• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Epicurean Traveler

A Blog For The Culinary Explorer

  • Destinations
    • Asia
    • Europe
      • Greece
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • Switzerland
    • North America
      • Canada
      • Central America
        • Costa Rica
      • Mexico
      • USA
        • Colorado
        • Florida
        • Michigan
        • Minnesota
        • New York
        • Wisconsin
    • South America
      • Peru
  • Hotels & Resorts
  • Restaurants
  • Recipes
  • Beer, Wine & Spirits
  • Style
  • Show Search
Hide Search
Roasted Coffee Beans

How To Choose The Perfect Coffee Beans

Have you wondered how to select coffee beans? With so many choices for brewing coffee at home, finding coffee beans that suit your taste can be overwhelming. In this post, guest blogger Pippa Shaw shares five tips for choosing the correct coffee bean for you. 

If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, then it stands to reason that coffee must be the most important drink of the day!

But why should you waste your time on sub-par coffee beans that ruin this delicious experience? With our guide on how to choose the best coffee beans, you’ll be a connoisseur in no time, never again settling for imperfection!

Starting with getting the right beans for your palette and preferences, taking a little time in your coffee-selection process will make a world of difference to your morning (or afternoon) beverage so you can enjoy that cup of perfect coffee we all deserve.

Table of Contents

  • 1 1. Know Your Preferences
  • 2 2. Location, Location, Location
    • 2.1 Coffee Countries
  • 3 3. Fresh Is Best
  • 4 4.  Use The Right Beans For The Right Brew
  • 5 5. Get The Full Effect
  • 6 Love Coffee? Don’t Miss These Posts …

1. Know Your Preferences

When the coffee beans world looks a little too large, think about the flavors, brands, and blends you already like. That isn’t to say you should only drink what you know, but what you know is a great place to start.

You can begin by choosing your favorite category of bean from Arabica and Robusta. Arabica beans are grown at higher altitudes and have an acidic, smooth taste. Robusta beans grow at lower altitudes and have a more robust and more bitter flavor profile. We’re sure your preferences say something about who you are, but we’ll leave that to you!

Coffee Berries

© Daniel Ramirez / Pixabay

2. Location, Location, Location

The geographical location of a coffee tree will have an impact on the flavors in your cup. So, paying attention to where your coffee beans come from is a great way to establish whether you’re going to get a cup of deliciousness or the stuff of nightmares (depending on your tastes).

Coffee is grown on the “Bean Belt” that sits along the equator. Any quality coffee provider will clearly state where their beans grew. So, if you cannot find this information on the packaging, you can do better!

Coffee Countries

Over 50 countries grow and produce coffee, but you might not find all of them in your local store. Do your research (and maybe some coffee-tasting) to discover which region offers the flavor, acidity, and balances you prefer.

To start with, look out for the following popular growing locations, and try to buy Fairtrade coffee when possible:

  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Ethiopia
  • Hawaii
  • Indonesia
  • Kenya

3. Fresh Is Best

Once you’ve found the flavor profiles that best match your tastes, please don’t ruin it by leaving your coffee sitting in a jar for years on end! Remember coffee is a fruit and will lose its flavor over time — even if it doesn’t go “bad” as quickly as the apple on your desk.

The best time to drink coffee is roughly 7-14 days after the roast date, and you should always aim to consume within three weeks. Buying beans and grinding them yourself is a great way to retain freshness, and NEVER buy coffee that doesn’t tell you when it was roasted!

A cup of cappuccino with coffee bean as background close up

© Fabio Balbi / Adobe Stock

4.  Use The Right Beans For The Right Brew

Finding the right bean for the beverage you plan to brew can be an incredibly subjective topic, so we’ll try to tread carefully.

However, choosing the right type of coffee based on how you plan to drink it can make a massive difference to the experience. Generally, blends for milky coffees and single origins for black coffee is best.

The difference between these two types of coffee is simple: blends take various beans (from different areas or even parts of the world) and combine them to produce specific and complex flavor profiles. Often these blends are created to add milk to the coffee. Naturally, this makes them perfect for milky coffees such as lattes and cappuccinos.

Single origins (as the name suggests) come from a single geographic location like a farm or estate. Single-origin coffees allow the drinker to taste and appreciate the specific nuances each bean has to offer. Therefore, single-origin beans are great for espresso or black coffee as nothing distracts from the flavor.

Ground Coffee

© Elias Shariff Falla Mardini / Pixabay

5. Get The Full Effect

There is no point in searching for the perfect coffee bean if you’re going to chuck it in a cheap coffee maker. Give your perfectly selected beans the love and attention they deserve with quality brewers like the ones found at Uno Casa. Your taste buds will thank us (and you)!

By taking a little more time to select your coffee beans, you’ll be amazed at how much tastier every cup of coffee will be. You may even notice when your friends or favorite coffee shop serves sub-par beverages. Sorry about that!

About the Guest Blogger

Pippa Shaw is a freelance copywriter able to write confidently on almost any topic thanks to her eagerness to learn and passion for storytelling. She lives on her 28ft sailing yacht with her partner and cat and dreams of traveling the world and writing in every country.

Love Coffee? Don’t Miss These Posts …

15 Things You Should Know About Italian Coffee

7 Ann Arbor Spots That Aren’t Your Average Coffee Shops

To easily refer back to this post, save the image below to your coffee board on Pinterest!

How to Pick the Perfect Coffee Beans

Editor’s Note: The lead photo in this post is by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay. 

Share This Post
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Share on StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Tumblr
Tumblr
Share on Reddit
Reddit
Buffer this page
Buffer
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Digg this
Digg
Email this to someone
email

Written by:
erinklema
Published on:
October 28, 2020
Thoughts:
No comments yet

Categories: Coffee, Drink, Guest PostTags: Coffee, Coffee Beans

Get My Travel Tips In Your Inbox

Enter your email address to receive my travel articles, packing lists, and foodie travel itinerary ideas in your email!

Reader Interactions

What do you think? Leave your comment here ... Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Erin, and welcome to my culinary travel blog! I'm a proud Michigander sharing culinary adventures with you from the Midwest and beyond. Though I'm exploring the world one bite at a time, I'm confident I could live on pizza and red wine. I mean, if I really had to.

In Your Inbox

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Connect With Us

  • View theepicureantraveler’s profile on Facebook
  • View epctraveler’s profile on Twitter
  • View michiganepicure’s profile on Instagram
  • View erinklema’s profile on Pinterest

Note To Our Readers

As a resource for culinary travelers, we hope you continue to daydream about traveling and use this site to plan future trips. If you do travel at this time, please do so as safely as possible for yourself and others.

Recent Posts

  • Ditching Wings for Wheels: 5 Road-Trip Tips for Safer Travel
  • Detroit Holiday Events: 15 Festive Things To Do In Detroit At Christmastime
  • Travel Guide To Banda Neira Island — Indonesia’s Spice Hub
  • How To Choose The Perfect Coffee Beans
  • Michigan Apple Cider Sangria with Honeycrisp Apples and Leelanau Cellars Witches Brew

Popular Posts

Top 10 Things To Do In Toronto During Your Weekend Getaway
8 Beautiful Lavender Fields You Must See In Michigan
Five Tips For What To Wear In Colorado
Before Traveling To Peru Prepare For These Four Health Risks
Saugatuck, Michigan Trip: Four Things To Do In A Day
Lunch in Ann Arbor, Michigan - Five Spots Where You Should Eat (With Map)

Proud Member Of

Everywhere
CLEVER Badge

Footer

Copyright © 2021 · The Epicurean Traveler

Affiliate Disclosure

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Work With Us
  • Contact Us
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.