Choosing A Coffee Bag ? A Few Tips

Choosing a coffee can be confusing or unnecessarily complicated sometimes. You can be faced with labels upon labels filled with coffee terms and jargon which make no sense unless you are a coffee nerd or a knowledgeable barista. Unless you are able to ask a member of staff for their recommendation or advice we normally end up choosing a bag based on what taste notes are written on the bag. Much like when choosing a wine on limited knowledge, taste notes are the safest and easiest way to choose a bag of coffee but the other sections on the label can be helpful to you as well for what to expect.

We have made a brief list of what to look at on the label and if that is a coffee suited to your taste.

Process - This refers to how the coffees were dried and treated after being picked. We can split the main processes into 3 categories Washed, Natural, Semi Washed/Honey. There are more experimental processes but we will focus on these 3 for now.

Washed coffees normally lead to a brighter juicy acidity or twang in your coffee. Washed coffees will have different levels of acidity, for example mandarin and grapefruit - one is softer, the other intense. Natural Coffees tend to be generally heavier in body (how thick it feels in your mouth i.e cream has a heavier body compared to water), funkier and sweeter. Descriptors of a natural coffee might say ‘tropical fruit, heavy dark chocolate, thick syrupy boozy rum’. Natural coffees are generally great paired with milk creating a very rich sweet low acidity coffee. Semi/Honey process is a halfway process between the two and can be a mix of flavours from both categories.

Roast Level/Roasted For - Generally if a coffee is roasted as light/medium or for filter or hand brew you can expect more acidity or a fruiter coffee with a lighter body. These are normally shown off best when drunk black as milk can mask the more subtle notes. Coffee roasted as dark or for espresso will have less fruitier notes, richer/thicker body and pair much nicer with milk.

Roast Date - If buying the beans whole they are generally best 7 days onwards after roast date. If too close to the roast date, the beans are still degassing carbon dioxide which can still be used but can lead to a tart or bitter unsweet coffee, not yet at its best. Try to get beans and use 7 or so days after roast date and keep air tight to preserve until finished.

Taste Notes - These will always normally be describing the acidity to expect using a fruit, the sweetness level using a easily comparable sweet/snack or dessert, the bitterness (good bitterness such as dark chocolate, cocoa nibs or black tea) and sometimes the body/mouthfeel. For example Ethiopian coffees tend to have very floral/sweet berry fruit notes such as strawberry or blueberry. Coffees from Central and South America that are natural process might say Heavy Chocolate and Praline or Toffee.

Always think of how you normally drink your coffee at home and would the taste notes/process/roast level on the bag be suited to that.