Everything You Need to Buy Better Coffee
Introduction
If you are just now stepping into the world of specialty roasted coffee (often referred to as third wave coffee), you likely are feeling overwhelmed by all the various phrases and jargon being thrown at you. This may leave you with questions like: “What is a natural process coffee? What do you mean there's a difference between v60 and Chemex? Have you tried this new anaerobic fermentation yet?”
If any of this even remotely applies to you, we have a very easy flow chart down below that will help you decipher what coffees of ours you might like based on your personal taste-preference and brewing method. If you don't want to read, just skip down to that graph!
There are a few things to consider when buying coffees for yourself: Roast level and processing method. Understanding how these two factors affect the final taste of your coffee will help you better-understand how to shop smarter for your favorite beans!
ROAST LEVEL
A great rule of thumb for not only coffee, but food in general is that color dictates the flavor of the thing being consumed. If a coffee is lighter in color, its roast level is going to be lighter and thus more delicate and brighter flavors like citrus, berries, grapes or nuts come through in the final cup. Conversely, if the roast is darker, flavors like chocolate and some more savory tones come through in the coffee, resulting in a more full-bodied cup with some bitterness.
If you like adding sugar, cream, or making lattes on an espresso machine, then a medium or darker roast is what we recommend! That bitterness helps hold the coffee flavor up against the cream and sugar better than a light roast could. This is not to say light roasts are not for espresso, they just tend to be better without the addition of milk because they can be so bright and acidic!
PROCESSING METHOD
Processing is arguably one of the biggest contributors to the taste of coffee in our opinion. We have covered two processing methods in a past blog post (Natural and Washed), but have yet to even truly scratch the surface. In coffee processing, you can leave the fruit of the coffee on the bean itself, or you can wash it off. By leaving the fruit on (natural process) you are going to get a fruitier cup of coffee. When this roast is taken to a medium level, you get fruity notes mixed with chocolate notes that make for a cup of coffee that tastes like chocolate covered fruits! If a coffee hasthat fruit removed (Washed), you are able to highlight the origin characteristics of that bean. Meaning you get a very clean cup of coffee that will vary in taste from region to region! There are processing methods that take techniques from either of these methods to create a unique processing method. One example of that is in honey processed coffees. WIth honey processing, the beans dont actually get honey on them, but part of the fruit is left on while its fermented, similar to the sweetness of a natural coffee but with a lot of the clarity and definition that a washed coffee gives!
Enough talk, let's dive into this flow chart! Choose your coffee brewing method of choice and follow it down! If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment down below and we would be happy to assist!
