"This coffee suits you and tastes best." You will never read such a sentence from me. Because taste is individual. Maybe we even like different coffee drinks.
This article aims to help you find out which coffees and coffee beans suit YOU.
With the 9 decision-making tips in these articles, you can discover your taste preferences and make the right choice at the coffee shelf.
Unfortunately, you only realize whether you truly like a coffee once it's in your cup. But if you follow these tips, you'll get closer and closer to your favorite coffees.
1. The Coffee Drinker Type: Espresso, Moka, or Filter?
If you are absolutely sure that you are an espresso type or a filter coffee drinker, you can jump directly to the section "Which coffee for espresso?". However, it might also be interesting for you to know why your guests always want to drink espresso or filter coffee at your place. Because that might have something to do with you.
Every coffee drink can be good! The question is, when do you want to drink the coffee and what effect should it have?
The short espresso is drunk at the end of a meal or al volo, meaning on the fly. The perfect quick indulgence and concentrated caffeine and flavor. A sip and gone! Espresso is many things, but not a good socializer. For that, the dwell time in the cup is simply too short.
If you're sitting with your dream woman or dream man for an afternoon date at a café and he or she orders an espresso, you might get nervous. If the order is filter coffee or latte macchiato, then that's quite promising. Both are the longest drinks in the coffee guild and the perfect conversation companions.
Remember: Do you want to drink coffee leisurely for a long time?
Then filter coffees, café crema, or espresso milk-based drinks like latte macchiato or cappuccino are suitable. Espresso is the perfect quick drink.
The amount of the drink is compared to its strength. The smaller a drink is, the higher the concentration. All drinks contain roughly the same amount of caffeine and other aromas that make up coffee. The decisive factor for this is the amount of coffee used and not so much the concentration of coffee particles. From 9 g of coffee beans, you always dissolve roughly the same amount - whether the drink is 25 ml of espresso or 150 ml of filter coffee.
The concentration of coffee particles is particularly important for the mouthfeel. The more concentrated a coffee is, the thicker the drink. A strong espresso feels heavy and creamy in the mouth.
At the same time, you experience a taste explosion, as the concentrated power of the coffee powder used is diluted with only about 25 ml of water. It consists of about 7 – 10% dissolved coffee particles and accordingly 90 – 93% water.
Filter coffee is at the other end of the scale. It has only 1.0 – 1.5% dissolved coffee particles, and 98.5 – 99% is water. It is tea-like in consistency and feels soft and light in the mouth. The taste, compared to espresso, is more "spread out" and not as explosive. This gives you more time to discover different flavors in filter coffee.
Important: Even just because of the concentration: filter coffee is more forgiving! If you brew an espresso from a bitter or sour coffee, you will taste it 10 times stronger in the espresso. Because it is up to 10 times more concentrated.
Are you more of an espresso or a filter coffee type? Or are you somewhere in the middle, with a café crème or Americano? Remember where you fit in. Because that is crucial for choosing coffee beans.
2. Light, medium, or dark roast?
Before choosing the beans, it's worth determining whether lighter or darker roasts suit you better. Depending on this, the taste won't matter as much when choosing coffee beans.
Basically, the lighter a roaster roasts their coffee, the more you taste the coffee bean itself. The darker the coffee is roasted, the more the flavor notes align. Dark roasted coffees taste increasingly roasty with longer roasting times. Light roasted coffees remind you that coffee is a fruit itself.
The higher the quality of a coffee, the more complex it is, and this is more evident in a light roast. But even the most complex flavor notes are reduced when a roast becomes very dark. Roasting is a process that first chemically transforms the coffee and then increasingly "burns" the substance. In the end, only ash and burnt notes remain.
The spectrum of coffee flavor ranges from fruity – sweet – chocolatey – to roasty. If you are interested in fruity notes, you should try lighter roasts. If you prefer roasty notes, then opt for darker coffee. The range between the two extremes is recommended for adventurous coffee drinkers from both camps.
