What is french roast coffee?

Hi Susan, When we speak of French coffee or French roast coffee, it simply means a degree or style of roasting coffee beans to a very dark brown color. This is often deemed as the darkest of all coffee roasts. These dark roast coffee beans are well up until the second crack and usually has this shiny surface coming from secreted caffeol (coffee oils). With this in mind, it is essential to note that when coffee is French roasted, they pertain to the type of the roast that the beans went through. It does not relate to the beans themselves–the origin or the variety. Roasters can use any beans and apply the French style of roasting to it if they want to.