Recommended coffee buying practices

Your Ratio brewer eases the process of getting the most out of your coffee, but how do you make sure you are buying the right ground coffee to put in to get the best results in the cup?

This is an introduction to reading and deciphering coffee labels so you can feel empowered to select the coffee you want and to better articulate your likes and dislikes.

Where can I buy coffee?

There are many places you can buy coffee, but what options are the best for your needs?

Coffee shops

Coffee shops are often local, small-to-medium-sized businesses rooted in the community, where you can form relationships with the people who make and serve your coffee. Here you can speak with staff who are familiar with the coffee that you intend to buy and who may even have personal experience and recommendations. Coffee professionals are adept at helping to translate coffee terms and your own experience to help you in your decision. 

Pro tip: Try the coffee while you are there. You can find out from firsthand experience what you do or don't like and use that information when making your selection or discussing suggestions with the barista. Also, if the coffee you buy is available, you can get insight into what it should taste like when properly brewed.

Grocery

Grocery shopping can be a more convenient way to purchase beans if you don't frequent coffee shops or there are no shops nearby. Not only do you have access to beans from large, consistency-focused giants in the traditional and specialty coffee spaces, but increasingly, grocery stores are stocking coffees from local roasters as well. Here, you can pick up coffee while you grab your groceries and reap the rewards of the deals and sales that only large grocery stores can deliver.

Grocery stores will not be able to offer a direct connection to expert information on the coffee you are buying and will have less transparency around the roast date or other details.  

Online

Purchasing coffee online opens up a whole world that may not be available to you locally, and these coffees are often available at a discount due to the increased purchasing power of online retailers. 

Ordering from large online retailers delivers ease of shopping and free delivery, saving you a trip to the store. Most coffees carried by larger companies are focused on consistency and reliability, allowing you to set up recurring subscriptions or simple one-button ordering once you lock in something you like.

Ordering from roasters directly means that your coffee will be roasted and shipped fresh. Here you have the convenience of online ordering and the comfort of consistency, while supporting a smaller company. Some even offer subscription services, like we'll discuss below, that make it easy to taste a curated rotation of coffees.

Subscription services allow you access to a whole variety of coffees from a curated list. These services may start you off with a quiz or questionnaire to help you narrow down the right style of coffee for you, and options to further hone your preferences through your ratings and reviews of coffees that you try.  

Flavor descriptors

Contrary to what your first impression might be, flavor notes are not ingredients added to the coffee, but instead flavor notes that occur naturally in the cup that connect through sense memory to other things.  Coffee professionals use foods that are familiar to relate the experience in the cup to someone who has not tried it.

Flavor descriptors on the bag may be broadly general or incredibly specific. As quality goes up, flavors become clearer and more specific. Citrus becomes lemon, becomes Meyer lemon, becomes sugared Meyer lemon.  This can be an overwhelming amount of information if you aren't familiar with all of the words in the descriptor, but these are often a sign of a higher quality coffee (and only sometimes an overactive imagination on behalf of the cupper).  Don't let overly complex tasting notes intimidate you. If you don't know what a Meyer lemon tastes like, you can focus on the lemon part or the descriptor to inform your choice.

Common tasting notes

Bright -  In coffee, acidity refers not to the pH, but to the flavors that we associate with the more lively aspects of coffee. When we describe a coffee as bright, we are indicating that these more lively notes are more prominent in the balance and flavor of the cup.  Brightness and acidity do not refer to sourness, which is considered a negative attribute, but are discussed separately.

Fruity - Fruit notes, as you might think of them outside of the world of coffee, become descriptors of the acidity when used in relation to a cup of coffee. Everything from simple lemon flavors to more complex and developed notes like plum, watermelon, or pineapple contributes to the acidity of the cup. So what, then, does fruity mean when describing a cup of coffee? If you were describing a cup of lemonade, fruity is not the first descriptor you would likely reach for, even if technically it is correct. When a cup of coffee is described as fruity, it can be read as an indication that a couple of these more developed fruit notes are prominent in the cup, more so than chocolatey or nutty notes that might be prominent in another.

Floral - Floral qualities refer to notes that bring to mind flowers. Floral, as a tasting note, is usually an indicator of a lighter-roasted coffee, with a more subtle complexity. Notes like jasmine are more likely to indicate a lighter, brighter coffee, while more syrupy and fruity florality, like hibiscus, might indicate something in the more medium range with a heavier body.

Nutty - Nuttiness is quite common in coffees, particularly those from Central and South America. The type of nuttiness present may vary from light and sweet to darker and earthier. Lighter nuts like cashew or maybe peanut will be most present and balanced in a lighter cup, while almond or walnut will more often be found in a medium-light or medium cup. 

Chocolate - Most coffees have some level of chocolate presence, with the degree of depth and bitterness varying based on various factors. Lighter coffees may remind the drinker of milk chocolate or even cocoa powder, while darker coffees can go either in the direction of richer, like chocolate ganache, or darker, like 70-80% chocolate. 

Blends and single origin

Blends and single-origin coffees both present advantages and drawbacks.

