Roast Profile by Market: How to Match Roast to Drink Habits (2026)

Direct answer: A roast profile should start with how a target market actually drinks coffee, not with a country’s coffee reputation. A 2026 De’Longhi survey of 3,001 adults in the UK, France and Germany shows three different centres of gravity: milk-led orders in the UK, espresso in France, and cappuccino plus long-style and filter orders in Germany. Each pattern puts a different drink format at the centre of the sample-testing plan. The survey does not tell a roaster what temperature or time to use, and this article does not invent any.

What the 2026 survey measured

The Signature Order Index asked coffee drinkers to name their go-to order. Fieldwork was carried out by Greenpark on 24–29 June 2026. National top orders were:

• UK: caffè latte 19.7%, cappuccino 17.0%, Americano 9.7%, flat white 9.4%, iced coffee 8.6%.
• Germany: cappuccino 23.1%, caffè latte 15.4%, café crème 14.5%, filter coffee 13.7%, espresso 7.7%.
• France: espresso 31.9%, café allongé 11.8%, cappuccino 10.6%, café con leche 6.6%, café noisette 5.4%.

These are shares of respondents naming an order as their go-to. They are not shares of cups sold.

Step 1: Translate top orders into drink formats

A market description becomes useful when it is turned into formats that a roasted sample must survive:

• Short espresso, France’s leading order.
• Espresso with milk, meaning UK latte, flat white and cappuccino, and German cappuccino and latte.
• Lengthened or long-style shots, meaning French café allongé and German café crème.
• Filter, at 13.7% in Germany and leading in Lille once espresso is set aside in the French city ranking.
• Iced, at 8.6% in the UK and leading (tied with filter) in Dijon.

Each format asks a different question of the coffee. A short espresso exposes balance and consistency in a small volume. Milk drinks ask whether the coffee remains recognisable after dilution. Long-style and filter formats give the coffee more water and time. Iced formats test how flavour behaves when chilled and diluted. These are testing questions, not conclusions.

Step 2: Add equipment and occasion

The survey is sponsored by a manufacturer of bean-to-cup and espresso machines and is framed around recreating orders at home. A café bar, a hotel breakfast line and a home bean-to-cup machine each use different grinders, brewing systems and volumes. Before building a profile, note where the coffee will be prepared and by whom. The same origin can be judged differently on a manual espresso machine and on an automatic one.

Occasion matters too. Germany reports the strongest daily-comfort association of the three markets (about 47%), while the UK has the highest social share (12.0%, against 4.2% in France). A daily-comfort market rewards repeatability, because the same cup is expected every morning. Ritual data suggests priorities; it does not prescribe a roast.

Step 3: Use quality motivation as a signal

Across all three markets, quality was the top reason for recreating an order at home (31.3%). It was highest in France (36.6%) and Germany (35.6%) and lower in the UK (21.8%). For an origin brand this supports a sample-led approach: buyers who care about quality respond to evidence they can taste and verify, not to origin claims alone.

Step 4: Keep origin constant, adapt the application

OCC’s working formula is: Cambodian origin + market drinking behaviour + application + roast profile. The origin stays 100% Cambodian. What changes is the application and the roast development plan. For Fine Robusta, that means running the same lot through the formats the market actually uses and documenting where it performs, rather than declaring one “European profile”.

This is also why OCC avoids labels such as a single “European profile”. The three countries surveyed already differ from one another, and the city-level results within each country differ again. See coffee preferences by city in Europe.

A practical sequence:

1. List the market’s top three formats from a credible source.
2. Choose the equipment class for each format.
3. Roast a small number of sample variations and record each roast in a log.
4. Evaluate every sample in each format, not only as black coffee.
5. Approve the profile only for the formats it passed, and label the rest as untested.

What this article cannot claim

• The survey covers three markets, not Europe as a whole.
• It measures favourites, not sales volume or café menu share.
• It does not test Robusta, Fine Robusta or Cambodian coffee. It is used here only as a market-behaviour input.
• City-level results rest on small local samples.

Faq

Does the survey say which roast level each country prefers? No. It records drink orders and attitudes, not roast preference.

Can one roast profile serve several markets? It can be tested that way, but each format should be evaluated separately before any claim is made.

Is a market-adapted profile a different coffee? No. The origin and lot can stay the same while the roast development and application change.

Where does equipment come in? Equipment changes how a coffee performs. A profile approved on one machine class should be re-checked on another before it is described as market-ready.

Why keep the origin fixed? Because the origin is what the brand stands for. Adapting the application lets buyers experience the same Cambodian coffee in the format they already order.

Where to go next

• Country views: French coffee market, UK coffee market and German coffee market.
• City variation: coffee preferences by city in Europe.
• Writing the specification: roast profile brief.
• Category background: Fine Robusta from Cambodia and Fine Robusta roasting considerations.
• Service path: OCC’s Roasting Program covers custom roast profile development.

Sources & Data Notes

• De’Longhi, “The Signature Order” field guide (Signature Order Index), https://www.delonghi.com/en-gb/brewed-by-place. Fieldwork by Greenpark, 24–29 June 2026; 3,001 adults aged 18+ in the UK, France and Germany (1,000 / 1,001 / 1,000; 2,801 of whom drink coffee); 35 cities. Accessed 2026-09-30.
• De’Longhi press release, “New De’Longhi Study Reveals Europe’s ‘Signature Order’ Coffee Culture Across 35 Cities,” PR Newswire UK, September 2026, https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/new-delonghi-study-reveals-europes-signature-order-coffee-culture-across-35-cities-302883544.html. Accessed 2026-09-30.
• Unit and scope: percentages are the share of respondents naming an order as their go-to, by country, as published by the sponsor. The sponsor sells coffee machines. Germany’s daily-comfort share appears as 47.7% in the press release and 47% in the field guide infographic.
• The testing sequence above is OCC’s practitioner framework, not survey evidence.

Last verified: 2026-09-30.