Roasting light is as much a master discipline for roasters as a precise dark roast done to perfection. Roasts that are too light are "underdeveloped" and taste grassy and cereal-like. With dark roasts, significantly more smoke is produced. However, the coffee should taste as little of it as possible. Bready flavor notes develop when not enough energy is supplied to the roaster during longer roasts. This phenomenon, called "baking," is considered a roasting defect.
The art, therefore, is to master the extremes of roasting in the light or darker range, or to combine both in medium roasts.
Note: The darker the roast, the less you taste the diverse flavor notes of high-quality green coffees. The lighter the roast, the clearer it becomes that the green coffee is not good and may even have off-flavors. Roasters who buy lower-quality coffee will never roast it lightly but will "hide" it behind the roast.
The topic of roasting is very complex and presented here in a concise form.
3. Coffee Beans for Your Happiness: Arabica or Robusta
Coffea Arabica is the more widespread and naturally higher quality coffee species. Coffea Canephora is the counterpart to Arabica and is commonly referred to as Robusta. Both species, in turn, consist of many subspecies and also occur as crosses. The two siblings of the Coffea family could hardly be more different. They have fundamentally different flavor profiles, and their caffeine content varies.
Because they belong to the same family, the unequal pair is regularly viewed from a single perspective. However, this viewpoint does not do justice to either and has, above all, long hindered Robusta's quality development.
The flavor profile of Canephora is strong, earthy, and full-bodied. Due to higher chlorogenic acid and double the amount of caffeine, Canephora is more bitter. Because of the more pronounced bitterness, the acidity and sweetness of Canephora are less noticeable, leading to limited flavor complexity in the cup. And here's the rub. Due to this basic premise, the cultivation of Canephora was often handled with significantly less care for decades. This amplified the earthy-bitter flavor profile with off-notes and irregularities, which also leads to a fundamentally lower price for Canephora on the coffee exchange. Historically, Canephora plays a role as a strong, powerful component in coffee blends. With a compact crema, Canephora became the standard for many inexpensive espresso blends. Particularly in southern Italian espresso blends, but also in many instant coffees, a lot of Robusta is used.
Arabica has a diverse aroma, relatively little perceived bitterness, and more pronounced delicate acids. When Arabica is cultivated at high altitudes and processed cleanly, enormous complexity develops. This inherent flavor profile of Arabica varieties led to Arabica being further optimized for quality. A scoring profile tailored to Arabica supported this development. The term "specialty coffee" today refers exclusively to Arabica coffees.
Trying to compare Arabica and Canephora is like comparing a pear to an apple. It doesn't do justice to either. It's all the more encouraging that more and more producers and producing countries are focusing on the production of high-quality Canephoras. Uganda is a pioneer in this, having been instrumental in developing a scoring sheet specifically for Canephora. This so-called "fine Cup Standard" will play an increasingly important role in the future. Not only because it is improving, but also because climate change will reduce Arabica cultivation areas and increase Robusta cultivation areas.
When does Robusta make sense?
Robusta is perfect for those who like really strong coffees. With a lot of punch, caffeine, and a thick crema. Robusta is standard in strong Italian blends. Anyone who enjoys coffee-milk drinks like cappuccino or latte macchiato has a strong option in Robusta. The inherent flavor of Robusta is strong enough not to be overpowered by the milk.
When does Arabica make sense?
With its complexity and naturally occurring acidity, many Arabicas make excellent filter coffees. Especially high-grown varieties that have been harvested ripe and precisely processed are exciting to discover in terms of flavor. The diversity of flavors in Arabicas is enormous, so an Arabica variety or preparation can be found for every drink and every taste. Arabicas can also be used for espresso roasts and blends. They can be used as single origin or as a blend. There are no limits to experimentation here.
4. Which coffee for filter coffee and French press?
The French Press is one of various filtering and brewing methods. In terms of taste, the same coffee that is suitable for classic filter methods such as the Melitta filter, the Hario V60 filter, or other pour-over filters, is also suitable for the French Press, also known as a plunger pot.
