How Should Coffee Beginners Choose Quality Coffee Beans? Where Is the Best Place to Buy Coffee Beans?

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How to Choose Quality Coffee Beans for Beginners

As a coffee beginner, one of the most perplexing questions you'll face is: "How should I choose a bag of quality coffee beans?"

If you're familiar with web applications like me, you'd know to search your question online, which would certainly yield a plethora of answers. However, looking at this pile of professional materials can be somewhat confusing. Some materials even require you to feel the coffee beans in your hand and sniff them before your nose. Haha, when buying coffee beans in general stores, how could they possibly let us open packages for careful exploration and research? Yet, all sources tell us one common point: coffee must be fresh to be good, which is also a common principle for most foods.

How to Determine Coffee Freshness

Generally, the most direct way to know coffee freshness is by checking the roasting date. Coffee beans should rest for at least about a week after roasting for their quality to stabilize. Unfortunately, most supermarket coffee bean packages don't indicate roasting dates (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 or three months and customers see the roasting date was months ago, probably few would buy them). Therefore, checking roasting dates is no longer a feasible method.

I once had the privilege of attending a class by Hong Kong's renowned barista Bruno Koo, who taught us a very simple method: look at the package's fullness. In the past, teachers often told us that sealed packaged items like cans should not be purchased if they're swollen because they might be spoiled, while dented ones are not concerning as they might just have been dented during transportation. However, when it comes to selecting coffee, this rule doesn't apply because coffee beans should have plump, swollen packaging to be considered fresh.

Does Swollen Packaging Indicate Freshness?

Why are coffee beans with swollen packaging considered good? Because coffee beans continue to 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 makes the package bag bulge when packaged. The gas slowly escapes through a 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 package. Thus, the package bag gradually becomes more concave over time. Therefore, plump packaging precisely represents the freshness of coffee beans.

One-Way Degassing Valve

When purchasing 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 with increasing gas accumulation inside the package - it would probably explode!). If the packaging doesn't have a degassing 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 package bursting problem! Why must it be one-way? Actually, it follows the same principle as many other foods - coffee beans oxidize when exposed to air, causing coffee quality to deteriorate. Therefore, it can only release gas outward but cannot let air enter. This is also why coffee should be consumed as soon as possible after opening, and the opening should be resealed after each time you take beans from the package.

Where to Buy Beans?

After reading the above content, buying coffee beans from supermarkets is most discouraged because most don't have roasting dates, and you can only guess freshness from the package's fullness, 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 custom-roasted coffee beans for customers to purchase and enjoy at home. Since these shops don't primarily focus on this business, their inventory isn't large, so freshness is more guaranteed. Find coffee you've tried and enjoyed, then buy coffee beans from that coffee shop to match your own taste preferences.

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 providing online shop 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