If you’re an avid Starbucks visitor, you may have noticed a new, mysterious coffee option show up on the menu – a blonde espresso. It’s a newish addition to the wide array of options Starbucks offers to its customers.
Blonde espresso was first introduced in 2018 and became a crowd favorite right away. Now it’s more popular than ever before, and if you haven’t had a chance to try it yet, I strongly recommend you give it a go, unless you want to miss out on your new favorite drink.
One of the questions I see people ask is whether a blonde espresso is stronger than a regular one. If you happen to be one of these curious fellows, then you’re in the right place.
I plan to answer all your questions in-depth by explaining the difference between a blonde espresso and a regular coffee variety. So keep on reading!
What is a Blonde Espresso?
A blonde espresso becomes “blonde” at the end of the coffee bean preparation cycle. In the process called “roasting,” coffee beans get processed at a high temperature to turn them from green and grassy-smelling to brown and aromatic.
Other than the bean variety itself, the end characteristics of coffee beans are almost entirely dependent on the roasting process.
A blonde espresso is made from lightly roasted coffee beans, making it taste lighter and more delicate than the usual espresso.
Dark-roasted beans taste incredibly different from light-roasted ones and this is the reason why your coffee may taste either stronger or weaker.
So, if you make a coffee drink, such as a latte or a cappuccino using blonde espresso as your base, you may find that your drink tastes weaker than usual. But don’t be fooled by the light flavor, these espressos are still strong and heavily caffeinated.
Let’s take a closer look at the blonde espresso and see if we can answer a very important question, Is blonde espresso any stronger than a regular one?
Is Blonde Espresso Strong?
We have established that you can roast the same bean to a different degree of darkness. So let’s take a look at how different roasting degrees affect your coffee beans’ color and flavor profile.
- Light roast
- Coffee beans are roasted at 195-205 degrees Celsius (385-400 F).
- The roasted beans have a moderate light brown appearance.
- Flavor can be described as grainy, grassy, and acidic.
- Medium roast
- Coffee beans are roasted at 210-220 degrees Celsius (410-425 F).
- The roasted beans have a moderate medium brown appearance.
- Flavor can be described as expressing the bean’s origin, with light hints of roasting.
- Dark roast
- Coffee beans are roasted at 225-245 degrees Celsius (435-475 F).
- The roasted beans have a dark, almost black appearance when roasted at a higher temperature.
- Flavor can be described as caramelly, chocolatey, at higher temperatures, burnt and intense.
You’ll probably be surprised to learn that roasting can greatly affect the amount of caffeine in the final brewed coffee as well.
Even though the caffeine content of the beans stays the same, dark-roasted beans are lighter in mass than light-roasted ones. Due to the high temperature used in the roasting process beans shrink in size as their moisture begins to evaporate.
Now, putting this information into practice – let’s say you use a scoop to measure out your ground coffee portions. Using a scoop of a lighter roast would give your coffee more caffeine, as light-roasted ground coffee is denser than dark-roasted.
However, if you were to use a scale and weigh out your beans, the dark roast would beat the light as you get more beans (and, thanks to that, more caffeine) for the same weight. With more and more cafés, restaurants, and home users using the convenient scoop method I can confidently assure you blonde espresso is stronger than a darker one.
How is Blonde Espresso Made?
Going back to the very beginning of the blonde espresso’s journey, the beans that will end up becoming your blonde espresso are most likely sourced from East Africa and Latin America.
As beans from these areas are what made Starbucks’ blonde espresso so popular, they have felt no need to look elsewhere for other varieties of delicious beans.
If you’re planning to get your beans from elsewhere, you can do research beforehand and pick from a wide array of options both online and in specialty coffee shops. Let’s take a look at the process.
Getting more technical, blonde espresso beans should be prepared using the “Cinnamon roast” method. The Cinnamon roast is the lightest roasting profile, where beans are processed at 195 degrees Celsius or 385 degrees Fahrenheit.
