Beginner's Guide to Choosing Coffee Beans_Which Brand is Best for Beginners_How to Select Entry-Level Coffee Beans

Professional coffee knowledge exchange, more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account cafe_style)

Many people think it's okay to buy some entry-level coffee beans from Starbucks and have them ground for takeout, or to buy brands like Illy and Lavazza from the supermarket. To be honest, as you drink more and more good coffee, you'll even look down on your former self.

Freshness is the Basic Bottom Line

Coffee extraction has extremely high requirements for bean freshness. The fresher the beans, the more and richer flavors you can obtain. Like tea, coffee comes in various grades, generally sold by the pound (one pound equals 454g). Except for drip coffee bags, the smallest unit is 227g, which is half a pound. Expensive ones can cost several thousand per pound, while cheap ones cost 20-30 per pound.

Unlike tea, coffee has an extremely short flavor preservation period! Please note, this refers to the preservation period, not the expiration date! In supermarkets, you can see that whether it's Illy or Lavazza... these beans are all marked with an expiration date of 1 to 1.5 years. Indeed, consuming them within the manufacturer's marked date definitely won't cause stomach issues! But beans that have been stored for a long time will definitely taste like soda that's been open for two days. My point here is that if you want to drink good coffee, go to Taobao and find some freshly roasted coffee shops! Basically, freshly roasted beans from reputable shops, when properly extracted, can easily surpass supermarket brands like Illy. So how long is the preservation period for coffee? This needs to be considered in relation to season and temperature. Generally in winter, single-origin coffee beans don't have much problem within 1-2 months, while espresso beans can last even longer. If it's summer, single-origin coffee beans can barely last half a month, and espresso beans at most one month. With this standard, I believe you've already passed the first hurdle in selecting beans.

Storage of Entry-Level Coffee Beans

Fresh beans are best stored in sealed packaging bags with one-way exhaust valves. After use, be sure to expel as much air as possible from the bag and then seal it. Usually, keeping beans in a cool, ventilated cabinet is fine, as long as they're not near a heat source. Unless for special reasons, do not put beans in the refrigerator! Storing them in a cool place at room temperature is sufficient. This is because the low temperature in the refrigerator will bring condensed moisture into the packaging. This is a major taboo for coffee! If you really don't have time to drink but the beans are particularly good and you can't bear to throw them away, you can put them in the freezer and drink them after thawing. Although the flavor will definitely be greatly compromised, it's better than throwing them away.

Bean Degassing

As just mentioned, the freshness of coffee beans has a great relationship with the flavor expression during extraction. However, freshly roasted beans are not immediately suitable for extraction. This is because gases inside freshly roasted beans haven't been released, which greatly affects the stability of extraction. Moreover, some special roasting methods require the components in coffee beans to be more stable before they taste better. Therefore, in the specialty coffee world, there is the concept of bean degassing. Degassing means letting beans reach the optimal and most suitable extraction state after roasting, so that you can drink better-tasting coffee. So the question arises: how to determine the degassing time? This is truly a complex problem that requires extensive experience to judge. Different roasters, different beans, different seasons, different extraction methods... it's too complex. It's completely impossible to explain in just a few words! Here I'll recommend degassing times suitable for most situations for your reference. Generally in winter, single-origin beans are best consumed 2-5 days after roasting, while espresso beans generally need 15 to 20 days of degassing. In summer, single-origin beans can be extracted relatively well the day after roasting, and espresso beans are generally best consumed 5 to 7 days later. It's recommended that summer beans be consumed within one month, while winter beans must be consumed within two months.

Finding Your Favorite Flavor

People now have a new understanding and appreciation of true specialty coffee flavors. Coffee roasting methods have also shifted from the original French or full city roasts toward medium-light roasts, gradually pursuing original origin flavors. So the question arises: what are original origin flavors? This is really complex. Simply put, these are the fruit, floral, almond, chocolate, honey, caramel... flavors presented by beans from different regions when roasted to the appropriate degree. These flavors basically disappear in traditional dark roasts, leaving only bitterness. For example, the citrus-like sweet and sourness of Yirgacheffe that you often hear about, Brazil's chocolate and caramel... but there are too many coffee origins to explain in just a few sentences. Here, I'll simplify things by categorizing them according to personal taste preferences.

First, let's understand coffee processing methods (the way coffee cherries are processed into green coffee beans). Different processing methods will bring completely different flavor directions to beans. So this is necessary to understand! Traditionally, processing methods are generally divided into washed, semi-washed, and natural. The washed method belongs to a more refined processing method. Beans processed by the washed method generally have clean flavors, leaning towards fresh and bright flavors. Then there's natural processing. Natural-processed beans have rich flavors with intense fermentation aromas. They are accompanied by aromas like red wine or bread! However, natural-processed beans are generally recommended for expensive varieties (ARICHA, Konga, etc.). Cheap natural-processed beans are difficult to drink due to low refinement levels and many defects like rotten beans, insect-damaged beans, and dead beans. Many high-end beans choose natural processing, but with extremely high refinement levels. For example, the Kissi series from 90 PLUS. Later, to combine the advantages of natural and washed processing, people invented semi-washed, honey, red wine, and other processing methods. Due to space limitations, I won't go into detail one by one. Everyone can try more on their own!

Secondly, let's understand coffee roast levels. This is also a method that greatly influences coffee flavor! Generally, we simply divide them into very light roast, light roast, medium roast, medium-dark roast, and dark roast. Depending on the beans, good roasters will choose the optimal roast level based on their understanding of the beans to achieve their ideal flavor expression. But it's certain that for the same type of bean, from light to dark roast, there will be a change process from acidic to sweet to bitter. On this point, everyone needs to drink more and then establish a framework understanding of roast levels. Combined with the previously mentioned processing methods, plus your own preferences, you can basically select the beans you like with high accuracy.

The flavor expression of coffee is truly an extremely complex process, and it would be difficult to explain clearly even in writing a book. Here, I can only briefly introduce the basic concepts to everyone. Everyone still needs to drink more and try more.

Recommended Entry-Level Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level coffee beans: Yirgacheffe coffee, Panama Maracatus coffee, Indonesia Mandheling coffee, etc., all have full guarantees in terms of brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high cost-effectiveness. A half-pound (227g) package costs only around 80-90 yuan. Calculating at 15g per pour-over coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each single-origin coffee costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to coffee shops selling coffee for tens of yuan per cup, this is extremely cost-effective.

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 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