It can be confusing picking out the best coffee beans for your home or cafe. There are many origins, a long list of brands and varying taste notes. By understanding a bit more about the coffee bean journey it will give you great insight into what to look out for. After reading this article you will feel confident next time you need to decide on what beans to buy.
It’s a long journey for the coffee bean to reach your cup. Often, coffee lovers know where to buy the best beans but don’t exactly know what makes them so good. Really understanding the epic journey your morning pick-me-up has made, makes you more connected with the coffee beans you’re buying.
Where does coffee come from?
Coffee as we know it is the roasted bean of the coffee plant, which is a small tree or shrubby bush. Beans start off green and grow facing each other inside a small red fruit known as a coffee cherry called cascara. Trees thrive in the growing climate between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, in a region known as “The Bean Belt”. It takes a lot of patience growing coffee as it can take up to four years before the trees produce fruit! But – in our opinion – it’s definitely worth it.
The major species of coffee are Arabica and Robusta – you might have heard of these before. The main difference is that Arabica tastes better. Robusta is usually used to make instant coffee. Most of the coffee you’ll buy from a cafe in Australia is 100% Arabica. When you hear the words “speciality coffee” they’re always referring to Arabica coffee beans.
When you’re tossing up with which beans to buy we suggest always buy specialty coffee beans. The flavour is dramatically different and hands down, Arabica beans take the cake. Some coffee brands try and be a little sneaky and offer a blend of the two e.g. 50% Arabica 50% Robusta. But, you’ll still notice the difference. All of our beans are 100% Arabica to offer ultimate flavour and experience for your cup of coffee.
Growing Regions
Within the Bean Belt there are countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Brazil and many more. Ethiopia and Kenya are renowned for producing some of the best coffee beans. When it comes to choosing a favourite origin, it’s a very subjective process. It all depends on what flavours you personally enjoy. Just like wine, the flavour of the coffee beans can vary quite significantly according to where it is grown and how it is grown. Here are some general rules for this:
Beans from the Americas (Peru, Columbia, Mexico) are chocolatey, nutty and rich – the ‘classic’ coffee flavours.
Beans from Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania) are fruity, aromatic, unusual – these coffees have flavours that are very modern
Beans from Asia (India, Sumatra, PNG) are wild, earthy and bold.
Again, this is very general. Depending on how the cherries are treated, processed and roasted will dramatically affect the flavour notes you’ll experience in that espresso.
Here is where the taste notes for your coffee beans come in very handy. When you browse the coffee bean selection the roasters should describe the flavour you’ll experience in the cup. These flavours are present in the beans due to the origin they’re from, how they’ve been processed and how the roasters have roasted the coffee beans. For example, with our Karvan Blend #2 one of the flavours we mention is milk chocolate. This flavour is light and smooth on the tongue. No actual milk chocolate has been added, the flavour is naturally present in the coffee beans because of the factors mentioned.
As you become more familiar with the coffee origins and processes you’ll develop favourites. It’s always a subjective process. Fleur, the co-owner of Leaf Bean Machine loves Ethiopian coffee beans for their aromatic and tea-like traits whereas, Brad (husband and co-owner) can’t resist a cup of Kenyan for its juicy and more-ish body.
Do you have a favourite Single Origin? Let us know what your go-to coffee beans are below!
Processing
Processing is a crucial step to consider when figuring out what beans will suit your taste.
The best coffees are hand-picked, as this is the only way to ensure that each cherry is perfectly ripe. Machinery is becoming more advanced however, unlike the human eye, it can’t spot imperfect coffee cherries and remove them.
Once the coffee cherries are picked, they are processed to remove the outer layer of the fruit. There are various ways of doing this and each region has its traditions in place. Most commonly they are soaked off (washed processed) or dried in the sun (naturally processed) before “threshing”, a process which removes the husk from the dried coffee bean. You can find out how your beans have been processed by looking at your coffee bean’s taste notes. Many Perth coffee roasters (like us!) offer taste notes with your Single Origin coffee orders. Next time you place your order, take a look at the taste notes and have a read of the coffee beans you’re drinking. The more you read about coffee, the more you can understand the hard work that goes into every espresso.
The style of and the care taken during processing has a great impact on the flavour and the quality of the bean. If processing is not carried out correctly then defects can occur, or the coffee will simply be of poor quality. We don’t want to get into too much geeky detail here, but coffee production is truly analogous to the wine industry – the more effort that goes into the production of the fruit, the higher the quality of the product. As farmers, suppliers, roasters, cafes and customers become more interested and excited about delicious coffee, the entire coffee industry grows and advances. It’s a very interesting time to be in the speciality coffee industry, it’s constantly growing and always experimenting.
