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What Coffee Beans Are Best for Beginners? Choosing the Right Beans and Tasting Your Way to Coffee Mastery

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange, more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Beginner Coffee Bean Selection. First, Texture: Take one or two coffee beans and chew them in your mouth. If they are crisp and make a sound (indicating the beans are not moisture-damaged) and leave a lasting fragrance in your mouth, they are of superior quality. Then press them with your fingers to feel if they are solid, ensuring you're not buying hollow coffee beans.

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For more coffee bean information, please follow Cafe Style (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Coffee Bean Selection for Beginners

1. Texture

Take one or two coffee beans and chew them. If they make a crisp sound (indicating the beans are not damp) and leave a pleasant fragrance in your mouth, they are of high quality. Then squeeze them with your hands to feel if they are solid, ensuring you don't buy hollow coffee beans.

2. Aroma

If the coffee beans have lost their fragrance or smell stale, it indicates that these beans are no longer fresh and not suitable for purchase.

Freshly roasted coffee beans are not suitable for immediate consumption; they should be stored for a week to allow the gases inside the beans to fully release. Generally, the optimal drinking period for coffee is one week after roasting. At this time, the coffee is freshest, and its aroma and taste performance are at their best.

3. Appearance

The purity of coffee beans is another important factor. When professionals select coffee, they don't necessarily look at the size of the beans but rather grab a handful of single-origin coffee beans (Regional Coffee), about dozens at a time, to check if each bean's color is consistent, and if the size and shape are similar, to avoid buying inferior products disguised as mixed beans. However, if it's blended coffee (Blended Coffee), different sizes and colors are normal.

4. Oil Content

Dark and medium-dark roasting will cause coffee beans to release oil; however, if lightly roasted coffee beans appear greasy, it indicates they have deteriorated. Such beans not only have reduced richness but also develop unpleasant astringency and sourness...

Coffee suitable for beginners should undoubtedly be affordable, fresh, and delicious. Then you need to choose according to your desired flavor profile. African coffees have bright fruit acidity with floral and fruity aromas; American coffees have soft, clean acidity with balanced, smooth flavors; Asian coffees have low acidity with herbal and caramel notes. Everyone's flavor preferences are different, so when choosing coffee beans, you must let the shopkeeper know your requirements. As you drink more, you'll naturally become more knowledgeable.

Knowledge Point

According to the combination of coffee beans, Arabica and Robusta varieties are divided into single-origin coffee and espresso coffee.

In Brief

FrontStreet Coffee is a specialty coffee research hub, happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation just to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month, we hold three coffee events with significant discounts 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!