What Is Coffee Body?

Body is a combination of many factors: the varietal, elevation, soil, processing type, roasting, and extraction. The feeling of fullness, thickness, mouthfeel, and weight—that's body.

Coffee body is normally categorized as mild, medium, and full.

Well, milds are mild. The best description for a very mild coffee is “tea-like.” Geisha coffee, one of the most renowned varietals, is often described as tea-like or thin.

Medium-bodied coffee will have a heavier, thicker mouthfeel. Pacamara coffees, which often have stone fruit and chocolate notes, are often medium-bodied.

Full-bodied coffee is often described as syrupy or buttery. Sumatra coffees tend to fit nicely in the full-bodied category.

Yes. Peruvian coffees are a great example of lighter-roast coffees with full body. Mexican coffees are typically mild-bodied and are sometimes roasted darker.

Elevation and soil type play a significant role. Higher-grown coffees tend to be more complex than those grown at lower elevations. Colombian coffees are normally grown at high altitudes and are known to be full-bodied.

Fertile, nutrient-rich soil has a significant effect on the quality of the coffee. Many coffees are grown close to volcanoes for this reason. Coffee plants thrive here. Indonesia's Bajawa growing region on the island of Flores has very rich volcanic soil and produces some of that country's most exquisite coffee.

Yes and no. The growing environment does play a big part in the coffee's body. Roasting green coffee a certain way can emphasize or downplay body, and that all depends on the roaster's vision for the coffee. Let's be clear, roast level does not have anything to do with a coffee's body. Darker roast does not equal bold body but rather might to bolder flavor.

You can indeed accentuate or bolster a coffee's body at the roaster. This is done by stretching a roast's Maillard Phase (the “browning” phase of roasting that increases the amount of melanoidins) and by extending the duration of the coffee's first crack.

Bear in mind, you will be making a trade on some of the coffee's other characteristics. Sweetness, acidity, balance, and flavors will change when manipulating a roast to play up body.

Body and flavor are both crucial qualities in coffees, but they are not intertwined. More than anything, body, or mouthfeel—whatever you want to call it—is how the coffee feels and the pleasantness or lack thereof that is very much up to the preference and desire of the coffee drinker.

Brew for body! Seeing as the oil in the coffee creates body, how much oil your brewing method allows has a huge impact on your cup's body. Any method that uses a paper filter will decrease body because the paper traps the oils. The French press is the ideal way of brewing for coffee body lovers. The metal mesh filter allows the oils to pass. And let's not forget espresso! This has to do with the high coffee-to-water ratio, as well as the pressure versus gravity brewing method. That, and there's no paper.