A single-origin coffee will present great clarity, for better or worse. The flavors present will be more focused, and preparation may be more difficult to "dial in" to find the exact place where all the present flavors are in balance and harmony.

A blend, on the other hand, will often be composed of coffees selected for one or two desirable attributes, selected and blended to create a cup better than the sum of its parts. You won't have to compromise sweetness for acidity, let's say, and it will likely be easier to dial in a good cup, but the ceiling for superlatives will be a little bit lower. 

Whole bean or ground?

When should you buy pre-ground coffee, and when should you buy whole bean? Coffee is an organic product, and many of the most delicious flavors in a cup of coffee come from volatile chemical compounds that will break down over time. We have a whole article on how this can be mitigated, but the usability window of coffee is limited by these factors. 

When in whole bean form. The cellulose walls of the coffee seed serve to lock in and protect these volatile compounds. Even in this form, these compounds will start to break down immediately after roasting and, due to exposure to oxygen, will start to lose vibrancy and diminish over the course of a couple of weeks. 

Once ground, these protections are removed, and the volatile organic compounds are exposed directly to oxygen. Because of this increased area of exposure, breakdown will occur at a more accelerated rate. If purchased in a pre-sealed container flushed with an inert gas, this countdown will start once the seal is punctured. If ground by your local roaster or at the supermarket, the clock will start immediately. Either way, you can only count on one or two days before the flavors start to noticeably diminish. Storage in the freezer may buy you a couple of days, but due to the absorbency of coffee, it will take on a specific freezer-burn taste rather quickly. 

So when does it make sense to buy pre-ground? If you are in a situation where you do not have access to a good grinder and know that you will be using your coffee within a couple of days, pre-ground coffee can be great to ensure better coffee in this brief window.

How fresh is too fresh, and when does coffee go bad?

We've published a more in-depth guide, which can be found through this link, but to summarize:

As an organic product, coffee and the nuanced and volatile flavors therein will start to break down as soon as roasting occurs. As a general rule of thumb, coffee tends to be best between 7 and 21 days from roast, or 14 days after opening if it arrives in a sealed, nitrogen-flushed bag. These bags are specially designed to arrest the aging of coffee, but once opened, the aging will continue.

Roast level

Roast level is one of the more inconsistent things that you might see on the bag.

In grocery: Often, grocery bags will indicate boldness or strength on the label, with a small meter or similar graphic indicating the degree of these attributes in any given bag. There is no industry standard for "boldness" or how strength is measured, and it is not directly tied to roast level, so while these descriptors can be useful for indicating the overall vibe of the coffee compared to other coffees that the company produces, they will not assist when comparing across multiple roasters. For these bags, boldness and strength can be indicative of roast level, as well as the presence of stronger nutty or tobacco flavors and bitterness.

In specialty coffee: In specialty coffee, many roasters put the roast level on the bag instead of boldness or strength. There is a generally agreed-upon, if not rigidly standardized, terminology for roast levels of coffee, but it's rare to see terms outside of light, medium, or dark on the packaging.

Much like boldness, light, medium, and dark are going to vary from roaster to roaster. If a roaster specializes in dark roast, their light roast is probably going to be on the darker side, and vice versa for roasters that favor a lighter profile. Below, we will give a rough framework for what to expect from each roast level, though there will be some variance from shop to shop.

Light roast - Lighter roasted coffee will accentuate clarity and acidity. Expect light floral flavors, fresh fruit, citrus, and a lighter body or even lightly toasted nuts and grains. Any chocolate notes will be on the lighter end of the spectrum, like cocoa powder or milk chocolate. Light roasts can be the most jarring for coffee drinkers just entering the specialty coffee space, with delicate complexity and more prominent acidity. Sweetness will be light, but well balanced with the acidity.

Medium roast - Medium roasted coffee will have a weightier or thicker body than light roasts. Fresh berry or more ripened fruit notes become prevalent as any chocolatey notes will move closer to, if not into, the dark chocolate range. Any nuttiness will be more developed and prominent if present. Sweetness will start to move into more developed flavors like raw sugar or honey. Acidity will still be present but less "bright" and more "developed."

Dark roast - Expect a strong emphasis on a heavier body and more caramelized sweetness. Fruit flavors will come across as stewed or baked versions of previously tasted notes. Dark chocolate, roasted nuts, and even pipe tobacco become more common here. In the Italian or French roast areas, you may experience a more pronounced smoky quality. Acidity will be more subdued, and a bit of bitterness may be present, or even desired in the finish. 

There are two other roast descriptors for specialty coffee that we want to call out. They are terms that you might come across on your coffee journey and also illustrate the points above about how loose coffee terminology can be.

Nordic - Nordic roast coffee is a term for an especially light roasted coffee, usually of exceptionally high quality, to emphasize clarity and acidity. That being said, on packaging, "Nordic Blend" is just as likely to indicate a blend roasted anywhere from medium to dark that the roaster finds reminiscent of a Scandinavian winter.

