You only have to visit a coffee house and be given a substandard cup of coffee to know that all coffees are not the same! So which are the best coffee beans to buy? 

Good coffee needs to have a balance. Much like the taste test for other foods, it needs to be balanced between sweet, sour, salty, bitterness and umami. 

The flavour profile of the coffee beans comes from the type of coffee it is, the region it is grown in, how it is roasted and how it is prepared. For example, over-roasting coffee can make it taste salty. 

Best coffee bean variety

There is wide agreement that Arabica is the best coffee bean variety. It is known for being sweeter and smoother than Robusta, which has more caffeine and is heavier on the palate. Our Kilimanjaro Cloud Forest coffee is a blend of the two, to give it a heavier mouth feel. 

Around 60% of the world’s coffee is Arabica and Robusta is around 30%. The remaining 10% is split between the other two commercial varieties: Liberica and Excelsa.

Best coffee bean zones

The decision on which are the best coffee bean zones really lies in your preferred taste. The different growing zones produce different flavour profiles in the coffee. 

For example, our Tanzanian coffee has a bold cacao nib flavour combined with rich molasses, dried fruit and subtle pepper spice notes. The fuller dark roast gives it a bittersweet edge. This well balanced profile makes it a popular coffee bean. 

By contrast, our La Sierra Cloud Forest coffee beans from Mexico have a nutty, praline and milk chocolate flavour profile with a candied lemon bitterness. The medium roast means it is less bitter and is a lighter, fruitier coffee. 

How the processing affects the coffee beans

Naturally processed coffee beans are dried intact, leaving the fruit and skin surrounding the bean. Washed process coffee beans have their skin and fruit removed as quickly as possible after picking, and the beans are then dried. 

The result is two different tastes. Natural coffee beans have a fruitier, sweeter and richer flavour, coming from the fruit around them during drying. Washed coffee beans are lighter and nuttier, more like the taste of the bean itself. Where water is precious - Costa Rica and Ethiopia - the preferred process for growers is natural.

We’ve already touched on the fact that the length of roasting the coffee beans affects the bitterness level of the coffee produced. Roasting coffee for longer makes it high-strength, darker and heavier on the palate. Medium-strength coffee is lighter and fruitier. 

The best coffee beans

We sell only the best coffee beans at Source Climate Change. We choose only high quality, sustainably grown coffee from growers involved in reforestation and conservation projects. Many of them have achieved speciality standard (SCAA) scores of 82% and above and have won numerous Great Taste Awards.

Our coffees have a range of flavour profiles to suit most palates. We sell fruitier coffees from Nicaragua and Mexico, and darker roasted coffees sourced from Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. 

If you are not sure what flavour profile is your favourite, we sell taster packs so that you can sample each coffee before you order coffee beans.