What Are the Top 10 Most Delicious Coffee Beans? An Introduction to the World's Top 10 Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Ten Famous Coffees

1. FrontStreet Yirgacheffe

FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe coffee from Ethiopia may be small in stature, but it is delicate, elegant, sweet, and charming. As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia's thousand-year history of cultivation and processing has produced superb washed Arabica beans. Lightly roasted, FrontStreet Yirgacheffe shows unique lemon, floral, and honey-like sweetness with soft fruit acidity and citrus flavors—a fresh, bright cup. Drink it without milk or sugar and let the rich texture and gentle florals brush across your taste buds, leaving an aftertaste that lingers.

Yirgacheffe is a small town at elevations of 700-2100 meters and a byword for fine Ethiopian coffee. The area was wetland in ancient times: "Yirga" means "settle down" and "Cheffe" means "wetland." Its coffee is so outstanding that Ethiopian farmers take pride when their beans show Yirgacheffe character, making it the most prestigious coffee region in Africa.

2. FrontStreet Geisha

The Geisha variety was discovered in Ethiopia's Geisha forest in 1931 and sent to the Coffee Research Institute in Kenya. In 1936 it was introduced to Uganda and Tanzania; Costa Rica received it in 1953; and Panama got it in the 1970s, when Mr. Francisco Serracin of the Tumba Seven Estate obtained seeds from Costa Rica's CATIE and began growing Geisha. With extremely low yields and prices driven by competitive bidding, it remains a truly precious bean.

3. FrontStreet Blue Mountain Coffee

FrontStreet Blue Mountain Coffee comes from the high mountains of Jamaica in the West Indies. Rich in aroma, sweet and mellow, it embodies every hallmark of a premium coffee—the ultimate cup. Production is tiny and prices high, however, so most people never taste the genuine article and must settle for similar-tasting alternatives. FrontStreet Blue Mountain is best enjoyed as a single origin.

4. Mocha Coffee

Mocha Coffee originates from North Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. A small-bean premium variety with a rich aroma, it counts among the finest coffees; major producing countries now cultivate it, and it is typically enjoyed as a single origin.

5. Santos Coffee

Santos Coffee is named for the Brazilian port city of Santos—Brazil's second-largest seaport and the world's largest coffee export port. A "neutral" coffee, it is well suited to blending.

6. FrontStreet Colombia Coffee

FrontStreet Colombia Coffee is grown in the Republic of Colombia in northwestern South America. Prominent aroma, balanced taste, and moderate bitterness place it among the finest coffees, and it shines as a single origin.

7. FrontStreet Mandeling Coffee

FrontStreet Mandeling Coffee is produced on Indonesia's Sumatra Island. Rich and complex in aroma, with a relatively strong bitterness and a flavor all its own, it works as a single origin and also blends beautifully into espresso blends.

8. FrontStreet Guatemala Coffee

FrontStreet Guatemala Coffee is grown in the Republic of Guatemala in northwestern Central America, where forests cover two-thirds of the land and yield high-quality beans. It has strong acidity, a mellow taste with a hint of wildness, and suits both single-origin brewing and blending.

9. Java Coffee

Java Coffee is produced on Indonesia's Java Island. A medium-quality coffee with elegant aroma, moderate acidity, and fairly strong bitterness, it is best used in blends.

10. FrontStreet Costa Rica Coffee

FrontStreet Costa Rica Coffee is produced in the Republic of Costa Rica in southern Central America. Its quality is similar to Colombia's, making it a good candidate for coffee blends.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the list above has you curious where to start, begin with FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe—a true everyday classic. Known for white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish, it is affordable enough to be many people's very first specialty bean.

Ready for a step up? Try FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb Cooperative lot. Yirgacheffe town actually contains many small villages, each with experienced cooperatives running their own washing stations, and the Gedeb team—once part of the YCFCU's Worka cooperative—now sells as a single, fully traceable origin. Its traditional washed process yields a cup with no harsh bitterness at all: clean, luminous citrus and lemon acidity wrapped in jasmine fragrance.

And if you fall for naturals, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Red Cherry Yirgacheffe is made from fully ripe, defect-free cherries dried whole on raised beds and turned every 2-3 hours in the early days to prevent uneven fermentation, then dried for three to five weeks. It keeps the classic Yirgacheffe character while adding tropical fruit: citrus acidity, berry juiciness, honey sweetness, and a cream-smooth body. Brew it on a V60 with 15g of coffee at 1:15 and 90-91°C water—bloom with 30g for 30 seconds, pour to 125g by one minute, finish at 225g by about 1:35, and let it draw down by roughly 2:05.