What are high-quality black coffee beans? How should coffee beans be consumed?

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The aroma and flavor of coffee are produced only after roasting. During the roasting process, moisture is gradually released from the raw coffee beans, weight decreases, color deepens, volume expands, and aromatic oils slowly emerge. Additionally, the large amount of chlorogenic acid originally present in raw beans gradually disappears during roasting, releasing pleasant fruity acids. Their flavors vary depending on the roasting time. In the image below, you can see the changes in the appearance of coffee beans during the roasting process.

Whether raw coffee beans undergo various processing methods such as natural, washed, semi-washed, or honey processing before leaving the factory, the raw beans will maintain a dry condition with low moisture content (about 12%). Specialty coffee raw beans in this condition are relatively easy to store and are generally packed in sealed bags, then wrapped in burlap bags and shipped to various importers via sea freight. However, the following situations can still occur that affect the freshness of the raw beans.

1. Rough Processing Methods and Contamination

Coffee is essentially a fruit that must undergo various processing methods to remove the skin and pulp, transforming it into hard raw beans, otherwise it would spoil. However, not every coffee farmer has received proper training in processing methods, and many farmers have crude, primitive equipment or backward production conditions, leading to potentially rough and unscientific coffee processing.

For example, if coffee cherries are not uniformly sorted, with differences in size and ripeness, using the same drying time may result in variations in moisture content. If some raw beans have too high moisture content, they might be close to spoiling when they leave the factory, and mixed in with good beans, ready to ruin your pot of specialty coffee.

Alternatively, during the drying process, an unclean environment might cause contamination of the raw coffee beans by surrounding substances. Animals, wind and dust, unclean water, etc., can all cause coffee beans to pick up strange flavors and bacteria, leading to accelerated spoilage of raw beans, making them unfresh right from the factory.

2. Transportation and Storage Defects

Although properly processed raw coffee beans are dry and oxidize slowly, allowing them to maintain freshness, burlap bags are not completely moisture-proof. If during transportation or storage, coffee beans come into contact with moisture due to damp ship cabins or warehouses, it can lead to spoilage or accelerated oxidation of the raw beans. Even with dedicated plastic bags, there's still a risk of breakage or cracking. At this point, the good flavor of the coffee beans will evaporate into the air and may bring uncomfortable musty or foul odors.

Generally, sea transportation and storage times are actually quite long. This is especially true for lower-grade coffee raw beans, which often have very poor storage quality control. It's truly unknown how many beans are sacrificed during this period. However, because they're used as inexpensive commercial coffee beans, naturally it's impossible to use better storage equipment, and the ones who suffer are the unsuspecting consumers.

3. Overstocking and Excessive Storage Time

Even if transportation or storage are normal, coffee beans are still oxidizing at a slow rate. Therefore, if coffee sits in cargo holds for too long due to various reasons such as unsuccessful shipments, poor sales, or overly long production schedules, the freshness of raw coffee beans will still decrease.

Coffee is considered a futures commodity and will be marked with the production year. Generally, it spans across years - at the beginning of the year, you drink batches from last year and the year before, gradually transitioning to batches from last year and this year. For example: at the beginning of 2018, you typically drink batches from 2016-17, and only after a few months can you taste beans from the 2017-18 batch. Some raw coffee bean merchants don't use cross-year batching standards; for example, 90+ uses single-year batch standards.

From the above, we can see that if coffee bean merchants hoard old stock, possibly batches from 3-4 years ago with very long storage times, then even if such raw coffee beans are stored properly, their flavor will definitely differ from fresh batches. As for how big the difference is, it depends on the storage level and the oxidation speed of the beans themselves. Aged coffee is another topic entirely - that's carefully managed coffee maturation processing, but not all coffee beans are suitable for aging treatment!

How to Select Coffee Beans Online

Although we can't see the actual product before purchasing and cannot perform selection steps such as looking, smelling, peeling, and chewing, when shopping online, we can still select from the following aspects. Of course, these aspects also apply to purchasing in physical stores.

A. Origin

Online, some stores might use coffee beans not from the original origin. For example, some Blue Mountain coffee might not actually be from Jamaica. Also, for example, if the bag only says Colombia or Brazil without specific estate information, it's usually coffee beans from large producing regions. Coffee from origins also has commercial and specialty grade distinctions, so just because it says Ethiopia doesn't mean it's specialty beans. It's best to be specific about the region and trace back to the origin - such beans usually won't be too bad. If you're not too picky, trying flavors from different origins is also acceptable.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Guji as an example. How do you understand a coffee name like "Ethiopia Natural G1 Sidamo Guji 2.0"?

Coffee beans themselves have obvious regional characteristics. Before purchasing, understanding the flavor of coffee beans is important. Coffee labels are like wine labels - generally, you can get a lot of information about coffee flavor from the label. From this coffee name: Ethiopia Natural Sidamo Guji 2.0, we can get the following information: Country: Ethiopia; Region: Sidamo Guji; Grade: G1; Processing Method: Natural; Name: Guji 2.0.

If you buy beans that only say Ethiopia without other information, they're usually from large producing regions.

B. Packaging Date (Roasting Date)

Pay attention to whether the packaging date is recent. Generally, the shelf life of raw coffee beans is one to two years, while the fresh period for roasted beans is within 2 months. Therefore, you should select freshly roasted coffee beans and use them within their fresh period to fully enjoy the most charming aroma and rich taste of coffee.

Freshly roasted coffee beans contain large amounts of gas and have active respiration. During extraction, the gas released from the beans creates the wonderful, full bubbles we see. Of course, some lightly roasted beans don't have such obvious bubbles.

C. Store and Brand

This goes without saying - some coffees might mix with other types of coffee to reduce costs. So be careful! For example, mixing cheaper coffee beans into more expensive ones, or mixing poor-quality coffee beans of the same variety into high-quality ones, which will seriously affect the taste. Therefore, when buying coffee beans, try to choose reputable stores or brands. Domestically popular home-roasted beans tend to be fresher than supermarket-bought beans. Choose trustworthy coffee shops.

However, many people report that they find coffee delicious when tasting it in-store but the flavor is disappointing when brewing it at home. This is likely influenced by the following reasons:

First, the particle uniformity of home grinders differs from commercial grinders in terms of uniformity and fineness;

Additionally, some coffee shops might use water quality that's relatively better than household tap water;

For pour-over coffee, the material of the filter cup, the material of the pour-over kettle... etc., all have some impact.

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