Compared to espresso, filter coffee is a less strong coffee. It has a concentration of dissolved coffee particles of approximately 1.2 to 1.5%. At this concentration, almost all flavors are "moderate." Coffees that are rather bitter are also only slightly concentrated and thus not very bitter, just like coffees that have more pronounced fruit acids.
Seen this way, anything is possible in the realm of filter coffee and it's up to personal taste. I personally recommend lighter roasted coffees for filter coffees, where the roast notes are in the background. Filter coffee is excellently suited for exploring the different flavor notes of various coffee regions. Depending on the region in Kenya or Ethiopia, the taste of the coffee already differs greatly within one country. The difference to coffees from Central America or Papua New Guinea is even greater.
Coffees brewed as filters are perfect for exploring coffee diversity. Therefore, I recommend: try it out.
Here are some flavor hints:
- Kenyan coffees often taste of red berries and are my favorite coffees for cold brew.
- Ethiopian, naturally processed coffees are often floral and have notes of blue berries.
- Coffees from Dipilto in Nicaragua taste strongly of chocolate.
- The Blue Batak from Sumatra has notes of licorice.
- Brazilian coffees often have nougat-chocolate notes.
The taste of a coffee largely depends on the region, the variety, and the way it is harvested and processed. Therefore, these mentioned flavors are very general. There are also Brazilian coffees from individual farms that taste completely different.
Filter coffees from very good roasteries
So many roasteries roast good filter coffees, so any list is too short. And as described above, it also strongly depends on which roasting philosophy you like best. I personally prefer filter coffees in the light to medium roasted spectrum. To discover outstanding filter coffees in the German-speaking market, I founded the Kaffee-Panel with sensory world champion Gloria Pedroza. We taste filter coffees and select the test winners. Our own filter coffees can be found here.
5. Which coffee for espresso?
Espresso, alongside Turkish coffee, is the strongest drink in the coffee universe. In numbers, this means: around 7 – 10% concentrated coffee particles compared to 90 – 93% water. What comes together in 20 to 30 milliliters is a full coffee punch. This is precisely why the internal balance of the coffee before and after brewing plays such a crucial role. At this concentration, anything unpleasant is ten times more unpleasant. Conveniently, the reverse is also true. Delicious things are very delicious!
Therefore, selecting coffee requires as much care as for filter coffee. And above all, "acidity" should be treated with caution. Important: Acidity is crucial for the complexity of any high-quality indulgence. A wine without acidity or a chocolate without acidity tastes bland and boring. It's similar with coffee. The challenge is to balance this acidity with the other attributes, i.e., in balance with sweetness, bitterness, and mouthfeel.
Roasting and extraction play an important role here. Because with coffee, unlike wine, it's not enough to simply buy a good product. It first has to be prepared. If a pronounced acidity can be brought into balance, then the espresso is almost certainly magnificent. The preparation is not difficult and easy to learn, but it requires a certain amount of care.
Therefore, for espresso, I recommend using more developed, i.e., darker roasted coffees. It is then easier to extract them during brewing.
If you feel confident, you can try various options. Often, a coffee package states: "for espresso" or "crema beans." This refers to the type of roasting. There are no "crema beans" or "espresso beans." It solely depends on how a coffee was roasted and whether it is suitable for a drink with that roast or not. The roaster's roasting philosophy also plays a role. For example, I use "filter coffee" from roasters who tend to roast darker as espresso, because it still seems balanced to me as an espresso.
What type of espresso drinker are you?
Do you swear by "Italian roasts"? Then the robusta content probably plays a big role and you like the bitterness of the rather darker roast. Roasters in Germany, Austria or Switzerland also roast this way. You don't have to reach for an Italian-branded package. Many local roasters will provide you with "Italian profiles". Again: the most important keywords are "dark", "strong" and often "robusta content".
If the espresso still doesn't taste like it does in Italy or exudes the atmosphere of an Italian barista, then it's either due to the preparation method, drink length, or your lack of vacation mood. I argue that espresso tastes so good in Italy because we're on our way to vacation AND because the extractions are much shorter and snappier. In Italy, we typically drink 15-18 ml of espresso. If 7-8 grams of coffee are used for this, then it's really strong and, above all, viscous. If there's also a Robusta content, the spoon almost stands up in the crema.
