What Makes the Best Coffee Beans?

Most supermarkets have a way of advertising everything in bulk on the shelves, so you see the most popular instead of seeing the best. What makes a good cup of coffee, if you are a dedicated coffee lover, is the fullness of the coffee once you have added all the ingredients that you usually drink with it. Then there is the mission of wanting to try out a new kind of coffee, as our television advertisements suggest and then taking said coffee home to try it, only to be gravely disappointed. There is nothing worse than preparing a cup of coffee, taking a sip and realising that you’re drinking a cup of glorified water. That’s where the great coffee bean hunt comes in. When you know what you are looking for, it is easier to distinguish the bad from the good. What you may be looking for could easily be hidden at the back of the shelf, and in turn, you might have been accustomed to only one flavour of coffee, but is that flavour the best coffee out there?

Types of coffee

There are four main types of coffee beans out there that are regularly distributed throughout the world. They make up for 90% of the world’s coffee distribution factor. Out of the four, two of them are likely to be well known and found in more bags of coffee on sale.

• Arabica is the most popular bean that is distributed throughout the world. It made up for 70% of the world coffee bean trade and originated from central Africa. It’s a light, sweeter tasting bean than its counterparts and is used on its own or as a mix with other beans. Legend has it that a farmer noticed how lively his goats were when they ate from a particular plant, and after boiling the plant and feeding it to the sheikh, coffee was born. It took a while for the bean to become how we know it today. When you are in the supermarket looking at the coffee beans that you should be buying, you might notice how many of the bags say Arabica on them. It is the most common bean, and even though it could be mixed with other beans, it is best to be sure and check the ingredients.

• Robusta is a more robust, darker bean that is slightly more bitter than the Arabica. It makes up for 30% of the world’s coffee bean trade but is usually mixed with other coffee beans to add to its flavour. Many people prefer to use this bean for roasting because it is already dark and wont to be roasted for too long for the flavours to come through. It’s a famous bean used for roasted Italian coffee beans, another controversial method of coffee beans that might or might not be hot on your list.

Precision purchasing

Online shopping has taken over the internet, and one of the things you might be pleased to be able to buy online would be coffee beans. You could make your selection from the usual coffee beans or more precise choices like Presto coffee beans. What is great about buying precision beans is that you can see the history of the beans or whether or not the company is selling it using a generic version of the real thing.

You want the best out of the cup of coffee you are about to drink, and with all the hype about coffee these days, it can be hard to decide what is worth the hype and what is worth the buck. You just find that what you thought was a great cup of coffee was quite average, and the only way you find that out is when you go out and explore what the rest of the coffee world has to offer.