How do you choose the right coffee beans?
Choose the best coffee beans
We'll help you find the best coffee beans for you by answering the following questions:
- To what extend does the roast influence the coffee flavor?
- What's the difference between Arabica and Robusta beans?
- Which coffee contains the most caffeine?
- What influence does the grind size have on your coffee?
- What are specialty coffee beans and what makes them different?
- How do you best store your (ground) coffee?
Everything on the roast and flavor intensity
The roast of the coffee bean influences the flavor intensity of the coffee. A light roast ensures a soft taste. You'll find fruity flavors with a fresh taste with this roast. For a cup of filter coffee, it's best to use light to medium-roasted coffee beans. The darker the roast, the more intense and bitter the taste. Are you going to make a milk specialty, like a cappuccino or latte macchiato? A dark roast is more suitable. This will provide a little more flavor and spice.
Arabica vs Robusta
Difference between Arabica and Robusta
The most common coffee is of the Arabica coffee bean. These coffee beans have a refined taste with hints of sweet and sour, instead of bitter. The Robusta bean has a strong taste. The coffee beans are more bitter than sweet or sour. In contrast to Arabica, you'll never vind 100% Robusta coffee beans. This would taste very bitter. But when you blend Arabica and Robusta coffee beans, you'll get a blend with just a little more spice. You could say that the coffee market is 80% Arabica and 20% Robusta.
Difference in caffeine
Arabica coffee contains less caffeine than Robusta coffee. That's because Arabica coffee beans don't have as much resistance as Robusta coffee beans. Robusta grows closer to the ground and has to deal with more insects. The plant protects itself by producing more caffeine, almost twice as much as Arabica. In addition, light-roasted coffee beans emit more caffeine than dark-roasted coffee beans. The light-roasted coffee beans retain most of their natural flavor, so more caffeine. Isn't caffeine for you? There are special decaf coffee beans that you can choose from.
Specialty coffee beans
You can buy coffee beans everywhere. For example, you can find them in the supermarket, online, but also in specialty shops. The quality of coffee beans is essential for the taste of the coffee and the lifespan of your coffee machine. Greasy, unripe, rotten coffee beans make your bean grinder wear faster. Of course, you don't want this. That's why we recommend you to add high-quality coffee beans to your coffee grinder. Purchase fresh coffee beans and check when the beans were roasted. In this article, we'll explain the rest.
Tips for the grind size
After you've bought the right coffee beans, it's important to use them correctly in your coffee machine and bean grinder. Each coffee machine requires a different grind size for your coffee beans. With a coffee machine, you'll use a coarse grind size and for an espresso machine a very fine one. The grind size has a large influence on the taste of your coffee. Is your coffee too sour? Use a smaller grind size. Is your coffee bitter? Use a larger grind size.
Store coffee beans
You now know which coffee beans are suitable for you and how to use these coffee beans in your machine. There's just one remaining question. How are you going to store your coffee? We've listed a couple of tips to make sure you can enjoy a fresh cup of coffee. That's why you should always buy fresh coffee and store this in an airtight packaging.
