Coffee Selection Guide: How to Choose The Right Coffee Beans?

Coffee lovers always try to find a solution to make their coffee as tastier as professional barista coffee. Do you know that to make the perfect cup of joe, you need to select the right coffee beans that suit your taste buds? 

Deciding on which beans to buy can be challenging with several options, types, and flavours available in the market but not a worry! You can use our  personalised coffee filter to find your  perfect match.

To help you, here are the tips for choosing the right coffee beans for you and your family:

Always choose a freshly roasted coffee

Cooler is better! Once roasted, in fact, the coffee beans retain their olfactory and gustatory qualities for only 30 days in a sealed bag. Beyond this date, the coffee beans will slowly become stale and give off ashy aromas. In general, you should always check the date the beans were roasted and always choose a roaster that indicates these roasting dates on the package or elsewhere. One way to make sure your beans are freshly roasted is through Ronita Coffee!

Ronita is a locally owned and operated roaster that will bring you freshly roasted coffee on a daily basis! Visit our website for more information on our coffee subscriptions.

It would be best to use coffee beans within a reasonable time of purchasing. Otherwise, beans will lose their flavour. Unfortunately, coffee bean's taste starts to weaken as soon as they finish the roasting process.  

Beans release carbon dioxide in the degassing process, and the delicious oils that give the beans their flavour evaporates. So, to enjoy the maximum taste, buy freshly roasted beans and do not forget to check the roasted date as well. 

Aromas are volatile, they are dispersed in the air, and surface fats are powerful odor catalysts. Coffee must therefore always be stored in an airtight container made of steel, dark glass or ceramic to limit as much as possible the loss of fragrances into the environment or the absorption by the coffee of other odors present in the air. Browse through our airtight coffee storage equipment and keep your coffee fresh!

Decide on Single Origin or a Blend 

A Single Origin bean comes from a single estate. Therefore, it has its unique flavour, and it may not be over-balanced or complexed. 

In contrast, a blend is a combination of several single-origin beans. It has a more complex profile than single blend beans. Blends are usually much heavier than single-origin and taste better with milk. 

Blended coffee beans can also offer you big surprises… just like a blended whiskey! 

Just like whiskey, blends can reveal unique and unprecedented aromas! This is why we would advise you to turn to artisan coffee roasters  because their blends will offer you traceability and sometimes even labels and certifications, as with organic coffees.

Both single-origin and blended coffee beans are famous around the world and can be equally delicious. 

Choose Beans According To Roast Level 

The degree to which you roast the coffee beans is one of the significant factors for developing the taste of the coffee. You can choose between these three levels of roasting:

• Light Roast: Light roast coffee beans have no oil on the surface. It retains its original coffee characteristic, high in acidity and caffeine content. 
• Medium Roast: Medium roast coffee is just like light roast beans, and it also has no oil on the surface. These coffee beans have a more balanced flavour, aroma, and acidity between light and dark roasts.
• Dark Roast: Dark roast coffee beans stay on the roasting machine for a long time or at a higher temperature. They have less or no moisture, which makes them less dense, less caffeinated, and more single-note in flavour.

The roasting process is the art of roasting green coffee beans at a high temperature. The roasting process acts as an aroma developer / enhancer . Therefore, coffee beans can lose flavor and specificity without the correct roasting process.

There are several roasting methods, but here is what you need to know: if the roasting is not dark enough, the coffee beans may be too acidic, as mentioned above. If, on the other hand, the coffee is too dark, almost burnt, these beans will be too bitter. Depending on the roasting, the taste of the coffee will be altered in this way.

This is the first thing that I learned as a coffee enthusiast and since then everything was different, especially the coffee I ended up buying!

A light roast (when the beans are light brown in color) is generally more suitable for the extraction of filter coffee or the longer extraction generally also known as slow coffee. Through these filtering methods, which include French Press, Chemex, V60, etc., the coffee will develop more acidic and fruity notes.

Determine How Much Caffeine You Want 

A medium-dark roast is best suited for espresso machines. For a bean-to-cup machine, mocha or manual espresso machine, using a light roast will only result in coffee that is too acidic.

Match a Bean for a Brewer

You should be familiar with your coffee brewer style and learn which beans are the best match. Here are some tips for you:

• Plunger: It is best for light to medium roast beans and a single blend. 
• Stove Top: It suits medium to dark roast coffee, medium to heavy body beans, single or blend.
• Cold Brew: Choose light roast, fruity and aromatic coffee beans – mainly single origin. 
• Espresso machine: It is best for medium to dark roast coffee beans, single or blend. 

Beans Based on Origin 

Geographical area, growing conditions, and economic factors affect the taste of coffee flavours. It's no surprise that coffee grown in one country will be different in texture and flavours than it is grown in another country.

The coffee that grows in warmer latitudes between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn is considered to be tastier. Also, coffee grown in cold areas has its own flavours and characteristics. 

Arabica coffee

Arabica, a plant native to Ethiopia (where coffee is called buna), south-eastern Sudan and northern Kenya and later spread to Yemen, claims first historical traces of the consumption of the drink, back in 1450 among the followers of Sufism.

The seeds of arabica have a much lower caffeine content than those of other widespread species and compared to other species it is self-pollinating, i.e. autogamous and also prefers high altitude crops (between 1000 and 2000 meters).

The cultivation of arabica outside the territories of origin started very early, e.g. in Indonesia in 1699.

Robusta coffee

Another popular coffee bean is Robusta (or Coffea canephora, a name considered scientifically more correct but little used commercially). It is a species native to tropical Africa, between Uganda and Guinea, very adaptable (it also grows at altitudes below 700 meters) and therefore cheaper.

Its cultivation only began in the nineteenth century. It is an allogamous plant, therefore it requires cross-pollinations that can genetically differentiate it more easily than Arabica.

Liberica coffee

Among the less widespread crop species, the most important is Coffea liberica, native to Liberia and cultivated, as well as in West Africa, especially in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Excelsa coffee

In 1903, a new species of coffee tree was discovered in Africa, named Excelsa. However, botanists subsequently assumed that this species was actually just a variety of Coffea liberica.

The variety continues to be called Excelsa by growers and traders and is seen as very promising.

So, choose coffee beans according to the origin and your taste buds. You can inquire about the harvesting area for beans you are planning to buy for your family. Try and taste different varieties of coffee so that you have a better idea of which is best for regular use. 

Don't Stop Experimenting!

In the end, there's no right or wrong way to decide which coffee beans are best for you and your family. So, what's most important is to experiment with various beans according to your desire for caffeine content and try different flavours. You can pick a blend from 37 different blends available at Ronita and decide which one is the perfect match!

Serious about improving your coffee knowledge? Take your coffee brewing knowledge and skills to the next level with our in house Barista training school!