Which Coffee Beans are Best for Beginners: A Guide to Entry-Level Coffee Bean Selection

FrontStreet Coffee's Beginner's Coffee Selection Guide

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When selecting coffee beans, pay attention to these four key elements: production date, unit price, roast level, and flavor profile and origin. These elements are generally indicated on the packaging, which I'll explain in detail below.

1. Choosing the Production Date

Coffee has an optimal tasting period. After opening, coffee powder or beans gradually oxidize and lose flavor. Commercial coffee beans or powder typically come in 0.5-pound (approximately 225g) packages, enough for half a month. Coffee beans taste best within 2-4 weeks after roasting, with significant flavor decline after 8 weeks. As for coffee powder, the tasting period is even shorter – it's best to brew within 1-2 weeks of packaging. Additionally, coffee powder oxidizes faster after opening, and if stored improperly (high temperature and humidity), it may develop an oily taste in less than a week. We recommend purchasing coffee beans roasted within 30 days and grinding them fresh when brewing.

2. Unit Price of Coffee Beans

Coffee beans are similar to tea – expensive ones make you feel like you're drinking money with every sip, and you'll even regret cleaning your grinder; cheap ones can be used to break in a new grinder or for practice. For beginners, we recommend purchasing beans priced around 85 yuan per half-pound from flagship stores or enterprise shops on major e-commerce platforms. It's best to buy two different origins and flavors at once to make comparisons and train your palate.

3. Choosing the Roast Level

Coffee beans can be roughly divided into three roast levels: light roast, medium roast, and dark roast. From light to dark roast, the beans' taste transitions from acidic to bitter, and flavors go from complex to simple. If you're making single-origin coffee and want to taste the coffee's inherent flavors, we recommend choosing light to medium-light roasts, including Light roast, Cinnamon roast (deeper light roast), and Medium roast (lighter medium roast). If you don't like coffee with acidity, try deeper medium roasts like City roast (also known as city roast) or Full City roast (also known as deep city roast).

4. Flavor Description and Origin

The flavor of coffee beans is mysterious. Even with the same coffee beans, different brewing parameters (time, grind size, water temperature, pouring method) result in different flavors, not to mention that tastes vary among people... The flavor descriptions on coffee packaging are merely expressions from producers – they can serve as references, but the real taste should be experienced by yourself.

As for origins? I'll conventionally recommend Ethiopia (Yirgacheffe, Sidamo), Panama (Geisha), Indonesia (Mandheling), and Kenya (Kenya AA). I could write a whole book on this topic, but you'll gain experience with several purchases.

Knowledge Point: Arabica is one of the two most important varieties in the commercial coffee industry, with the other important variety being Robusta.

In Summary

FrontStreet Coffee is a dedicated coffee research establishment that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation because we want more friends to fall in love with coffee. Additionally, we hold three coffee promotion events with significant discounts each month. This is because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price – this has been our mission for the past six years!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473