If we drink 40 ml of espresso from a fully automatic machine in Switzerland, it is more like a café crème than this concentrated dark espresso. By the way, Italy in the South and Italy in the North also differ significantly. The further south, the higher the Robusta content.
The opposite of Italian espresso, which impresses with strength and bitterness, is the slightly longer, more balanced espresso. Besides the coffee selection, the brewing ratio plays a major role. How many grams of coffee are dosed into the portafilter and how much is brewed into the cup?
I personally like to brew with a ratio of 1:2.5, for example, 9 grams into the portafilter and 22.5 grams into the cup. For some coffees, I also like a ratio of 1:3, i.e., 9 grams into the portafilter and 27 grams into the cup.
How capsule coffee changed espresso drinkers
If you prepare espresso with a ratio of 1:2 or 1:2.5 and your guests find it "too strong," you're probably dealing with capsule coffee drinkers. It's astonishing how much the consumption of capsule coffee has already changed our drinking and coffee habits.
Regardless of the manufacturer, a capsule typically contains only about 5 to 5.5 grams of coffee. However, a conventional capsule machine dispenses a "typical beverage volume" into the cup, i.e., 25 ml or more. Many capsule machines brew 35 milliliters of "espresso" as standard. The brewing ratio is then effectively 1:6, and the strength of the coffee differs significantly from a "classic" espresso. The latter contains about 7 – 10% dissolved coffee particles. Capsule espresso, on the other hand, barely reaches 3 – 5% dissolved coffee particles.
Thus, it resembles an Americano or Caffè Crema more than a real espresso. Those who frequently drink "espresso" this way become accustomed to this taste profile and are then initially overwhelmed by an espresso from a portafilter machine with a ratio of 1:2.5.
Espresso from excellent roasteries
I've also had some very fine espressos in my grinder recently. I particularly liked coffees from Adrianos (CH), Röstbar (DE), Stoll Kaffee (CH), Wildkaffee (DE), Rösterei Vier (DE), Flying Roasters (DE), Felix Kaffee (AT). This is not an exhaustive list, but a loose compilation of excellent roasteries from which I have recently been able to taste coffees. You can find our own espresso roasts here. An excellent overview with a comparison of various coffee beans can be found in the Coffeeness blog article.
6. How to read a coffee label correctly and what you shouldn't buy
The imaginative stringing together of empty words reaches its peak on coffee packaging. Very often, the advertised "refined crowning with gentle artisanal long-term roasting" is an elaborate euphemism for cheap commodity coffee without a designation of origin.
When reading labels, I recommend a radical approach. Look for precision, especially in the supermarket. If you don't find it, that's already an indication of the probable quality. The rule is: the more information on a package, the more the roaster knows about the coffee or is willing to share that information, and the higher the probability of better quality.
When looking at coffee labels, the analogy to wine is helpful. If a wine label just says "red wine," we know we've arrived at the cheapest and lowest quality shelf in the assortment. Coffees labeled "Robusta" or "Arabica" fall into this category.
If you find information on the bottle about the country of origin, we are slowly approaching better qualities. But seriously – anyone who buys a wine with the general designation "from France" is not aiming for an elegant taste experience, but rather to get drunk and knowingly accepts the pre-programmed headache the next day.
What is on the coffee packaging of a high-quality coffee?
Recommended minimum standard:
The roast date: the date when the coffee was roasted. Only if the roast date is known can it be estimated whether the coffee is fresh or old. After two months, a noticeable reduction in taste quality begins for whole bean coffees.
Origin information: Country, Region, Producer/Cooperative/Processing plant. For some regions, DOC certifications are available, i.e., verified origin seals.
Composition: Is it a single-origin coffee or a blend? In the case of a blend, the Arabica/Robusta ratio should be stated and the origin information adjusted accordingly.
