For Coffee Enthusiasts New to the Craft: How to Quickly Find Your Perfect Coffee Beans?

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

Whether you're a newcomer just starting your coffee journey or someone transitioning from instant to freshly ground coffee, if you're still unsure how to find coffee beans that suit you best, the best approach is to visit your favorite coffee shop and consult with local baristas or roasters. They know coffee beans inside out and can point you in the right direction, even generously sharing some beans for you to sample. Alternatively, with the vast array of choices available online, you can also purchase beans to try at home—whether green or roasted beans.

Breaking Free from Price Concerns

Although specialty coffee generally costs more and offers better quality than commercial coffee, remember that in the world of specialty coffee, the principle of "you get what you pay for" doesn't always hold true. For example, island-grown coffees like FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 from Jamaica or FrontStreet Coffee's Kona from Hawaii are typically more expensive not because they offer exceptional flavor, but due to higher production costs and lower yields.

Consult with local baristas or roasters—they know coffee beans inside out and can point you in the right direction.

Consider How You'll Drink It

Specialty coffee beans are generally divided into two categories: suitable for espresso and suitable pour-over. Therefore, before selecting, you should first decide how you plan to drink it. Pour-over coffee beans have lighter flavors and can showcase more complex notes, making them ideal for slow brewing through filter methods. Beans used for espresso have deeper colors and richer flavors that can withstand the high-pressure extraction of espresso machines.

Additionally, single-origin coffees are not suitable for adding milk, as milk will destroy the delicate flavors of the coffee itself. Therefore, for making lattes or cappuccinos, it's best to choose Robusta blends or single-origin varieties with stronger, fuller flavors like Brazilian coffee.

Drink While Fresh

When buying coffee beans, pay attention to the roasting date indicated on the bag. Opinions vary on the optimal tasting period for coffee, but it's generally believed that beans need one to four days of rest after roasting, reaching their peak flavor between the fifth and tenth day. The optimal tasting period extends to three weeks from the roasting date. However, as the old saying goes, the best way to appreciate coffee is to taste it yourself—some coffees might reach their optimal period earlier or later, so the key ultimately lies in the bean quality and the roasting and brewing methods.

Purchase Whole Beans

Grinding coffee beans allows their flavors to release rapidly and abundantly in a short time, but this also means the optimal tasting period will shorten and the beans will deteriorate quickly—typically lasting only a few hours. Ground beans lose most of their flavor complexity within a day and become bland within a week. It's recommended to buy a grinder and grind fresh for each brew according to the amount needed. However, if you really, really don't want to go through the trouble, you'll have to buy the freshest pre-ground coffee beans available.

Store Properly

Once you've found the right beans, of course, you want to store them properly. You could buy specialized storage containers, but honestly, that's unnecessary—as long as you seal the beans, completely isolate them from air, and avoid high temperatures and heat, you're good. It's best to buy only one to two weeks' worth at a time. The ideal approach is to store them in sealed glass jars or ceramic containers in a cool place. But no matter what others suggest, never put them in the refrigerator or freezer, as the beans will absorb moisture and odors, causing them to lose their flavor. This way, your double espresso might taste sour, like leftover pizza from last Thursday.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Beginner Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee's house-roasted beginner coffees include several varieties: FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Mariposa Coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Mandheling Coffee, and more. FrontStreet Coffee's house-roasted coffee beans offer full assurance in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer exceptional value—a half-pound (227g) bag costs only around 80-90 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams per pour-over cup, one bag can make 15 cups of coffee, with each single-origin cup costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to coffee shop prices that often run dozens of yuan per cup, this offers tremendous value, perfect for enthusiasts who want to experience pour-over coffee at home.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans, while also offering online services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473