Pick a Bean, Any Bean

If you’re feeling a bit lost as to where to find your beans, the best place to start is at your favorite café. Ask for advice from your local barista or roaster: 

    they’ll have spent enough time with their beans to be able to give you a few hints, and might even supply you with some for tasting. You can also source your beans, whether roasted or green, from a variety of online stores. 

        Don’t Follow Price While specialty coffee is generally more expensive, and better quality, than commercial coffee, keep in mind that within the category of specialty coffee the pricier doesn’t always mean the better. 

        Island coffees, such as those from Jamaica and Hawaii, are generally more expensive, not because they taste better, but because production costs are higher and there are fewer of these beans available.

ask for advice from your local barista or roaster: they’ll have spent enough time with their beans to be able to give you a few hints

Know What You Want Specialty coffee tends to be sold either as an “espresso” or “filter” roast, so you should know how you’re going to brew your coffee before you pick the beans. Filter roasts are lighter and allow more complex flavors to shine through, perfect for the gentle process of filter brewing. 

Espresso roasts tend to be darker and richer, meaning flavors can survive the highpressure brewing process of an espresso machine. Remember, milk is not a friend of specialty single origins. It can drown out the more subtle flavors in a coffee, so for lattes and cappuccinos you’re better off with a robust blend, or at least a stronger, fuller single origin such as a Brazilian. Keep an Eye on Freshness When buying coffee, look for a roast date on the bag. 

There’s a lot of debate around when coffee is at its best, but the general consensus is that it needs to rest after roasting for anywhere between one and four days, that it reaches its flavor peak between five and ten days after roasting, and that it is okay for up to three weeks from the roast date. But as always, the only way to really know is to try—some coffees might peak earlier or later, so it’s more about the bean and the roast and the way you intend to brew it. 62 Buy Whole Beans Grinding your beans is like putting them into hyper flavor-release mode, which means they will peak and start to go stale extremely quickly— we’re talking a few hours. 

Within a day of grinding, the coffee will have lost much of its complexity; within a week you’ll have a pretty dull flavor. You’re most definitely better off buying a grinder and grinding as much coffee as you need for each cup. Still, if you really, really don’t want to bother with a grinder, just make sure you’re getting the freshest ground coffee possible. 

LOVE YOUR BEANS After going to such lengths to choose the right coffee beans, you really want to take care of them properly. Of course you can buy specialized coffee storage canisters, but it’s not essential, as long as the coffee is protected from air, heat and moisture. Buy only what you’ll use in one to two weeks and, ideally, store in an airtight glass or ceramic container in a dark and cool spot. 

Don’t keep coffee in the fridge or freezer, no matter what anyone says; the beans will absorb the moisture and smells of the fridge, ruining the flavor, and making your double ristretto taste just a bit like last Thursday’s pizza