Exemplary label text on a coffee bag:
Processing information: whether the coffees were washed, naturally processed, or experimentally processed.
Varieties: what varieties or cultivars of Arabica/Canephora are involved.
Specification of origin information: not necessary, but interesting are lot number/name and altitude details.
Further information: some roasteries state the purchase price of the green coffee or provide information about the roasting process. This is exemplary and represents a new way of communicating with the consumer. More information can be found in our article on transparency.
Fairtrade and organic labels do not in themselves indicate the quality of a coffee. However, they do indicate that premiums and a minimum price have been paid for these coffees.
So which coffees should I buy?
At this point, I recommend radicalism. If the minimum information is not provided, I would not buy and try a coffee. The probability of missing out on something good is very low. Presumably, many bargains will also not be an option then. But these usually impress more with their price than with their quality.
The minimum information is not difficult for a roaster to ascertain and provide if they source high-quality coffees. The excuse that "trade secrets" or "special blends" should not be disclosed is nonsense. Roasteries that win significant international roasting competitions reveal their roasting curves and blends.
Secrecy is misplaced here. Industrial roasteries buy the same standard coffees and blend them in very similar proportions. Hiding behind secret recipes for blends or origins is a fig leaf for inferior coffee qualities.
If I have the minimum information, will the coffee taste good?
Unfortunately, it is not guaranteed that you will like a coffee that provides the minimum information on the packaging. This needs to be tried and tested from time to time. However, with each bag of coffee, you will notice whether the direction and roasting philosophy of a roaster suits you. Try to describe as precisely as possible whether coffees are too bitter or sour, too smoky or mild for you.
Bitterness and acidity, in particular, are often sensorily confused. Train yourself by biting into a lemon as a reference for acidity and carefully noting how the acidity behaves in your mouth. A sample for bitterness is, for example, gentian or also artichoke. Internally store these references and then check the coffee.
If you can rule out that bitterness or acidity comes from the extraction, describe your taste experience to the roaster. Perhaps they have a suggestion for you that tastes less of what you find unpleasant. If you don't get along with this roaster, try another one.
Taste and Sample Coffee
Coffee tastings are an excellent way to try different coffees side-by-side. If these are prepared by roasters or coffee professionals, it can also be ruled out that you are doing something wrong yourself.
Therefore, use every coffee tasting in your region as an opportunity to learn more about coffee and to fill your own taste database. Many roasteries regularly conduct tastings. Coffee Festivals are also a good opportunity to taste coffees from different regions directly side-by-side.
Guided and accompanied, this is also possible in sensory courses. We ourselves conduct sensory courses at our academy, but also come to you or conduct tastings at team and company events.
7. Which coffee is healthy and digestible?
Coffee is neither explicitly healthy nor unhealthy. It has both health-promoting effects and problematic effects, especially when consumed in large quantities. The reference often cited is "5 cups of approx. 150 ml". The truth is, as always, a bit more complicated and depends on many factors - not least on one's own physical condition.
We spoke with Professor Chahan Yeretzian about coffee and health consequences.
At the same time, coffee contains potentially carcinogenic substances that, although not proven to be carcinogenic in coffee, are known to be carcinogenic. We have recorded a video in English about furan and acrylamides and will write another article here.
Digestibility of coffee
How well a coffee is tolerated, in turn, is closely related to its quality and processing. It should not be forgotten that coffee is the core of a fruit. With other fruits, too, unpleasant side effects occur if they are eaten unripe or overripe. It's similar with coffee.
High-quality coffee is selectively harvested. For this, the picker usually has to walk through the bushes three times within a few weeks and harvest the deep red or dark yellow cherries. Coffee cherries do not ripen simultaneously on a plant. This type of harvest is very labor-intensive and accordingly expensive. Therefore, it is omitted in the production of cheap coffees. Instead of picking the cherries individually, the coffee is stripped by hand or even harvested by machine.
