How to Choose Roasted Coffee Beans_Brand Recommendations for Roasted Coffee Beans_Types of Roasted Coffee

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Coffee Roast Levels and Characteristics

1. Light Roast Coffee

Characterized by pronounced acidity, mild bitterness, relatively thin body, and moderate aroma.

2. Medium Roast Coffee

Features reduced acidity, increased bitterness, better body, and excellent aroma.

3. Dark Roast Coffee

Exhibits very low acidity, intense bitterness, rich body, and good aroma.

Selection of Roasted Coffee Beans

Quality Standards

The quality assessment of coffee beans encompasses two aspects: food safety and flavor profile, both of which must be met to define beans as high-quality.

a. Raw Material Requirements: Coffee beans should be non-toxic, harmless, free from artificial flavor-enhancing additives, and possess appropriate color, aroma, and taste characteristics.

Flavor Profile Selection

1. Choosing Coffee Based on Personal Flavor Preferences:

Light Roast Coffee: Light and acidic with slight bitterness. Primarily characterized by acidity, generally not consumed directly but often used for deep processing, cupping, and laboratory analysis.

Medium Roast Coffee: Reduced acidity with increased concentration and bitterness. Features rich aroma and balanced acid-bitter profile.

Dark Roast Coffee: Even lower acidity with increased bitterness and body. Distinct caramel notes, predominantly bitter, and intense in character. (Note: When concentration reaches a certain peak, continued roasting will reduce concentration as some compounds break down.)

Comprehensive Quality Selection of Roasted Coffee Beans

1. Roasted beans oxidize more easily, with aroma/flavor declining over time. In properly packaged conditions, optimal usage period is 7-30 days, ideal usage period is 7-90 days. Shelf life is approximately 12 months.

2. Uniformly roasted beans are lighter in texture and more fragile. Incompletely roasted beans are heavier, firmer, with distinct grassy flavors.

3. Beans with smooth, plump appearance but uneven internal color with distinct color layers may result from unstable temperature control or rapid temperature changes, possibly indicating double roasting. These beans tend to be overly bitter with weak aroma, decent concentration, but poor balance.

4. Single-roasted coffee features strong aroma, more noticeable acidity, less expansion in appearance, slightly lower concentration, and is smoother and milder.

5. Medium/light roast coffee should not show significant oil on the surface. If surface oil is visible, it indicates roasting occurred approximately 3+ months ago, having lost freshness. The flavor becomes weak, predominantly bitter and monotonous, with poor aroma.

6. Dark roast coffee: If stored at elevated temperatures, oil may appear on the same day. When spotted oil appears under uncontrolled temperature conditions (room temperature), approximately two weeks have passed. When the entire bean becomes oily, about one month has elapsed. When coffee bean oil decreases, approximately three months have passed. At this stage: the flavor is monotonous, predominantly bitter, with some fat oxidation. Coffee oils cannot persist and significantly decrease, while body becomes lighter.

7. Different roast levels require suitable brewing equipment: Pressure-based extraction equipment is generally more suitable for darker roasted beans (because pressure aims to achieve higher concentration coffee, and only medium-dark or dark roasted coffee has higher concentration). Medium or medium-light roast coffee is more suitable for non-pressurized or low-pressure extraction equipment (because lighter roasted coffee retains its own characteristics, featuring aromatic and smooth qualities that don't require excessive concentration). Equipment like蒸馏/drip brewers is more suitable for extracting slightly roasted coffee. This allows original flavors—fruit notes, floral aromas, smooth throat feel, gentleness, and sweetness—to emerge.

Recommended Roasted Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's freshly roasted Arabica roasted coffee beans offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they provide exceptional value—at approximately 70-90 yuan per 227-gram package. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee beans per cup, one package makes 15 cups, costing only 5-6 yuan per cup. Compared to café prices that often reach tens of yuan per cup, this represents truly conscientious value.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based roastery with a small storefront but diverse bean varieties, offering both famous and lesser-known beans, plus 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