What Coffee to choose?

Many people say they like strong coffee. Mostly commercial coffee (the stuff that you find in most supermarket coffee, famous coffee bars and classic italian brands) is roasted very dark and consist of average quality coffee beans at best. They roast so dark to mask off flavors from the coffee bean. It tastes mostly bitter and many consumers add milk and sugar to balance it. This way a healthy beverage (coffee) turns is to an unhealthy diabetes drink.

In Specialty Coffee only the beans from the ripe coffee fruits are being used. This way there are no nasty flavors to mask. Specialty coffee is sweeter, more complex and can go anyware from fruity to chocolatey, nutty and spicy. Specialty coffee is mostly 100% arabica, but some robusta coffee is also specialty.

What coffee do you like to drink?

Light Roast:   Johan & Nyström or Hunahpu Coffee Roasters  single origin coffees. They have a complex flavor with plenty of sweet and fruity notes.

Medium Roast:  Johan & Nyström Buena Vista blend - s weet and fruity or  Johan & Nyström Fika blend -  full-bodied, perfectly balanced coffee with delicate hints of cocoa  

Dark Roast:  Johan & Nyström Peruras blend -  you can expect notes of caramel, nougat, and red apples.

• Extra Dark Roast: Johan & Nyström La Bomba blend - the presence of Robusta in our blend gives the coffee a strong character and an earthy taste, combined with a delicate hint of cocoa and long-lasting acidity. 

If you like strong   coffee that doesn't mean you have to pick a dark roast. How strong a coffee is means how concentrated is it. An espresso is mor concentrated than a filter coffee. The more coffee you use in your brew in relation to the amount of water, the stronger your coffee becomes. 

What coffee to choose for espresso?

For espresso coffee is often roasted a bit darker. An espresso shot is prepared in under 40 seconds so there is not so much time to extract flavor compared to other brew methods. This is because darker roasted coffee becomes more soluble so it easier to extract flavor in less time. A skilled barista can however brew tasty espresso with a lighter roast. To extract a tasty espresso with medium or light roasts you need to have a high quality grinder. If you are not sure we advice you to enroll in one of our courses, workshops or masterclasses at Amsterdam Coffee Lab.

Coffees are often roasted for espresso. You will find those here. Omni roast means suitable for both espresso and filter. You will find Omni & filter roasts here. Omni is a good choice if you nail the basics of espresso preparation and have decent equipment. Omni is also a good choice if you drink both espresso and filter coffee.

What coffee to choose for moka pot?

For Moka pot (also known as bialetti) check out our brew guide at the Tips from the CoffeeNose section. Mostly the same applies as for espresso above. There are some roasts that are very suitable for moka pot. Like this brazilian coffee beans  or the pre-ground organic Le Piantagioni del Caffe - Coopchebi Espresso 250g.

What coffee to choose for Filter coffee (batch) brewers?

With filter coffee brewers we mean traditional filter coffee (drip) brewers such as Melitta, Bonavita, Moccamaster, Sage, etc. Big office brewers with big basket paper filters also fall in this category. If you are used to commercial coffee I can reccomend  Johan & Nyström Peruras blend -  you can expect notes of caramel, nougat, and red apples. If you drink with loads of milk and sugar and Perduras doesn't support your habbit. Try Johan & Nyström La Bomba blend - the presence of Robusta in our blend gives the coffee a strong character and an earthy taste, combined with a delicate hint of cocoa and long-lasting acidity. 

If you are open to new flavors and drink your filter coffee black we can reccomend Johan & Nyström Buena Vista blend - s weet and fruity or  Johan & Nyström Fika blend -  full-bodied, perfectly balanced coffee with delicate hints of cocoa  .

There are a few things you need to take care of: clean machine, white filter paper, freshly ground coffee (and filtered water). Read more at the Tips from the CoffeeNose section or enroll in one of our courses, workshops or masterclasses at Amsterdam Coffee Lab.

If you are open to experience new flavors and try new things you can use any of our single origin filter coffees. Hunahpu Coffee Roasters offers a range of seasonal nano lots that are complex and exciting. Johan & Nyström offer seasonal single origin filter coffees that are accesable in flavor and price. Specialty coffee doesn't have to be expensive.

