there’s more!

Look at the challenges we face throughout our life.  Each struggle creates a new level of honing who we are becoming as a person and, if you are a faith-filled believer, as a Christian.  Liken the process to the coffee roasting cycle.  Each level of the bean progression is creating less acidity and less caffeine.  Perhaps, with every struggle we overcome, we grow less abrasive, less antagonistic while developing bolder, richer character attributes.  The more heat or trials we face, the stronger we become with our faith muscles being built up.  The best part?  Walking in faith, God won’t leave us alone in the fire to get burnt. As you face adversity today, continue to push through, confidently knowing it’s part of the process to become who He has designed you to be – bolder, richer and fuller in faith.