Such uneven ripening stages of the coffee cherries cause several consequential problems. They ferment differently – if they are fermented at all. These beans dry differently and behave differently during roasting. The roast level is therefore not uniform, the taste differs, and the digestibility is altered. Very often, such beans are the decisive digestibility problem.
The speed and duration of roasting also affect digestibility. But that's another big topic, again involving furan and acrylamides. You'll do well with coffees that are neither roasted too quickly nor too lightly, and also not too dark or for too long. We'll address this topic in our article series on roasting, which is at the top of our list of articles to write.
14 hand grinders tested by us.
8. The best coffee is freshly ground
Even with the best coffee and the most suitable roast, the last step to perfect coffee has not yet been taken. It lacks fresh grinding. And by fresh, I mean shortly before you brew. As long as coffee is not ground, it protects itself with its own protective layer. It is not easy for oxygen to penetrate the inside of the coffee. However, as soon as the coffee is ground, its surface area increases many times over. A single bean becomes thousands of particles, which on the one hand release aromas into the air and on the other hand are spread out accessible to oxygen.
At this moment, an accelerated aging process begins. Within 20 minutes, even for untrained palates, the difference between freshly ground coffee and coffee ground 20 minutes ago is noticeable.
What we lose now is not the basic taste of the coffee. The coffee still tastes like coffee. But it no longer tastes complex, surprising, lively - but simply like coffee. If you extend the waiting time, coffee soon tastes rancid as the fats begin to oxidize. At this point at the latest, it becomes unappetizing.
Grinding freshly and by yourself is highly recommended for another reason. Only in this way can the grind size be adapted to your own needs and your own brewing method. The grind size determines the resistance of the coffee in the puck. This needs to be constantly adjusted, from day to day and coffee to coffee.
Therefore: whoever wants to improve coffee quality with simple means, first switches from pre-ground to freshly and self-ground. This is also possible "cheaply". We have tested 14 hand grinders that are suitable for filter coffee and partly for espresso.
And for the record: those who buy pre-ground coffee have no control over the optical quality of the coffee beans. Therefore, industrially bagged ground coffee often uses lower quality green coffee than the same coffee or brand as whole bean coffee.
9. The best coffee in the world
What about that cat coffee? What was it called again? Oh right, Kopi Luwak. And Jamaica Blue Mountain? And Monsooned Malabar?
These three coffees have something in common: good stories and successful marketing. They have been successfully positioned on the global market and are particularly well-suited for storytelling.
They can all taste good, but they are not the best coffees in the world; they are merely expensive and marketing-hyped. Monsooned Malabar is less problematic, and this coffee also caters to a common taste profile. It tastes nutty, somewhat earthy-robusta-like, but it is an Arabica. For many, it's an accessible espresso.
There are good Jamaica Blue Mountains. However, the special thing about this coffee is its limited quantity and exclusive marketing. Here, something has been achieved that one would wish for all coffee regions: a positioning as a region in the global market. This includes a small wooden barrel for transport for Jamaica Blue Mountain.
Kopi Luwak, with all its variations, on the other hand, is a highly problematic development. The Indonesian civet naturally eats certain amounts of coffee cherries. Its digestive tract separates the cherry pulp from the bean. After defecation, the beans can be collected, dried, and marketed. The story is so absurd that it sells due to its bizarreness. So much so that civets are crammed into cages and stuffed with cherries to increase coffee production. Humans are ingenious when it comes to maximizing profit. So larger animals are also stuffed with cherries and used as a fermentation channel. The resulting coffee is ultimately not of particular quality. But the story is wonderful for media and people to pick up. We are very clear on this point, and for once, the language fits. What is marketed as coffee here is crap.
All these coffees are not the best coffees in the world. In fact, in sensory comparison with high-quality coffees, they achieve very low scores. Truly exceptional coffees like a Panama Geisha are rated with over 90 points. Monsooned Malabar and Kopi Luwak struggle to exceed 75 points.
If you're looking for the best coffees from a country, you'll find them at Cup of Excellence. In this competition, sometimes over 100 producers per country compete in the first round to have a national and international jury find the best coffee in the country.