Using a low temperature compared to average medium roasts allows your beans to retain most of their characteristic origin flavor and leaves them denser.
Once you have your perfectly roasted beans, it’s time to pick your grind. Here you have two options: buying pre-ground coffee or grinding your own. When buying from specialty shops, you can request your coffee to be ground to a specific coarseness.
If you buy your pre-ground coffee from Starbucks, they have already chosen the ground level for you, so you won’t be able to give any input.
When presented with multiple options, you should ask for a fine grind. This is because espressos are made using – you guessed it! – espresso machines.
Espresso machines function by forcing extremely hot water through your ground coffee at high pressure for a short period of time. Your grounds won’t be steeping in hot water for many minutes like they do when using a French press or a drip-method coffee machine.
And for that reason, you want to extract as much of the coffee and caffeine goodness as possible in that short time period. The only way to maximize your coffee gains is by using finely ground coffee, as the water won’t be able to penetrate coarser grounds effectively.
Using a lightly-roasted, finely ground, East African and Latin American blend should give you the perfect blonde espresso of your dreams.
Okay, this is a lot of information and more than that – a lot of work!
Honestly, if you’ve never had a blonde espresso before, just go to your closest Starbucks and try it out to see if it’s worth all the effort of replicating at home or not. The light appearance and flavor are not everyone’s cup of tea (well, coffee!), so before committing, try one made by professionals.
Caffeine Content In Blonde Espresso
The launch of the blonde espresso in 2018 sparked one of the most controversial debates in the coffee world at the time. The main debate point being, is blonde espresso stronger than a dark one?
People were divided: some had done their research while others went on claiming that light coffees have a lower caffeine content than dark ones. Well, thankfully for you, I’ve also done my research, so you can sit back, relax, and let me do all the hard work for you.
A blonde espresso comes in the same size as a dark one, about 1.35 ounces or 40 milliliters in a small cup. Starbucks uses scoops to measure its coffee, so each coffee shot is brewed with a specific volume of grounds.
In this same volume, light and dark roasted grounds vary severely in weight, so you will get a heavier dose of caffeine when using blonde espresso coffee. So on average, a blonde espresso can contain around 85 mg of caffeine compared to 75 mg of dark espresso.
These numbers apply to a single shot of espresso. If you request a double shot, double this number for an adequate estimate of the caffeine content of your drink. As you can see, the light espresso has fooled many people into thinking that it’s not as heavily caffeinated as its dark counterpart.
We are so used to thinking that the intense taste of dark coffee means it’s way stronger than the light version. Nope. If anyone asks you if blonde espresso is stronger than dark, you can give them an informed answer with all the facts I’ve just given you to back it up.
Blonde Espresso Vs. Regular Espresso
Regular espresso has been around for over a hundred years, and its energizing boost effect is unbeatable. It’s the fastest coffee drink to prepare and consume, which is why its popularity has grown and grown worldwide.
However, thanks to its highly concentrated form, it’s the ideal base for milky coffee beverages like lattes and cappuccinos along with iced coffees.
When ordering a drink at Starbucks, you can request it to be made with blonde espresso instead of dark.
Substituting your espresso will give you a more intense energy boost, and you may enjoy the light summertime taste more than you’d expect. Do keep in mind that if you have poor caffeine tolerance, it’s best to keep it traditional.
An espresso can be made of many different bean varieties, and each variety and roast level gives it a unique taste. The most common espresso coffees are a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans from different origins, with endless ways of making new blends. Adjusting your bean ratios can drastically change the characteristics of your coffee.
A higher Robusta content adds an elevated caffeine content and a more intense flavor, whereas the Arabica beans can make your coffee lighter and add a more acidic taste.
As “light” is the key characteristic of a blonde espresso, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Starbucks’ Blond Roast is made of 100% Arabica beans, without any Robusta mixed in. By choosing to do this it makes the Blond Roast a mild, mellow, and smooth yet still strong coffee.
