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Coffee as a Global Beverage

Coffee is one of the world's three great beverage crops, and it has taken off rapidly in China in recent years, especially among the young. Although Chinese demand for coffee is still less than a tenth of tea consumption, coffee consumption has been growing at double-digit rates. When you shop for roasted coffee, keep the following points in mind:

Purchasing Guidelines

1. Buy roasted coffee from reputable shops, supermarkets, or coffee houses, and check the production date and the integrity and seal of the packaging. Labels on pre-packaged products should be complete and standardized.

2. For bulk roasted coffee, follow three steps: smell first, look second, break open third. Roasted coffee should carry a rich, unmistakable coffee aroma with no sour, musty, or off odors; the beans should show an even color and uniform size; and they should snap cleanly when broken, with the interior and exterior the same shade.

3. Coffee's enemies are air, heat, light, and moisture - any of which can wreck its flavor. Be cautious buying roasted coffee during the rainy season or in summer, because after exposure to heat and humidity the oils in roasted coffee oxidize easily, spoiling the taste.

4. Bulk roasted beans keep for only about 15 days, and bulk ground coffee stays good for roughly seven, so never buy more than you need. Once a sealed package is opened, move the beans into an airtight container, keep it in a cool, dry place away from heat and from strong-smelling goods, and finish it as soon as you can.

5. Do not mask thin flavor and excessive bitterness by piling sugar, creamer, or other additives into your cup - overdoing those does no favors for your health. Drink coffee in moderation, and with caution if you are pregnant, or a child, or managing cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease.

Recommended Roasted Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee's freshly roasted Arabica beans are dependable in both brand and quality, and remarkably good value: each package weighs 227 grams and costs only around 70-90 yuan. At 15 grams of beans per cup, one package brews 15 cups, so each cup of single-origin coffee comes to just 5-6 yuan - a fraction of what coffee shops charge per serving.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you like your cup balanced rather than leaning sour or bitter, medium roast is the place to start, and FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate is the flagship of that style. It comes from Brazil - the world's largest coffee producer - and carries the country's distinctive Yellow Bourbon variety. Medium roasted, it is quietly sweet and aromatic, showing cream peanut, chocolate, toasted bread, and sugarcane, and it extracts just as happily by pour-over as through a moka pot or espresso machine.

For something fruitier, the FrontStreet Strawberry Candy blend unites a Costa Rica honey-processed coffee with Panama washed Geisha; medium roasted, it offers both orange-blossom honey character and a rounded sweetness, and suits cold brew, pour-over, and espresso alike. And the FrontStreet 2013 natural Typica, grown in Yunnan, is a representative of Chinese specialty coffee: medium roasted for a soft, balanced profile with nuts, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot, excellent value by pour-over, cold brew, or drip machine.