Buying coffee for beginners #3

Okay, you’re faced with the important choice of buying new coffee (beans). Do you actually know what to look out for? It’s quite difficult to determine exactly how a package of coffee beans from the supermarket or coffee shop will taste.

Coffee expert and Dutch Aeropress champion Edward from Trakteren Koffie in Amsterdam will help you develop your palate and translate it into a purchase.

Roasting #3

Roasting coffee doesn’t have to be complicated. But to get everything out of the bean, you need a coffee roaster who knows what roasting profile the coffee needs to bring out its best flavours. So take a walk to that good coffee shop around the corner and buy freshly roasted beans there.

Roast date

Want to know how fresh the coffee is? Check the roast date. Large manufacturers provide little or no information about their product. They don’t tell you the roast date or what the blend (mixed coffee beans) consists of. What do you see instead? The ‘best-before date’, but that’s no use to you, because you don’t know when it was roasted. The ‘best before’ date is much more important.

Edward no longer sells coffee to customers one month after the roast date, because by then the beans are no longer fresh. And that’s precisely what’s important if you want to get all the flavour out of the coffee. Use it all within three months, otherwise you’ll sacrifice too much quality.

Read the coffee buying guide #1 & part #2 here.

With thanks to Edward Beumer of Trakteren Koffie.

Text: Nora van den Heuvel
Image: Shutterstock