Where to Buy Coffee Beans in Guangzhou: High Cost-Performance Coffee Beans and Best Places to Purchase

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How to Determine Coffee Freshness When Buying Coffee Beans?

Generally, the most direct way to know coffee freshness is to check the roasting date. Coffee should be left to rest for about a week after roasting for the quality to stabilize. However, unfortunately, most supermarket coffee bean packages do not indicate the roasting date (this is understandable - it's hard to predict when coffee beans placed on shelves will be bought home. If they sit on shelves for two to three months and customers see the roasting date was months ago, few would likely buy them). Therefore, checking the roasting date is no longer a viable method.

I once had the privilege of attending a class by the renowned Hong Kong barista Bruno Koo, who taught us a very simple method: look at the fullness of the packaging. In the past, teachers often told us that if canned items or other sealed packages were swollen, we shouldn't buy them because they might have gone bad, while dented packages weren't concerning as they might have been dented during transportation. However, when it comes to selecting coffee, this rule doesn't apply, because coffee beans should have full, swollen packaging to be considered fresh.

Does Swollen Packaging Indicate Freshness?

Why are coffee beans with swollen packaging considered good? Because coffee beans continuously release carbon dioxide after roasting, and this release process gradually slows over time (of course, otherwise they'd keep releasing gas forever?! XD). Therefore, freshly roasted beans release large amounts of carbon dioxide, which causes the packaging bag to become swollen when sealed. The gas slowly escapes through the one-way degassing valve. As time passes, coffee beans release less and less carbon dioxide, but the one-way degassing valve continues to let gas escape from the packaging, so the bag gradually becomes less inflated. Therefore, swollen packaging precisely represents the freshness of coffee beans.

One-Way Degassing Valve

When buying coffee beans, you must ensure the packaging has a one-way degassing valve. As mentioned above, roasted coffee beans continuously release carbon dioxide, so the packaging must have a one-way degassing valve to allow gas to escape from inside (otherwise, imagine what would happen if more and more gas accumulated inside the package - it would probably explode!). If the packaging doesn't have a ventilation hole, it's best not to buy it, because the coffee might have already been stale when packaged, or you'd have to worry about the packaging bursting! Why must it be one-way? It's actually the same principle as many other foods - coffee beans oxidize when exposed to air, which deteriorates coffee quality. Therefore, gas can only escape, but air cannot enter. This is also why coffee should be consumed as soon as possible after opening, and the opening should be resealed after taking beans each time.

Where to Buy Beans?

After reading the above, buying coffee beans from supermarkets is most not recommended, because most don't have roasting dates, and you can only guess from the fullness of the packaging bag, which is not entirely reliable. If you want to buy good coffee beans, I suggest visiting some specialty coffee shops. Many specialty coffee shops offer self-roasted coffee beans for customers to buy and enjoy at home. Because these shops don't primarily focus on this business and don't keep large inventories, freshness is more guaranteed. Find coffee that you've tried and enjoyed, then buy beans from that coffee shop - it will also match your own taste preferences.

Never trust Taobao sales volume - some of the best-selling products are actually low-quality and cheap. Because too few people understand coffee, the cheap ones sell well.

Recommended Shops (in no particular order)

• EnergyCoffee
• Oubake
• Wei Bei
• FisherCoffee
• FrontStreet Coffee
• Zhi Guan
• Ming Qian
• xcaffe
• Coffee Gene
• Bean Uncle

All of the above shops are quite good, and even as a beginner, you won't be disappointed.

When buying coffee, you must buy beans, never ground powder! Do not buy large packages of coffee, especially those in plastic bags - they are basically low-quality coffee. I often buy from FrontStreet Coffee's Taobao store! Great value for money and delicious!

Guangzhou Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee, located in Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers various freshly roasted specialty coffee beans with full guarantees in terms of brand and quality, suitable for brewing with various equipment. More importantly, the value for money is extremely high - a 227-gram bag of single-origin coffee beans costs only about 80-90 yuan. Calculating based on 200ml per cup with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, one package can make 15 cups of specialty coffee, with each cup costing only about 6.6 yuan. Compared to cafés selling single cups for over a hundred yuan, this offers extremely high value for money.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based roastery with a small storefront but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store 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