How to choose good coffee beans: reading the label

"Best coffee beans" is one of the most searched coffee questions, and there is no single answer: the best beans are the ones that suit how you brew and what you like to taste. What you can learn is how to read a bag. Six things on the label tell you most of what you will get in the cup, and none of them is the brand.

1. The roast date

Coffee is a fresh product. Whole beans taste best from a few days to roughly six weeks after roasting; after that they slowly go flat. Good roasters print the roast date, not only a best-before date, which is often a year or more away and tells you little. Buy amounts you finish within a month and store them airtight, away from light and heat.

2. Whole bean or ground

Ground coffee loses aroma within days, sometimes hours. If you can, buy whole beans and grind just before brewing; a decent grinder makes a bigger difference than an expensive machine. If you buy ground coffee, buy smaller bags and check that the grind suits your method. The grind size chart shows what each method needs.

3. Origin: country, region, farm

The more precisely a bag names where the coffee comes from, the more the roaster usually knows about it. "Arabica" alone says little. "Ethiopia, Yirgacheffe" says more; a farm or washing station, a producer's name and an altitude say even more. Origin also gives you a first idea of taste:

• Ethiopia: often floral and fruity, with notes of berries, citrus or jasmine.
• Kenya: bright and juicy, blackcurrant and tomato-like acidity.
• Colombia: balanced, caramel and red fruit, a safe all-rounder.
• Brazil: low acidity, nuts and chocolate, a base of many espresso blends.
• Guatemala and Costa Rica: sweet, cocoa, clean acidity.
• Indonesia (Sumatra): earthy, spicy, heavy body.

See every country with coffees in the catalog on the origins page.

4. Single origin or blend

A single origin comes from one country, region or farm and shows its character. A blend combines coffees for balance and consistency, which is why many espresso coffees are blends. Neither is better: single origins are interesting for filter and for discovering flavours, blends are reliable for espresso and milk drinks.

5. Roast level

Roast changes taste more than almost anything else (more in our guide to roast levels):

• Light roast: more acidity and origin character, fruit and flowers. Best for filter, pour-over and AeroPress.
• Medium roast: balanced sweetness, caramel, chocolate. Works in almost any method.
• Dark roast: bitter-sweet, smoky, less acidity, more roast flavour than origin flavour. Traditional for espresso in southern Italy and for milk drinks.

Shiny, oily beans are usually dark roasted or old. They are fine for a French press but can clog bean-to-cup machines.

6. Process, variety and tasting notes

The process is how the fruit was removed from the bean. Washed coffees taste cleaner and brighter; natural (dried in the whole fruit) coffees taste fruitier and wilder; honey sits in between. Varieties such as Bourbon, Typica, SL28 or Gesha are like grape varieties in wine. Tasting notes ("blueberry, dark chocolate") describe flavours the roaster finds in the coffee; they do not mean anything was added. Flavoured coffees, such as vanilla or hazelnut, say so explicitly.

Arabica or robusta?

Almost all specialty coffee is arabica: more aroma and acidity, less caffeine. Robusta has about twice the caffeine, more bitterness and a heavier body, and is used in many Italian espresso blends for crema. Read more in arabica or robusta.

Match the beans to your method

You brew with	Try
Espresso machine	Medium to medium-dark espresso blends, or a medium single origin
Bean-to-cup machine	Medium roast, not oily: beans for bean-to-cup machines
Filter, pour-over, AeroPress	Light to medium single origins: filter coffee
French press	Medium roasts with body; see the French press guide
Moka pot	Medium-dark blends; see the moka pot guide
Milk drinks	Chocolate and nut profiles, medium to dark

Where to buy good coffee beans

The freshest beans usually come straight from a roaster. On Cafendo you can compare coffees from independent roasters across Europe and beyond; Cafendo does not sell coffee itself, each coffee links to the shop that sells it, usually the roaster's own. If you want to know what "specialty" on a bag means, read what is specialty coffee.