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How to Easily Select Good Roasted Coffee Beans: A Guide from FrontStreet Coffee

Today, FrontStreet Coffee shares the first step in homemade coffee: how to easily select good roasted coffee beans.

Freshness is Most Important

Just like vegetables, fruits, and various meats, coffee beans are alive, and freshness is their highest priority for selection.

Moreover, we rarely buy more than a week's worth of vegetables or fruits, so coffee should also be purchased in quantities that can be consumed within a short period.

The optimal drinking period for coffee beans is during the degassing period, approximately 4-28 days after roasting. This period may vary depending on the coffee beans and roasting method. You can ask the coffee shop about the optimal degassing period.

Therefore, when purchasing coffee beans, you need to ask the shop owner about the roasting date and only buy quantities that can be consumed within one month from the roasting date.

Appropriate Fragility and Crispness

To choose good coffee beans, here is a reference guide:

Look

Grab a handful of coffee beans and feel with your palm whether they are solid beans.

Smell

Bring them close to your nose and smell whether the aroma is sufficient.

Press

Fresh coffee beans are crisp when pressed, and release fragrance when cracked. You can put a bean in your mouth and bite it twice - a crisp sound indicates the bean is well-preserved and not damp, but if it breaks easily with a gentle pinch, it might be over-roasted.

Color

Dark, nearly black coffee beans produce bitter coffee when brewed; yellowish coffee beans produce coffee with acidic notes.

Good Coffee Beans

They have uniform shapes, bright luster, are roasted using single-origin methods, and produce aromatic coffee with a strong aftertaste when brewed.

Bad Coffee Beans

They have inconsistent shapes, incomplete individual forms, and produce light fragrance when brewed, lacking richness and smoothness.

Packaging and Origin

To properly store coffee beans for up to a month, they must be kept in an environment with low oxygen, dryness, low temperature, and low light.

Currently, most coffee shops use aluminum foil composite packaging with a one-way degassing valve.

This is because coffee beans have a so-called degassing phenomenon (carbon dioxide) after roasting. If the bag is sealed, you'll see the coffee bag swell, and it might even burst. The one-way degassing valve allows gas to escape while blocking moisture and oxygen from entering.

After opening, if the bean bag has a zipper, be sure to expel as much air as possible before closing the zipper. If there's no zipper, you must fold the bag several times and use a clip to avoid air circulation as much as possible.

On the label, pay attention to whether there are various descriptions telling you about the coffee bean's origin history, production process, production time, etc.

While more detailed information doesn't necessarily mean better taste, the probability of finding good coffee is higher than bags with no information or those filled with sentimental stories!

How to Care for Purchased Roasted Coffee Beans

The flavor oils in coffee beans are easily oxidized, so before sealing coffee, you should squeeze the air out of the coffee bean sealed container or coffee bag before closing. Don't give air any opportunity.

It's also important to let coffee beans reach room temperature before opening to release gas. Otherwise, opening the package when moving from low to higher temperatures will cause a layer of water vapor to form on the coffee beans.

High temperatures cause coffee beans to release oils, increasing the opportunity and degree of flavor oil oxidation by air. Therefore, you can also consider storing coffee beans or coffee powder in the refrigerator. Before refrigerating, check that the seal is tight, otherwise the coffee will become a deodorizer in the fridge!

Compared to coffee beans, coffee powder has a larger contact area with air and is more easily oxidized. It's recommended to grind only enough for 2-3 brews at a time.

The Beauty of the Third Wave Coffee Movement

The greatest charm of the third wave coffee movement led by specialty coffee is that it's no longer an exclusive domain for professionals, but a stage where every ordinary person can participate.

Every ordinary individual can choose their favorite coffee in an environment of open information, making good coffee a part of daily life.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473