Espresso - You can learn a lot about the philosophy of a roaster from their espresso roast. Traditionally, espresso roast meant a coffee that was roasted a couple of degrees darker to maximize extractability and enhance the chocolatey or nutty flavors prevalent in a classic espresso. As tastes have changed and diversified, so too have the definitions of espresso roast. Some coffee shops retain the classic profiles and approaches, while others use their espresso roast to demonstrate their preferences in the cup. Medium or even light roasted coffees may still qualify as espresso roast if their profiles are designed for maximum flavors when extracted under pressure. This variance is something to be aware of when deciding whether to pick up a bag or not. 

Processing

One of the most prominent details on a coffee bag is the processing method. These three approaches describe how the seed is removed from the fruit of the cherry before being milled to remove the parchment and any dried materials.

Natural Process - Natural processing involves drying the coffee cherry whole on a raised bed before the dried fruit and skin are removed. This is one of the oldest methods of processing coffee! Natural coffees take on more of the sweetness and flavor of the coffee berry, resulting in a juicy, fruit-forward presence. Natural processing can be polarizing due to the presence of a slight fermenty note in the cup due to extended fermentation times.

Washed Process - Washed processing uses mechanical de-pulpers to remove the skin and fruit of the coffee cherry. The beans are then soaked in fermentation tanks to remove any remaining pectin or pulp, leaving behind just the coffee bean and the protective parchment layer. Washed coffees are found to be cleaner in the cup, meaning flavors are crisper and free of fermented notes. 

Honey - Honey processing is somewhere between washed and natural processes. The skin of the cherry is removed mechanically, as is some but not all of the pulp. How much pulp is left can vary by region or by the intentions of the mill processing the cherries. Generally speaking, in keeping with what we discussed above, more pulp equals more sweetness, and less will result in a cleaner cup. Honey processing gets its name from the sticky layer of pulp present as the cherry and seeds dry. 

At the time of this writing, processing is having a big moment. Increasingly, you might start to see new terms like anaerobic, co-fermented, or yeast-inoculated on the bag, alongside natural, honey, or washed. For the most part, these terms describe changes in approach during the fermentation stage. 

All coffee is fermented during processing. Fermentation in coffee is a process in which naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria break down the sugars in the coffee cherry, developing flavor and loosening the skin and mucilage for easier removal. By altering different aspects of this fermentation process, different results can be achieved to amplify or even infuse preferred flavors or attributes. We'll keep this section a little lighter; we're still learning a lot about the effects of these methods, and you are only likely to see them on more expensive coffees, where the roaster or cafe will provide more specifics on flavor, but a surface-level knowledge can perhaps help you understand what you can expect. 

Anaerobic: Anaerobic fermentation takes place when coffee cherries undergo the fermentation process in an intentionally oxygen-free environment. This can happen in tanks of water or in containers that have been flushed with an inert gas, the same way bags of roasted coffee can be, as described above. This way, coffee fermentation can be controlled and extended without developing harsh, fermenty flavors. 

Carbonic maceration: As a form of anaerobic fermentation, carbonic maceration occurs in a sealed, controlled vessel (usually a metal drum) full of water. This environment is flushed with CO2 to create a carbon dioxide-rich environment.

Co-fermented: In most cases, fermentation occurs in a fermentation tank, which is a large tank of water in which cherries rest and float during fermentation. With co-fermentation, other fruits or organic ingredients are added to the tank and ferment alongside the coffee cherries. The flavor of these ingredients is infused into the beans and is markedly present in the final cup.

Yeast-inoculated: Yeast inoculation involves intentionally introducing specific yeasts to affect the fermentation of the coffee in an intentional way, as opposed to relying on the naturally occurring yeasts that will already be present. Cherries may be rinsed or otherwise treated to remove as much of the "wild" yeast from the fermentation process as possible, to assert more control over the fermentation and ensure intended results.

Thermal shock: Thermal shock processing, the temperature of the coffee cherries is intentionally manipulated during processing, rapidly cooling the coffee to cause vascular constriction and "lock in" desirable flavors. This can occur during fermentation or towards the end of the drying process, depending on the intended results.  

Species 

If you have noticed the word "Arabica" on your bag, this refers to the species of coffee. While there are over 129 different species within Coffea, Arabica makes up close to 100% of the coffee used in specialty coffee and between 60-70% of all coffee produced globally. Arabica is sweet with a complex depth of flavor and a broad range of tasting notes available between its tens of thousands of varietals. Occasionally, you may see Robusta as a blend component as well. Robusta accounts for 30-40% of all coffee produced globally. The flavor profile of Robusta is more on the nutty side, with a full body and increased bitterness. Robusta is most often used for instant coffee or occasionally as a blend component for espresso.

Varietal

The varietal of a coffee refers to a smaller division of the species. Varietal is one of the most consistently present details on the bag for specialty coffee. As you start to pay more attention to coffee labels, you will notice that some bags will feature only one varietal, while others may be a mixture of three or more. As you continue on your coffee journey, pay attention to the varietal or varietals present in the coffee that you like. You might find one or two that keep showing up across multiple bags and always promise a cup that you will love.