What Does Blonde Espresso Taste Like?
Starbucks themselves describe their coffee as having a “bright taste with sweet citrus notes and a smooth body.”
If you’ve ever had a blonde espresso, you can pass your own judgment on whether this description matches your experience or not.
However, coffee ambassador Daniel Horbat describes light roasts as “bold, fruity and floral,” so you can take it on good authority that a blonde espresso is wildly different from your usual cup of joe.
When you receive your first cup of blonde espresso, don’t just chug it down. Take your time to get to know it. Smell it, have a little sip, and savor it.
Smell it again to try and catch those fruity and floral notes. It can be hard to concentrate on your coffee experience at first, especially in the middle of a busy day.
After some practice, you’ll start finding different notes in different cups, and your coffee will never be boring again. You could even start to call yourself a coffee connoisseur.
How To Make The Perfect Blonde Espresso Shot At Home?
If you want to go the easiest possible route with your blonde espresso, you should visit your closest Starbucks and have one of their talented baristas make it for you. Now, of course, this is only easy when money is no concern, so if you’re a frequent coffee enjoyer, the most cost-effective method would be investing in an espresso machine.
Espresso machines are cheaper and more compact than ever. If you’re still imagining that huge, stainless steel monster you see in cafés when you think of an espresso machine, you’ve got some catching up to do.
These days you can get a cheap, stylish, countertop-sized, and easy-to-clean espresso machine for less than a hundred dollars. For the best value, keep an eye on sales and snag yourself a high-class machine at an affordable cost.
Using a combination of perfectly roasted, perfectly ground coffee grains with specialized equipment should give you a café-quality, or, dare I say it, an even better cup of espresso.
If you loved your experiences with blonde espressos before, making it from scratch makes it so much more enjoyable.
Even simpler, you can get a pod machine with all varieties of different pods for a hassle-free experience. Nespresso, the leading coffee capsule brand, sells Blonde Roast in a pod form, available for all you original coffee makers out there.
If you already own a Nescafé-brand Dolce Gusto pod machine, you can also buy Blonde Roast pods for that model. Using a coffee pod makes your coffee brewing experience as simple and easy as pressing a button. What’s not to love?
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is Blonde Espresso healthy?
A blonde espresso can be considered healthier than a dark one, thanks to the higher concentration of antioxidants present in the beans. As the beans used for blonde espressos are roasted at a lower temperature, the antioxidants present in the raw coffee bean don’t all get “roasted away.”
How many shots of blonde espresso can I have in a day?
Health professionals don’t recommend consuming more than 400 mg of caffeine a day. Overconsumption of caffeine can cause anxiety, sleeping troubles, and high blood pressure.
To avoid these issues, do not consume more than four shots of blonde espresso a day. The number should be even lower if you’ve consumed other caffeinated drinks throughout the day, like cola or tea.
What kind of coffee beans should I use?
If possible, buy Starbucks brand Light Roast coffee beans for the most authentic experience. You’ll find that specialty coffee shops and online retailers will also offer you light roasts for making espresso. When picking your pre-ground coffee, opt for a fine grind.
Can I freeze blonde espresso?
You can pre-make a large quantity of blonde espresso and freeze it for making iced coffees. This is the ideal way to get your caffeine fix on a hot summer day. For perfect portions, use an ice cube tray to have single-shot sizes ready to go whenever you need them.
Final Words
Without a doubt, the coffee world has so much to offer; from connoisseurs to everyday enjoyers, no one is ever without a delicious beverage.
Now with the blonde espresso spreading throughout the world, the coffee family has added another fine member, able to give us that strong caffeine fix and a unique flavor, delightful just on its own or as an addition to one of your lattes.
If you haven’t had a blonde espresso yet, then put it at the top of your priorities list. I have yet to meet a single person who hates the blonde version, and I found that many people even prefer it over the dark.
With millions of coffee lovers all over the world giving rave reviews for blonde espressos, it’s nearly impossible to resist.
