Colour means nearly nothing to me when roasting, thus I never use it for myself. I define my roasts by time, and more importantly, just break it down to: Start of first crack (+x minutes) End of first crack (+x minutes) Start of second crack (+ x seconds) End of second crack Caught fire This is close enough to the "popular" vote at the top (which I did select). For example, the colour of a roast I've done for cold brew is almost irrelevant, as each bean at just on first crack varies greatly, but the fact that it's hitting first crack is the most important factor for taste for that particular brew. For dedicated espresso roasts, sure, colour (and sheen) may be very important, but then you are still only aiming for within a few shades of brown, and I would think that whether it's passed through that second crack stage would be more important. To me it's like popcorn - Popped or not popped...but in this case, it pops twice 😃