What coffee to choose for Aeropress?

Aeropress is a very versatile brewing method and is suitable to make delicious brews from the most delicate light roast or strong (espresso like concentration) brews from darker roast. 

If you are a bit scared of fruity flavors in your coffee (if your brain is used to commercial coffee it might protest - telling you:  this is not coffee ) we recommend the same blends as in the Filter coffee (batch) brewers section above . If that is the case maybe a french press or Moka pot is a better brew method for you.

​What coffee to choose if your doctors tells you: STOP ?

Unfortunately many doctors are not properly educated on coffee, caffeine and lipids in coffee. For cholesterol lipids are the main issue. In this case use a paper filter:  The lipid content varied with the method of preparation. While coffee brews filtered through filter paper contained less than 7 mg lipids, those prepared by boiling without filtering and espresso coffee reached  60–160 mg lipids/150-ml cup .

If caffeine is the issue and you get a heartbeat of feel overwhelmed by caffeine we advise to drink filter coffee and use 100% arabica beans from a high altitude. Those tend to have a lower caffeine content. There are also some coffee varieties with natural lower caffeine content.

For decafinated coffee there are chemical free decafination methods used for specialty coffee. All decaf you find at WB.coffee is decaffinated without chemicals.  Under EU regulations, the caffeine content of decaf cannot exceed 0.3 per cent for freeze dried instant coffee, or 0.1 per cent for roast beans and ground coffee. If you are hyper-sensitive to caffeine, then you'll still need to be careful not to consume too many cups of decaffeinated coffee as it is not completely caffeine free.

What about the Roasting date?

Often we hear from Specialty Coffee Newbee's somthing in the line of " I have read online that I shouldn't buy coffee beans that were roasted more than 2 weeks ago." 

Roast date is one of the most overrated things. Of course we don't want to drink old coffee but the way the coffee has been packed and stored has a big impact. During roasting co2 is stored inside the bean. This co2 is slowly releasing. It helps protect against oxygen and locks in the aroma's created during roasting. The co2 also inhibits extraction. When co2 is released if water is added to the ground coffee the water cannot extract coffee flavor so easily. That's why coffee mostly benefits from "degassing" after roasting. With espresso this is more important than with filter coffee and with darker roasts more important than with lighter roasts. It's all about the balance. Many coffee experts agree that coffee that is 2-8 weeks after roast date tastes better than too fresh beans. It differs per origin, processing and roast level. 

When your coffee is packed in a sealed coffee bag (with quality valve) the co2 released inside the bag actually protects the beans from oxygen. Untill you open the bag the beans will stay pretty fresh. The biggest risks with an unopened coffee bag are: bad storage and/or shipping conditions (heat, big temperature changes) and bad quality valves. 

How you store the beans after opening is very important. Oxygen, heat, light and moisture are the enemies of coffee. Moisture can also be condenstaion caused by temperature differences. This is one of the reasons you shouldn't keep your coffee in the fridge. The other reason is that coffee absorbs smells. 

Storing your beans in a vacuum canister

We recommend a vacuum canister for keeping your coffee fresh if you store it for more than 3-5 days. What you shouldn't do is put the whole bag in a vacuum canister and realise the vacuum daily and then vacuum again. This way your coffee actually ages faster then when you keep it in the bag, with little oxygen, rolled up. If you want to have perfect control and you always use the same dose you can freeze beans per dose and take out one dose package just before grinding. Don't put the whole bag or box in the freezer, take out coffee and put back in the freezer. This will cause condensation of moisture! What we like to do with an expensive micro lot of 250gr (example) is to freeze a few doses of 15-23gr (depending on your brew method and recepy), put around 100-150gr in a vacuum canister and keep in the bag what we use in the next 3-5 days. Most people buy the biggest vacuum canister whilst we will always advise you to buy the smallest one. Better have 2 smaller vacuum canisters and split your bag. A big vacuum canister that you open and close multiple times is a mistake that we often see.