Once the coffee is a bean, and no longer a fruit, it gets sorted, bagged up and exported. For most of the coffee growing countries, coffee is an important export, and the governments’ place strict controls over the system. For example, in Ethiopia, all of the top-grade coffee beans are exported and only the lowest quality of coffee remains for local consumption.
It might take some time to make up your mind on which process you prefer. We recommend getting a variety of different processes (i.e. natural and washed) and have a taste test of each as a black coffee. You might find that your prefer buying washed coffee beans for a black coffee and natural coffee beans for a milk-y one. It’s always great to mix it up. Our Seasonal Blend #1 is a blend of various origins, processing methods and flavours. Our roasters describe Seasonal Blend 1 as their “creative outlet” it’s their coffee beans to get a bit wild with.
Buying Green Beans
The majority of coffee roasters buy green coffee beans through brokers, who act as middlemen by buying the coffee from the farm, processing plant, or exporter. This system works well, as it gives us the ability to purchase a wide range of coffees from around the world. Here at Karvan, we work closely with Perth green bean importers. We have close connections with the community so it’s always a pleasure to work our green bean suppliers. When we are buying coffee, we are extremely careful and make sure we have had a really good look and taste before we commit to buying several tonnes worth. We take in account all the variables in the bean to cup journey to ensure only the most delicious beans are being put into our Karvan bags.
When you know the roasters are careful in selecting their green beans, you will feel comfort knowing that no matter which coffee beans you take home they will be high quality and delicious.
Roasting
Coffee roasting machines are, at the face of it, extremely simple. A rotating drum is heated by a gas burner. The drum rotates to tumble the coffee around, making sure each bean is cooked evenly. The roaster (human, not machine) controls the application of heat through this process.
Obviously, we have to cook the coffee before we can use it, but within this range we have a massive amount of opportunity to affect the taste of the final brew. There are lots of different ways to roast coffee, and each roasting company has a different idea of what they’re looking for. You might have heard terms like ‘espresso roast’, ‘dark roast’, ‘filter roast’, etc. These terms are used to describe flavours generated through the roasting process, which also determine how best the coffee is to be brewed by the consumer. The goal of the roaster is to unlock the flavours within the coffee, without adding too much else from the roasting process.
Coffee goes through various stages during the roasting process. The coffee beans are dropped into a preheated drum, which immediately drops the temperature of the roaster. As the cold coffee absorbs the heat from the drum, we slowly bring the temperature up until it reaches the “turning point”: the moment the coffee has absorbed enough heat that the temperature stops falling and begins to rise again. As the beans begin to turn yellow, any moisture left in the coffee is slowly dried out and becomes a gas, which gradually starts to build up. When the cell walls can no longer expand, the gas explodes out of the bean, a moment known as the ‘first crack’. This is the first stage coffee can be consumed. Before this point, the coffee beans are too hard and have no flavour.
Once the bean has been through the first crack, we have a ‘light roast’. Often (but not always) the roaster wants to coax some more flavour out. From here, we lay off the heat for a while and take the coffee slowly towards our desired roast profile. If we charge the coffee with too much heat here, it will quickly burn and produce some terrible flavours. The beans are extremely sensitive and just a few degrees off can cause a big difference in the final product.
Once the roaster has determined that the roast is complete, they drop the beans out of the machine into the cooling tray, where they reach ambient temperature really quickly to ensure they don’t over cook.
Brewing and Consumption
The most well known step in the bean to cup process. At this stage, the coffee is essentially ready to drink, although most people suggest it should be left for 12-24 hours to settle or ‘de-gas’; coffee beans continue to release Carbon Dioxide after roasting. Resting time for coffee often depends on your preferred brewing method, any of which can have their own parameters to adhere to and possible complications along the way. For espresso, it is best to wait anywhere from a few days to one week after the roast. But don’t wait too long: coffee beans are best brewed and consumed within the three weeks after the roast date; after this time the delightful flavours start to fade, and the brew can taste bland and ‘hollow’.
Finding the coffee beans for you
We hope this blog helps you in figuring out which beans you will enjoy the most. There’s a lot of information out there but the best thing you can do to increase your understanding is drink heaps of coffee! Doesn’t sound too bad does it 😉
It’s not as simple as it may at first seem, the bean to cup journey. From the moment the cherry is picked to when it reaches your cup – many months have passed, a lot of care given, and a lot of dedication devoted. So, drink up, savour and enjoy all of that hard work!
Want to learn more about coffee? Come visit our coffee roastery here in Bibra Lake, Perth. Here, we can make you a coffee, introduce you to the Karvan team, show you through the barista training lab, take you behind the scenes and see your beans being roasted and answer any and all coffee questions you may have!
