How to Choose Coffee Beans with Rich Crema After Extraction? What Kind of Coffee Beans Have More Crema?

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A Guide to Choosing Coffee Beans for Beginners

In reality, many home-roasted coffee bean suppliers don't fully understand what makes good coffee. Everyone tends to follow the crowd. My advice to friends is to choose what's right for you. Many beginners who think they've discovered some "insights" tend to look at others' reviews and check their credibility ratings when selecting coffee beans. As you all know, some credibility ratings might be artificially boosted from the start. Moreover, even if they are genuine reviews, beginners' evaluations still hold no reference value for you—it's just the inexperienced teaching the inexperienced, leaving everyone still in the dark.

Key Points for Beginners When Selecting Coffee Beans

Therefore, beginner friends should pay attention to the following points when selecting beans:

1. Match Your Brewing Equipment with Suitable Beans

First, consider what equipment you'll be using to brew, then find beans that match that method.

For example, if you have a fully automatic coffee machine but insist on buying light to medium-roasted single-origin beans, especially varieties like Blue Mountain or Geisha, you definitely won't achieve the flavor you want. Of course, if you're wealthy and you like it, that's another matter.

2. Look at Roasting Date, Not Expiration Date

This is one of the most confusing issues for many beginners. Coffee beans aren't necessarily better the fresher they are—they need a degassing period. Generally, for single-origin beans, choosing those roasted within one month is perfectly fine, unless the roaster's skill level is truly poor. Beans roasted within the past week typically offer the best flavor when opened. At this point, the roasted bitterness and smoky flavors have mostly dissipated, allowing the inherent flavors of the coffee beans to fully emerge—making it the perfect time for proper tasting. For espresso beans, they tend to stabilize about two weeks after roasting, and beans within three months will offer very full-bodied freshness, aroma, and mouthfeel. Coffee beans contain oils that, at room temperature, can be stored for 12 months without spoiling according to national standards. This is merely about not spoiling—the flavors have likely dissipated significantly, especially if stored improperly during summer, when beans can develop rancid flavors and become undrinkable. Once past the expiration date, they should be discarded without hesitation. Oxidized oils can produce aflatoxins, which have direct carcinogenic effects on humans.

3. Use Merchant Recommendations as Reference Only, Choose Flavors You Like

Sometimes merchant recommendations are professional, sometimes they're just marketing gimmicks. Whatever coffee flavor you prefer, find a merchant who can deliver that taste. For example, if you like washed Yirgacheffe, with its light floral notes, soft citrus acidity, and honey and cream chocolate aftertaste, you probably won't appreciate Mandheling's heaviness, or even Blue Mountain's neutrality. If you're unsure whether a particular coffee is roasted to your taste, you can buy the smallest package to try. The most reliable approach is that many third-tier cities now have cafés with their own roasting facilities—you can visit to taste samples, find several varieties you like, and become a regular customer. Merchants love loyal customers, and I believe those serious about making coffee will provide increasingly satisfying flavors.

4. The Temptation of 100% Arabica

Previously, many coffee packages were labeled "100% Arabica." We should understand that this shouldn't be considered a guarantee of quality. Not all Arabica variety beans are high-quality, let alone specialty grade. Nor should we necessarily reject Robusta beans. High-quality Robusta beans blended into espresso can increase the oil content and body, creating more pronounced color contrast when coffee mixes with milk, which can still enhance espresso beans. So why doesn't Shixia use Robusta? Frankly, our roasting techniques aren't that mature and perfect, and we haven't encountered beans that particularly captivated us. Currently, many merchants are adopting IoT-based sales models, telling customers about their beans' varieties, origins, roasters, and flavor profiles... This allows beginners to make more intuitive judgments about whether to buy.

5. Reallocate Money from Sugar and Creamer to Better Coffee Beans

This is about health consciousness. As long as you're drinking freshly roasted coffee beans within their optimal tasting period, I don't recommend adding sugar or even creamer additives. Drinking coffee is inherently a healthy habit. If you add sugar, your calorie intake becomes excessive, not only leading to weight gain but also making you more susceptible to metabolic diseases like abnormal blood sugar. Creamer and other fully industrialized products are far more alarming than MSG or chicken essence that we consume. While adding them to coffee improves taste, and although not as severe as drinking "pesticides," health risks certainly exist. Therefore, when purchasing coffee beans, reallocating the money you would have spent on sugar and creamer to buy higher-quality beans is undoubtedly a wise choice.

6. Check Packaging Material, Don't Stockpile, Store Properly

Here, I suggest beginners pay attention to the quantity of coffee beans they purchase. If you drink one cup daily, using at most 20 grams, 600 grams is enough for a month. Stockpiling can cause your beans to lose their wonderful flavors. With today's advanced logistics, if you're particular about quality, ordering twice a month is sufficient. However, when selecting beans, the packaging capacity and material are very important. Light protection, one-way valves, environmental friendliness, and avoiding excessive packaging are professional considerations every coffee enthusiast should note, as well as a reflection of social responsibility. I've seen people selling coffee beans in glass bottles, which probably just makes everyone "smile knowingly." Coffee beans fear oxygen, moisture, and sunlight most. After choosing the right material, unopened coffee can generally be stored at room temperature. Once opened, consume as soon as possible. If you can't finish it quickly, use sealing clips to close the bag, place it in a sealed bag, and refrigerate to extend flavor and prevent excessive loss.

7. Decaf Coffee Doesn't Mean Healthier—It Just Has Caffeine Removed Artificially

If you want to drink coffee but don't want caffeine interfering with your heart rate and nervous system, choose decaf coffee. However, this doesn't mean caffeine is unhealthy while decaf is healthy. Let me give you an analogy: if you want to eat rice but have no rice, and someone offers you popcorn, would you use popcorn as rice? After processing raw coffee beans through methods like Swiss water, the flavor diminishes significantly, making it less satisfying to drink. Personally, I don't like it, but if you do, that's your choice.

Recommended High-Oil Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee, a coffee roasting brand located at Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers freshly roasted espresso blend coffee beans with full assurance in both brand and quality, along with good oil content suitable for making specialty coffees and latte art. The resulting latte art is beautiful. More importantly, the value is extremely high. Taking their commercially recommended Commercial Blend Coffee Beans as an example, a one-pound (454g) bag costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating based on 10g per espresso shot, one bag can make 45 cups of coffee, with each costing less than 1.5 yuan. Even using a double shot with 20g per espresso, a double espresso costs no more than 3 yuan. Compared to certain well-known brands that charge hundreds of yuan per bag, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: Guangzhou's Roasting Shop

FrontStreet Coffee is a roasting shop in Guangzhou with a small storefront but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide 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