Friends often ask Huahua how to choose coffee beans, how to distinguish good from bad, how to tell whether they are fresh or not? Or are there any good coffee beans you can recommend...

After so many years of popularity, coffee has become available in the streets and alleys of every city. The dazzling array of coffee packaging either has professional terms that are obscure and difficult for ordinary consumers to understand, or is piled with all kinds of gorgeous words.

How to quickly and correctly choose coffee beans has become a difficult problem for coffee beginners. If the choice is difficult, just don't buy it! The following content will let you know in detail how to choose the coffee beans that are suitable for you.

There are actually many professional coffee bean selection guides on the Internet. I think these articles are good, but too professional, and they are all aimed at professional coffee lovers with many years of experience. I think this time I would like to talk about this matter from the perspective of a so-called coffee "novice" who just likes to drink a cup of coffee every day, but is not satisfied with going to a coffee shop to buy ready-made coffee, and wants to roll up his sleeves and try it at home. It is actually quite simple.

When buying roasted coffee beans, you must look at the roasting date

We often hear or read that freshly roasted and ground coffee is the best. Is this true? There is no doubt about this. The prototype of coffee is actually a fruit that looks like a cherry. The fruit contains the seeds that can be made into coffee. After the seeds are roasted, they become the dark brown and fragrant coffee beans we usually see.

Many coffee lovers who are new to coffee ask, why is coffee sour? Have you ever seen fruit that is not sour? Why is it bitter? If melon seeds are roasted a little too much, will they have a burnt aroma?

When we choose coffee beans, we first look at its roasting date. The coffee will reach its peak flavor about a week after roasting, and its flavor will begin to decline after a month... The longer the time, the more bitter the coffee will be, and other flavors will slowly disappear. Nitrogen and sealed packaging in the market can only delay the loss of flavor, but cannot guarantee that the coffee flavor will not be lost.

Secondly, you should pay attention to the specifications when purchasing coffee beans. Generally, it is best to buy coffee beans in packages of more than 200 grams, and no more than 500 grams at most. Coffee beans packaged over one kilogram are basically prepared for coffee shops. Even the highest-quality and most expensive coffee beans will not taste good after three months of baptism.

Types of coffee beans

Coffee produced by different coffee trees will have different flavors. This is just like different grape vines can produce red wines with different tastes. The first factor in choosing good coffee beans is to look at the variety of coffee beans. Currently, there are two main types of coffee in the world: Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica: Better coffee flavor.

Robusta: Strong resistance to pests and diseases, high yield, but poor flavor, strong bitterness, mainly used in commercial blends and instant coffee. Here you just need to remember one thing, check the ingredient label on the back of the coffee package to see if it is 100% Arabica coffee beans.

Look at the label on the back of the package and choose 100% Arabica coffee beans

The difference in flavor

In order to show their expertise, many businesses and manufacturers now advertise professional terms on the packaging, such as Colombia, Kenya AA, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia, Mocha...

But as novices, we don’t know what this is. Even if you tell me that this is a place name, indicating the quality of coffee beans, I still don’t know what’s so good about it! In fact, I just want to find a coffee that is a little stronger, not too sour, and not too bitter. The furthest distance in the world is that you don’t know what I want!

Let’s briefly talk about some human words that everyone can understand: Don’t tell me about place names, tell me what these coffees taste like!

Just remember these places of origin of coffee beans!

The origin of coffee beans is what ultimately determines the flavor of coffee, just like why the red wine from Porto, France is good, because the grapes there are good. This is not difficult to understand. The coffee growing belt is mainly in the high mountains and plateaus of more than 70 countries and regions near the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

However, there are so many coffee producing areas that most people would be overwhelmed. In fact, if you remember the following simple points, you can not only choose with ease, but also instantly improve your status in front of your friends:

• Brazil: Full taste, reminiscent of chocolate, dried fruit, hazelnuts or almonds. In principle, Brazilian coffee is less sour, with a long and sweet aftertaste.
• Colombia: Balanced flavor, juice-like and full-bodied, with peach, plum, and red berry notes, such as black cherry and blackberry.
• Guatemala: Soft, with flavors of cream, chocolate and fruit
• Kenya: Strong fruit acidity, often with passion fruit and citrus flavors. Kenyan coffee has a lively flavor and high acidity, suitable for pairing with chocolate cakes and desserts.
• Ethiopia: The homeland of coffee, with a wild flavor, full of floral and fruity notes.
• Indonesia: Full-bodied, low in acidity, high in sweetness. Reminiscent of wet soil, leather, and grass jelly

4. The influence of coffee roasting degree on flavor

The degree of coffee roasting also has a great impact on the flavor of coffee. In simple terms, it is nothing more than light roasting, medium roasting and dark roasting. Generally speaking:

• Light roasted: The coffee has high acidity and a smooth taste. It retains the coffee tree species and regional flavor and tastes more like fruit tea.
• Medium roast: A balance of sweet and sour, it retains the fruity flavor of coffee while also having notes of caramel, nuts, and cocoa. This is the flavor most people like.
• Dark roast: Like a glass of mellow whiskey, it has rich layers and is suitable for drinking alone or with milk.
• The most famous originator of deep roasting in the history of specialty coffee is the founder of Starbucks (the three original founders of Starbucks learned coffee roasting here) Peet's Coffee in the United States, which has a history of 50 years. The founder is a Dutchman named Alfred Peet. Peet's deep roasting completely changed Americans' understanding of coffee. The biggest feature of their deep roasted beans is the rich taste and many layers. Although it is dark roasted, it is not bitter.

There are some misunderstandings recently that light roasted coffee is the third wave of specialty coffee, and dark roasted coffee is outdated and bad. This concept is completely wrong. There is no difference between light and dark roasting. Flavor determines everything. The flavor you like is the best for you.

What is blended coffee?

The above are all single-origin coffee beans, that is, coffee beans from a single origin. The other is blended coffee beans, which are coffee beans from different origins mixed together. When we drink coffee, we usually pay attention to the balance of flavors to satisfy everyone's taste as much as possible. At this time, blended coffee beans are the best choice. For example, the Italian coffee we often drink, that is, latte, mocha, cappuccino, etc. in coffee shops, these espressos are all made from blended coffee beans.

Summarize

1. The best drinking period of coffee beans: preferably coffee beans roasted within 1 month, and at most 3 months.

2. Roasting degree: Light roast tastes like tea, with obvious fruit acidity. Medium roast is the most balanced. Dark roast has a heavier taste and more obvious bitterness. These are not absolute. For example, good sweetness is something that all excellent roasts should have.

3. Origin: The origin of coffee beans corresponds to different flavors. See the flavors corresponding to the representative origins above. For example, if you like the taste of cocoa and nuts, you can try Brazilian coffee. If you want a stronger and more stimulating flavor, you can try Indonesian coffee.

Whether you buy coffee in a supermarket, a coffee shop, or online, don't be afraid, take a closer look at the label on the back of the package and ask the waiter at the online store. Every time you try a new coffee, it's like developing a roll of film. There may be times of regret, but more often it's the joy of surprise that comes with the unknown.

It is a blessing to get up in the morning and make a cup of coffee for the one you love. There are many beautiful things in life worth pursuing, and making a cup of good coffee by yourself is one of them.