Best Tasting Coffee

Where can you find the best tasting coffee and how can you make the best tasting coffee? The first question has to do with kinds of coffee and degree of roasting. The second has to do with proper storage, grinding coffee just before making it and your choice of brewing methods. Our preference is always one of the Colombian organic coffee brands and pouring just boiled and slightly cooled water over coffee grounds in a cloth filter. But, depending on your own preferences there is more to the story about best tasting coffee.

Strong versus Tasty

If what you want is coffee with a lot of caffeine you want robusta coffee beans.

Robusta coffee is properly named Coffea robusta, or Coffea canephora. This variety of coffee is a more hardy plant than the Arabica variety. It is less prone to infestations of insects or plant disease so it is also cheaper to grow. Originating from plants in the western and central sub-Sahara Robusta yields more coffee beans than an Arabica plant and Robusta coffee beans contain about 2.7% caffeine as opposed to 1.5% for Arabica. The Robusta plant can grow as high as thirty feet. It is the primary coffee grown across most of Africa from Ethiopia on the Indian Ocean to Liberia on the Atlantic and South to Angola. The species has also been exported to Borneo, French Polynesia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Jamaica and the Lesser Antilles. The most recent export of Robusta coffee beans has been to Vietnam where coffee farmers produce the second largest volume of coffee in the world after Brazil. About a third of world coffee production is Robusta coffee beans of which the largest part come from the Highlands of Vietnam.

If you are looking for better taste you want Arabica coffee beans.

People buy Arabica coffee because it tastes better and has a better aroma. Arabica is higher quality coffee than Robusta.

Storage Is Important

No matter what kind of coffee you like, the freshest coffee is the best tasting coffee.

Fresh organic coffee will stay fresher if it is stored in a cool place and if it is in an airtight container. Organic coffee antioxidants are largely responsible for coffee flavor. Heat and oxygen are their enemies. Think cool, dry, and air tight when you store coffee.

If cool is good, is cold better?

If you buy coffee that is in an air tight container you can add to its shelf life by freezing it. But, once you open the container you let air and moisture inside. If you then repeatedly freeze and thaw the coffee you will keep adding moisture and shorten the shelf life of its flavor.

Convenience can kill coffee flavor. That favorite spot on the shelf by the stove works great when you need to find the coffee in the morning. But the same warm location spells doom for fresh organic coffee. Pick a spot away from the stove or any hot air vents.

Roasted to Your Taste

The roast can make the difference between mediocre taste and the best tasting coffee. Here are the various roasts and how they affect taste.

Cinnamon Roast 195 °C (383 °F)
New England Roast 205 °C (401 °F)
American Roast 210 °C (410 °F)
City Roast 220 °C (428 °F)
Full City Roast 225 °C (437 °F)
Vienna Roast 230 °C (446 °F)
French Roast 240 °C (464 °F)
Italian Roast 245 °C (473 °F)
Spanish Roast 250 °C (482 °F)

The stronger the roast the more caramelized the flavor of the coffee. Try a full city roast and then work your way up or down the roasting list in search of the best tasting coffee.




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