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Want to Buy Imported Pure Coffee Beans? Can You Recommend What Brands to Buy? Why Instead Look for Small Bean Suppliers?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account cafe_style). Relevant data was queried from the Ministry of Finance Customs General Administration, the unit responsible for managing coffee bean imports, regarding unroasted green coffee beans and roasted coffee beans, with data from approximately the past decade.

Coffee, Wine, and Tea: Flavorful Foods

Coffee, wine, and tea are all flavorful food products. China's coffee bean production accounts for less than 1% of the world's total, so most coffee beans are imported. If you're planning to buy some brand-name beans with a casual attitude toward flavor, it's fine to experiment. However, if you plan to buy a bag of coffee for someone who truly knows coffee, you should give up on selecting coffee beans from large supermarkets.

Freshness: The Fundamental Principle

Whether for espresso or single-origin coffee, the most fundamental principle for selecting coffee beans is only one: freshly roasted. Whether it's Starbucks or supermarkets, if you pay attention to the roasting date, most products are from months ago. Coffee is made from roasted coffee beans, and the longer the time since roasting, the more its aroma dissipates. Although some brands use various preservation technologies (such as nitrogen flushing), beans that are several months old will certainly have lost much of their fragrance. Some major coffee brands also roast their beans darker to enable longer storage time, which in turn means even more flavor loss.

Three Key Information Elements

Besides freshness, regardless of which country the coffee comes from, if you can find three pieces of information about the beans: variety, altitude, and processing method. If the seller emphasizes these three elements of coffee beans, the resulting beans will generally not be bad. On the other hand, the smaller and more specific the origin region you can confirm, the naturally better it will be. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen coffee beans from Hambela, Sidamo Province, Ethiopia, will generally be of higher quality than beans simply labeled as Ethiopian coffee.

Recommended Fresh-Roasted Specialty Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee

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

Mingqian

I've visited them. Mingqian has a significant characteristic: their branding is excellent. But as for their coffee, well, let's talk about something else. The simple iron packaging plays a big role in this. In China, if you can find people who know design, love coffee, and are willing to work with you, it's truly not easy. I really admire Zhongshun for this. https://shop36409483.taobao.com

Kalita

It's said to be run by Japanese people, but Japanese people always do things differently from people of other countries, always having their own style. They don't follow internationally common evaluation standards, so their roasting methods are not mainstream.

Zhiguan

I'm not familiar with them, but I just searched and saw a screen full of barista credentials, which left me speechless... Dear, can you have some coffee shop ambiance? https://zhiguansp.tmall.com

Black Mage

I haven't heard of them either, and I looked them up. You can drink their coffee for fun, but if you want to advance and drink better coffee, you can give up on this shop.