Proper Ways of Choosing Best Ground Coffee

When people say they cannot stand coffee because it is tasteless or too bitter or tart, I feel like saying: you simply don’t know how to prepare it the right way! But even the most experienced coffee gourmets become helpless when they get the wrong kind of coffee beans.

Arabica or Robusta

All sorts of best grocery store ground coffee are produced from two kinds of coffee trees — Arabica or Robusta — and your choice of either of them depends solely on your personal preferences.

Arabica is more capricious; it has longer beans, noble, sweetish and intense flavor that exquisitely combines slight bitterness and sourness.

Robusta does not require any special conditions to grow: it adapts to weather and temperature changes quite easily; its beans are round; it contains a lot of caffeine and has bitter flavor.

Quite often coffee manufacturers mix Arabica and Robusta, although 100% Arabica is the best kind of coffee; but it is worth mentioning that Arabica grown in different countries or even on neighboring plantations may taste and smell differently.

Brazilian Arabica has a nutty after-taste; Indian Arabica is famous for its shade — chocolate; Kenyan Arabica has a hint of wine sourness; and there is a hint of berries in Ethiopic Arabica.

First Impression Counts

Coffee packaging is an important indicator of its quality, because coffee flavor and aroma have two main enemies — light and oxygen, which destroy the best qualities of coffee beans.

True coffee gourmets would never buy coffee from open containers, because weeks and months of storage destroys coffee, making it faded and lifeless; it loses its aroma and authentic flavor.

The packaging must be air-tight, preferably made of three-layered foil paper with a valve that allows you not only to smell it coffee but also to let the carbon monoxide, which is emitted in the process of beans roasting, out.

The valve is made in an intricate way: it allows air to easily come out but it prevents air from getting inside the packaging; excess carbon monoxide can escape but oxygen cannot get in, which allows for preserving authentic flavor of coffee and attracts coffee gourmets.

Choosing the Roast Level

Coffee beans are roasted in order to obtain unique flavor, which depends on the amount of essential oils within the bean (about 600 types) and their release in the process of roasting.

In other words, flavor and aroma of the beverage depends not only on the sort of coffee but also on the level of beans roasting; this information is usually indicated on the package in numbers — from 1 (light roast) to 5 (dark roast). Choice of the roast level is quite individual for every person.

The Roast Levels:

Scandinavian (super light) roast makes coffee taste soft and delicate, the beans color — light-dark, almost beige.

American (medium) roast contributes to a hint of bitterness, the beans color — intense brown; but this kind of roasting doesn’t let essential oils stay on the surface of the beans, that’s why the flavor and aroma are hardly revealed.

Vienna roast — the beans become dark and shiny due to release of essential oils; coffee acquires sweetish flavor.

French (dark) roast gives beans intense chocolate coloring; its flavor acquires pleasant bitterness and tartness.

Italian (very dark) roast is usually recognized by black color and oiliness of the beans; the beverage acquires special distinctiveness and velvet, deep flavor — it is the original, classic bitter coffee.

The Grind Level: How it Affects Coffee

If you prefer ground coffee, pay attention to the grind level:

Coarse grind (the cheapest grind) — grind beans for 10 seconds or less, suitable for piston-type coffee makers; infusion time — up to 7 minutes.

Medium grind — grind beans for 14 seconds or less; suitable for all types of coffee makers; infusion time — up to 5 minutes.

Fine grind — grind beans for 20 seconds; it works for filter coffee makers; infusion time — up to 3 minutes.

Exquisite espresso — this type of grinding provides you with coffee “flour”: it is ideal for espresso coffee makers and Turkish coffee prepared in jezve.

Dishonest manufacturers often mix ground coffee with other various mixtures that can be easily spotted — if you put a pinch of coffee in a glass container filled with cold water, and water becomes brown, you know it is not real coffee, and it has nothing in common with it.

Natural or fragranced

Coffee stores offer a wide range of fragranced coffee with hints of vanilla, Irish whiskey, orange, Amaretto and chocolate. Keep in mind that these additives are chemicals, there is nothing natural in them. If you want to enjoy the real flavor of coffee without any “hints”, buy beans without any fragrant “décor”.

Winston Churchill used to say that coffee is a very individual beverage, which is why, like a good cognac you should not drink it out of a large mug. John Goldsworthy used to say that there are things that you cannot be devoted to, for example: coffee. If you like variety when it comes to coffee, we recommend that you treat any sort of coffee personally, and do not neglect the quality. In this case you are guaranteed heavenly pleasure.