There are many brands of coffee. If you are looking for a reliably great coffee, which brand is best. How to you go about choosing a coffee brand? First and foremost decide if you simply want a strong coffee to help wake up in the morning and keeping going all day long. Or do you want a coffee with excellent flavor, aroma and notes? Once you have made that decision you can proceed with choosing your coffee brand.
What Do You Want from Your Coffee Brand?
No matter how great the coffee your brand starts with, it has to do a great job processing that coffee and getting it to you in order for you to get the best coffee for your money. That starts with the coffee arriving at the coffee roaster within months of the coffee harvest and not years later. It also means that the roast date is within the last few weeks or months at most. Green coffee beans retain their freshness for up to three years when properly stored. Roasted coffee retains its freshness for up to six months with proper storage. Don’t spend good money on a coffee brand that does not provide you with reasonably fresh coffee! If you coffee only has a “best by” date as they are skirting the issue of freshness.
Where Does Your Coffee Brand Get Their Coffee From?
There is a lot of great coffee in the world and there is even more ordinary coffee. The bet coffee brands get their coffee from the top growing areas such as the Colombian coffee growing axis, the islands of Hawaii, or the Antigua region of Guatemala. If your coffee brands fails to tell you where their coffee comes from they are probably not proud of where it comes from and this should be a tip off as to poor coffee quality at the source.
How Was Your Coffee Roasted?
When you order your coffee at the coffee shop or roast your own coffee at home you can choose the level of roast from light to medium to dark. If you are a black coffee drinker you may prefer a light roast as it will keep the original coffee flavor and if you prefer a latte or lots of milk in your coffee you may want a dark roast. Knowing the roast of your coffee brand is important. If they do not provide this information that is a good reason to look for a different coffee brand.
What Does Price Tell You about a Coffee Brand?
Excellent coffee is very often expensive. However, every ten percent increase in price does not necessarily correlate exactly with a ten percent increase in flavor or aroma. A lot of the cost of a coffee brand may be going into advertising instead of actions that lead to a superior coffee!
When Are Fair Trade of Sustainability Part of the Coffee Brand Picture?
Many coffee lovers want more than a stiff cup of coffee or an excellent cup with find aroma and taste. If you are one of the folks who want coffee that was grown under organic conditions with an aim of preserving the environment make sure your brand is organic. And, if you want to make sure than more of the profit from the coffee supply chain goes to the folks in the field growing, harvesting, and processing your coffee look for evidence of fair trade with your brand.