What Coffee Bean Brands to Buy - Coffee Bean Selection Guide

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What brand of coffee beans should you buy?

The most important thing about coffee is not the brand but freshness. This applies to both raw beans and roasted beans. Whether you're opening a shop or drinking it yourself, always buy coffee beans with clear sourcing, preferably custom-roasted fresh beans. Don't be obsessed with Blue Mountain—hope this helps.

A famous option is illy.

Starbucks also has coffee beans, which are relatively easy to buy. It depends on which flavor you prefer.

Freshly roasted beans are the best, of course, it also depends on the roaster's skill.

For popular and affordable options, there's Nestlé.

I personally think the criteria for choosing coffee beans are similar to choosing tea.

If you want the most expensive and exquisite tea, you need to go to the origin to buy the best quality new tea from that year. These teas actually don't have fixed brands, just some fixed varieties like Da Hong Pao. Ordinary teas are generally sold in tea shops or supermarkets, and these teas usually have brand distinctions. Coffee is the same. The top-quality coffee beans often require you to select them at the origin of that coffee variety or entrust specialized foreign suppliers to purchase them.

Therefore, if you want to select good coffee beans, physical store options are relatively limited, while online shopping is a very good way. In this chapter, I will introduce you to the aspects to pay attention to when selecting coffee beans.

Purchase Steps

First, let me introduce the steps for selecting coffee beans.

1. Look

If you're buying single-origin coffee beans, take a handful of beans in your hand, about 10 beans, and see if each coffee bean has consistent color, whether the particle size is uniform, and whether the shape is the same, to avoid buying inferior products disguised as mixed beans. However, if it's a blend, different sizes and colors are normal.

In addition, coffee beans made with strong fire and medium-dark roast will produce oil. However, if light-roasted beans produce oil, it indicates they have deteriorated. Not only will their aroma and richness decrease, but they will also develop astringent and sour tastes.

2. Smell

Smell the beans to see if they have the aroma of coffee beans. If they do, it represents that the coffee beans are fresh enough. If the aroma is very weak, or even has a greasy smell similar to peanuts that have been stored for too long, it means the beans are no longer fresh at all. Absolutely do not choose them, because no matter how much effort you put in, you cannot make good coffee.

3. Peel

Peel the coffee beans by hand. If the beans are fresh enough, they will be easy to peel, accompanied by a crisp sound. If the beans are not fresh, it will require much effort to peel them. After peeling, you can see whether the roast degree is uniform. If it is uniform, the color of the coffee bean's surface and inner layer will be the same. If the surface color is much darker than the inner layer color, it indicates that the roasting fire might have been too strong, which will also affect the aroma and taste of the coffee beans.

4. Chew

When selecting, it's best to take one or two beans and chew them in your mouth. If the beans are very crispy and make a clear sound when chewed, it indicates that the beans have not been affected by moisture. Besides this, if they leave a fragrant taste in your mouth, that's top quality!

Important Considerations

Often, when we're selecting coffee beans, we find that physical store options are limited, so we turn to online stores. Although we can't see the actual product before purchasing and cannot perform the selection steps of looking, smelling, peeling, and chewing, I think when shopping online, we can still select from the following aspects. Of course, these aspects also apply to physical store purchases, because some beans are sold in whole bags, and we cannot examine them closely.

A. Origin

Online, some shops might use coffee beans not from the origin. For example, some might be Blue Mountain coffee, but their origin is not Jamaica. However, this doesn't mean that non-origin coffee is bad. Due to different climates, the taste will be slightly different. Often, non-origin coffee is relatively cheaper. If you're not very particular, trying tastes from different origins is also acceptable.

B. Roast Level

Coffee beans release different aromas at different roast levels, and their optimal roasting times vary. Basically, the longer the coffee beans are roasted, the deeper their color and taste, and the richer they become. This depends on personal taste. Some people prefer light flavors, while others prefer strong ones.

If you really don't know what roast level to choose, you can also choose medium roast, because medium roast is suitable for most coffees and is also a taste that most people can accept.

C. Packaging Date

Pay attention to whether the packaging date is recent. Generally, raw coffee beans have a shelf life of one to two years, while roasted beans have a freshness period within one month. Therefore, to select freshly roasted coffee beans, use them within the freshness period after purchase, so you can enjoy the most charming aroma and rich taste of coffee.

D. Shop and Brand

This goes without saying, some coffees might mix other types of coffee to reduce costs. So be careful. For example, mixing cheap coffee beans in expensive coffee beans, or mixing poor-quality coffee beans of the same variety in good-quality coffee beans will seriously affect the taste. Therefore, when buying coffee beans, try to choose guaranteed shops or brands.

E. Price

Actually, prices of the same type of coffee are similar, so if some brands sell the same coffee very cheaply, you should be careful. After all, you get what you pay for. I once bought a relatively cheap package of Blue Mountain coffee. After taking it home and brewing it, there was no coffee aroma, and when I drank it, there was no coffee bitterness, but a bitterness similar to traditional Chinese medicine. So I suggest everyone pay attention to the price when buying coffee beans, and don't lose big by trying to save small.

The coffee bean selection guide is shared here for now. In the future, everyone is welcome to reply and share their own experiences!

END FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop 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