Will you tell me about coffee?!

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I roast my own coffee(I use hot air popcorn popper) but you are asking for a lot of information..

I'll just paste this about roasts:

Cinnamon
The bean is light brown, and dry (no oil visible). The flavour is baked or "bready", like toasted grain. There will likely be definite sour tones. There is not much body in cinnamon roasted coffee.

New England
A term not as frequently used as the others, though this roast is apparently common in the eastern United States. It's a little darker than the cinnamon roast, but without the grainy flavour. New England roast will still have some sour tones to it.

American, Light
Medium light brown beans. This roast is the norm for eastern USA. This roast (and sometimes cinnamon as well) is the most often used for cupping or professional tasting.

City, Medium
The colour is darker still, more of a medium brown (think chocolate). This roast is common in the western parts of the USA. This roast is a good choice to taste the differences between varietals.

Full City
Medium dark brown beans. The beans will start to show some oily drops on the surface with this roast. Full City will have caramel or chocolate undertones.

French, Espresso
Beans are starting to get dark brown, and French roasted beans are shiny with oil. There is less acidity, but with burned undertones. This roast is often used when making Espresso. Many people think this is the darkest roast available, but that's not true.

Italian, Dark French
Similar to regular French, but more so. Darker and oilier looking, and with a stronger burned flavour.

Spanish
Darkest roast of all. Colour is nearly black, and the flavour is flat with a charcoal undertone.

ok, this i will try to explain in as little words as possible because it could take awhile

a coffee beans flavor is primarily determined by 3 factors.

1. genetics. like all crops, through time, evolution makes slight differences which will eventually affect the way the bean grows, how it tastes and other factors

2. roast. depending on how long they cook the beans for and at what temperature they are cooked at the flavor of the coffee will be more or less bitter (ie. esspresso is just burnt coffee beans and when they say dark roast it will be strong)

3. location. probably the biggest determining factor of the flavor will be where the coffee bean was harvested. depending on the soil that the beans are grown in, will deliver bolder and more recognizeable flavors. (ie colombian coffee is great because they use the naturally volcanic soil as to raise the beans)

I freakin love coffee

Mild, medium, and dark.

It is up to you.

HMU.