There are lots of coffees. On the internet, in supermarkets, in organic food stores and in many other shops. And it is not always good quality coffee. Because even though we Germans like to drink coffee, there is still a lot of bad coffee on the market and unfortunately we often buy bad coffee. So how do you find the right one? Especially if good quality is important to you. So how do you recognize good coffee? There are a few criteria and we will tell you all about them - and all you need are your senses: sight, smell, taste.
How to recognize good coffee – the criteria
No, we don't have to blindly believe the manufacturers and sellers when they say they're premium coffee. Premium isn't a protected term per se. So we have to take a close look at the coffee we want to buy to find out whether it really is premium. If you buy milk or honey directly from the farmer, you can see the quality for yourself. With coffee that comes from distant countries, that's not so easy. Nevertheless, you can tell the quality by the appearance, smell and ultimately the taste of the coffee beans. Of course, in the end, only the taste is important, because good coffee is what you like. But if you want high-quality coffee, you should also pay attention to the appearance and smell criteria.
How to recognize good coffee – appearance and defects
Good coffee is sorted several times before it is sold as green coffee. Like any natural product, coffee sometimes has defects. The fewer defects a green coffee has, the higher its quality. According to the Specialty Coffee Association, specialty coffee may have a maximum of five so-called defects per 300 or 350 grams. Defects include stones, branches or damaged beans. And you can tell with the naked eye whether a bean is damaged or not. So if you examine your beans and find a lot of defects, you can assume that the quality is rather poor. You can look out for the following damage:
- eaten beans (caused by insects)
- unripe beans (have a wrinkled surface)
- broken beans (too dried)
- black beans (so-called stinker beans)
- moldy beans (due to incorrect temperature and humidity during storage or transport)
- Shell pieces (remaining fragments of the outer shell)
- Stones/twigs in the beans
How to recognize good coffee – Oily beans
Another visual quality feature is the oiliness of your coffee beans. If you open the pack and see shiny, oily coffee beans, then for us that is a sign of inferior coffee. The green coffee for this roast may have been high quality, but the coffee has been roasted to death by roasting it for too long or at too high a temperature. This often happens with very dark roasts, such as the Neapolitan roast, when the coffee oils in the beans come out of the beans and collect on the surface. This leads to several problems. Less aroma in the bean, the oil can go rancid outside the bean and the beans are usually roasted for too long and therefore often taste burnt. The oil on the beans can also damage your coffee grinder - at least you have to clean it more often. However, it is of course a matter of taste and there are many fans of the Neapolitan roast. In our opinion, however, coffee beans should be dry with a nice brown color and keep the coffee oil in them.
How to recognize good coffee – Arabica & Highland
The packaging often says 100% Arabica and the term "highland". Both are intended to express high quality. But be careful: just because something is 100 percent Arabica and/or grown in the highlands does not mean it is of high quality. There are also bad Arabica beans, for example. In addition, Arabica is not automatically of higher quality than Robusta - these are two completely different varieties, both of which have their right to exist and their fans. They differ mainly in their aromas and caffeine content. You can find out more about Robusta and Arabica here.
How to recognize good coffee – Coffee information
Another indication of whether you have high-quality coffee is how much information about its origin is on the packaging. With industrial coffee, for example, you may find the country of origin on the packaging; with us you will also find the region and the corresponding farm (if it is only one farm). With us - and also with other smaller roasters - you will often also find the name of the farmer, cultivation altitude, variety and processing of the coffee bean, as well as a lot of other information. Industrial roasters often cannot even name where their coffee comes from, or have so many sources and countries of origin that ultimately end up in the coffee that there would not be enough space on the packaging for all of the information.
How to recognize good coffee – roasting date
Many industrially produced coffees only state the best-before date on the packaging. This means that the coffee is officially still good to eat, but you don't know how long it has been sitting around. Legally, coffee has a maximum shelf life of two years. We always state a best-before date of one year and note on the packaging that the roasting date is one year before the best-before date. But if we're honest, we think that coffee is best consumed within three months of roasting, because that's when it tastes best. The more time passes, the more the aromas fade. So with industrial coffee, it's quite possible that you buy beans that are still good to eat for three months, but taste almost like nothing because they've been sitting around for 21 months.
How to recognize good coffee – roast level and flavor notes
The roasting level and the flavor nuances in the coffee can indicate high-quality coffee. Basically, the more transparent the information, the higher the quality. Because if you have nothing to hide, you can write anything on the packaging. And - even if this is not an open-ended criterion - the price plays a major role as an indicator of quality. You can imagine that if a kilogram of coffee costs you 8.90 euros or less, it cannot be that high quality. After all, this is what the roasters, importers, customs, packaging manufacturers and coffee farmers are supposed to pay. Our recommendation is to spend at least more than ten euros per kilo. An open-ended price does not necessarily mean higher quality - but it is a very good indicator of it.
How to recognize good coffee – aroma
The scent test is important at several stages of your coffee. If you open the package and smell the beans - or the ground coffee - and it already smells funny, there is a high probability that it is not particularly high quality. This can be a rancid smell, like burnt wood or like an old ashtray. Often a sign of over-roasted coffee. Good coffee definitely only smells of coffee, maybe chocolatey, sometimes nutty and sometimes fruity depending on the roast, but never of anything that is disturbing. You can often smell the coffee even with the package closed. This is possible if the package has an aroma valve. This valve is also a sign of higher quality coffee. This valve in the bag ensures that CO2, which is produced during the roasting process, can outgas without oxygen getting in.
How to recognize good coffee – taste
Finally, it's time for the taste test. Brew yourself a coffee and try it. There are so-called off-flavors that have no place in coffee. These include flavors such as rubber, leather or musty forest floor. If your coffee tastes like that, then it is not good quality. But be careful, unfortunately it also happens that (mostly industrial) roasters buy coffee with off-flavors and then roast it very dark and still sell it. The off-flavors are not gone, but are often somewhat balanced out by the very dark roast.
If the brewed coffee is too sour or too bitter, then it may just be over- or under-extracted and you can change the recipe. If it tastes of coffee and a number of other flavors such as chocolate, nuts, fruit, etc., then it is almost certainly of very good quality - then you just need to find a coffee that you personally like.
How to recognize good coffee – Conclusion
So, you know what's going on. I have one more tip to help you find high-quality coffee: buy from a small, artisanal roastery like us rather than industrially produced coffee in a supermarket or discount store. You probably prefer to buy wine in a wine shop rather than at Aldi & Co, right? Of course, you may personally like the coffee from a discount store, no question about it, but it's highly likely that it's not of particularly high quality and almost certainly not of a quality that the coffee farmer can make a good living from. That's a different topic, but for us it's also part of the quality of the coffee. That's why we only buy directly traded coffee and even pay higher prices than FairTrade coffee. In any case, if your coffee looks good, i.e. whole beans with no holes and no oil on the surface, smells good and tastes good, then it's just up to you. Try different blends or single origins, different countries and roasts and of course different varieties - then you'll find your new favorite coffee.
And if you have any further questions, you can always write us an email or contact us via social media .
