So.... I bought some coffee beans on Saturday. We don't have a local roaster (man that would be great!) but I thought I'd try something out anyway. We were at Waitrose (UK chain, a bit on the higher end) and they didn't have the largest coffee bean selection, lots of a pre ground coffee, which I hate.
I ended up buying a French roast, Waitrose brand coffee. The beans were fairly oily and I was trying to remember what that meant, so I did a bit of research because I remembered some things and have forgotten others, so here for your information...
When beans are roasted they generally push the oils to the surface of the bean. A medium roast will be dry and sometimes a touch oily and a dark roast will usually be oily on the surface. A light roast will typically be dry.
A French roast is a dark roast and of course the beans are oily. The flavours are more on the savoury side while the medium roasts tend to be sweeter/fruiter. Light roasts are typically a bit on the bitter side, for me anyway.
Dark roasts tend to have less caffeine than medium or light. Which is why some people are able to drink several cups of dark roast and only one or two medium roast coffees.
Last bit, if you buy a dark roast coffee and it isn't oily that means it's probably stale.
Some people dislike dark roast coffee and there's a belief that the only reason why it came about is due to it's lighter weight so cheaper to ship. However, it's really a taste thing. I like both dark and medium roast coffee for different reasons.
The coffee I bought isn't too bad. Still not fantastic but better than the other stuff. I need to go in search of a good medium roast.