Coffee Beans

Up till the last 10 years, coffee beans were something that most people took for granted in this country. Basically, in the morning you would have a fresh cup of Joe. As long as it was freshly brewed coffee, it was good enough. No one really worried about the roast, the variety, are the source of the coffee beans. Oh sure, there were a few connoisseurs -- there always are -- but in general, one cup of coffee was more or less accounted equivalent to another.



Coffee beans and old roaster



A cup of instant coffee

It is amazing how quickly things have changed. Nowadays, people can pay a huge amount of money for gourmet coffee beans. Is there a difference? Is it worth it? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, there are major differences between different coffee roasts. The acidity, the richness of the flavor, the thickness of the coffee, and various characteristics of the smell all vary greatly between one coffee bean an another. Even the way you have a coffee roasted can make a really big difference in the way the flavor comes through. Yet beneath all of this, there is one simple fact that people often forget -- the only thing that matters when evaluating the taste of a cup of coffee is your own taste! 

When it all comes down to it, there is no accounting for taste. Some people love nothing more than the a dark, unsweetened mug of rich French roast coffee. Other people love flavored coffees, adding vanilla, cream, sugar, and anything else they can think of to make their coffee drink into more of a desert than a beverage. If you fall into the former group, the coffee beans you use are probably more important than if you fall in to the latter group. You see, if you take your coffee black, this whole strong taste of coffee comes through. If you put a lot of with cream and other treats in it, most of the taste will come from all that sugar and cream. Therefore, people who drink black coffee generally have stricter standards for their coffee beans than people who don't.

 

One of the best ways to tinker with and perfect the flavor of your copy is to set up your own coffee roaster. Changing the coffee beans makes a big difference, but sometimes a lot of the flavor comes from the way they are roasted. Finding the perfect roast can give you a perfect cup.