To the untrained palate, coffees might all taste the same. But a true coffee enthusiast will be able to determine the coffee’s quality. Here’s how you can judge for yourself whether or not you’re drinking high-quality coffee.
What to Look For:
According to Julia Calderone of Business Insider, there are a few factors you must look for in order to check the quality of coffee. If you have access to the coffee beans, check for a glossy appearance. High-quality coffee beans are loaded with oils and acids, and, when roasted, the oils are drawn out, coating them with oils and giving them that appearance. Subsequently, if the beans leave an oily residue when you hold them in your hands, then they are high quality.
If you are looking at bags of coffee, check for a plastic valve in the center of the bag. Beans release carbon dioxide when roasted and cooled. The gas needs to escape from the bag, hence the need for a valve. If your bag doesn’t have a valve, the roaster/manufacturer probably isn’t all that focused on freshness.
Flavor-Based:
Time Out: Singapore reports what you should be observing when you taste your coffee. If your coffee tastes sour and acidic, that doesn’t mean your coffee has gone bad. In Scandinavia, for instance, coffee often tastes sour because it is lightly roasted, as opposed to the heavily roasted, sweet coffee Americans are accustomed to drinking.
Coffee that is low quality will often taste stale, meaning that it will be bland and smell of rancid oil. The quality can improve, however, when different grinders are used. Time Out states that most coffee shops will use a separate grinder for their espressos and drips than with their regular coffee varietals.
Of course, like any beverage, a good coffee is a coffee that you enjoy. So, we encourage everybody to sample as many varieties as possible to find their ideal balance. All of our coffee is high quality, so you never have to fear receiving a stale cup, so stop by to start your sampling.
