Love coffee and want to learn more about coffee beans? Are you a coffee lover seeking the perfect brew? Come with us as we dive deep into the captivating world of coffee beans, where every sip tells a story of origins, roasting methods, and storage techniques that elevate your coffee experience to unparalleled heights.

Just as a master chef carefully selects ingredients for a gourmet dish, understanding coffee bean varieties allows you to curate a brew that resonates with your preferences. From the velvety richness of Arabica to the robust intensity of Robusta, these coffee species serve as the building blocks of your daily cup of bliss.

But the journey doesn't end once you've selected your ideal bean. Proper storage becomes the unsung hero in preserving those precious flavours and aromas. Think of your coffee beans as fine wine; they require meticulous care to maintain their freshness and complexity. Shielding them from moisture, sunlight, and oxygen ensures that each grind delivers a symphony of flavours, from fruity undertones to caramelized sweetness. Whether you're a seasoned barista or a curious coffee novice, our comprehensive guide empowers you to savour every moment, one perfectly brewed cup at a time.

The Coffee Bean Species

There are two main coffee bean species that we drink, Arabica and Robusta. When we refer to different species, think of it like apples; we have Royal Gala, Granny Smith, and Red Delicious: they are all apples, but different species produce different fruits with different flavours. Coffee plants are the same, different species of the plant will produce different fruits which give different flavours coming through in the coffee. Coffee beans are actually the seeds of a little red cherry, you normally get two little beans sitting back to back inside the cherry. In 4-5% of the cherries on a tree, only 1 bean will develop inside the cherry, this is known as a Peaberry because of its more round shape, similar to a pea.

Robusta tends to be a smaller, rounder bean. The Arabica bean is generally larger (but not always) and more oval in shape. The Robusta bean produces a more bitter coffee and is used predominantly for instant coffee. This species will grow happily at lower elevations so it is easier to harvest and produces twice as many cherries as the Arabica plant. Good grade Robusta is available and we use a Robusta in three of the blends we create here, adding a small percentage of Robusta to a blend will increase the crema and strength of flavour to the coffee. The Arabica bean tends to be more delicious, it has more of the flavours human beings tend to like – nuts, chocolates, caramels, fruity and floral notes. Robusta is bitter and tastes more like burnt popcorn or burnt rubber.

What Are Coffee Blends?

We have eight different coffee blends of coffee at Crema, and we use 13 different origins of coffee to create those 8 different blends. While Single Origin coffee means that coffee comes from one origin - a coffee blend is often a mix of beans from different origins. Generally if you go into a café and order a coffee, it will be a blend that you are drinking, meaning that there are different origins mixed together to create a particular flavour of coffee. A blend allows you to manipulate the strength and flavour notes you get in the coffee, for example Ethiopian coffees tend to be fruity and floral, Sumatrans are earthy and woody and Brazils are nutty and mild. So by manipulating the origins that go into a blend you can highlight different flavours in the coffee, or make it incredibly strong or milder.

What Is Single Origin Coffee?

Much like savouring a wine from a specific region, single origin coffees showcase the distinct flavours, aromas, and characteristics of a particular geographical area. By focusing on beans sourced from a singular location, whether it's the lush mountains of Ethiopia or the volcanic soils of Guatemala, you're embarking on a sensory journey that tells a story of its origin, especially when you try a few and compare the flavours. This purity allows for a more nuanced flavour , enabling coffee enthusiasts to discern subtle notes that might be lost in blends. In essence, choosing single origin coffees is like reading a novel where each sip unveils a new chapter, deepening your appreciation for the complexities and beauty of coffee craftsmanship. Choosing single-origin coffees also connects you directly to the farmers who pour their hearts and expertise into growing these remarkable beans. It's a chance to support sustainable practices, fair trade initiatives, and the livelihoods of communities who depend on this crop.

What Is the Coffee Bean Belt?

All coffee grows along what is called the Coffee Bean Belt. It wraps around the globe and sits between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer – this provides the perfect conditions for the coffee plant to grow. What the plants like are warm, humid, tropical kinds of days and nice cool nights where the temperature drops so the plant can conserve some energy and focus on developing the cherry and coffee beans. The Top End of Australia sits within the coffee bean belt, from Coffs harbour up is right the climate, below Coffs Harbour is too cold and tends to get frost which the coffee trees don’t like. Great coffees also grow at high altitudes, so although Australia sits within the Bean Belt we don’t have the high Altitudes that coffees grow at in other Continents.

The Art of Roasting Coffee Beans

Coffee beans are green prior to roasting, which takes about 15 – 16 mins per batch depending on the coffee we are roasting. We would roast an Ethiopian differently to a Sumatran for example because of different moisture contents, beans size and depending on what we are trying to get out of the bean. In the first 6-7mins we don’t see too much change in the bean. In those first 6-7mins we are just cooking the remaining moisture out of the bean we don’t really see a change in colour happen until about 7 mins into the roast, at around that time the bean goes to a light brown or bread colour. The longer we roast the darker the bean will get and the more we caramelise the sugars and draw out the sweeter caramel and chocolate notes. The longer the roast goes the darker it will get, and potentially the more bitter the coffee will get. Roast lighter and you will highlight the fruity/floral notes of the coffee, but roast too light and the coffee can have vegetable and unpleasant raw flavours. We tend to roast medium to light here in Australia, we don’t tend to roast very dark here in Australia as Aussie coffee drinkers prefer sweeter coffees, where in Italy it might be a dark roast where they prefer those bitter flavours coming from the coffee.

Coffee Freshness and Best Before Dates

Coffee that you purchase from Crema Garage will be date stamped showing you the date the coffee was roasted on. It will show you the week of the year, the day and month the coffee was roasted on and will display a 6 week Best Before Date. We package of coffee on the same day that we roast it, we give our coffee a 6 week life span. We date stamp bag so you know exactly how old your coffee is. We recommend that you use our coffee within 6 weeks of the roasting date, not 6 weeks from when you open the bag.

The reason that we give that 6 weeks is because the coffee will still be nice and fresh, sweet and full of flavour within that first six weeks. During roasting we have made some key changes to the beans in the roasting process. We have caramelised the sugars in the beans but we have also unlocked carbon dioxide in the beans and the beautiful oils that are in the bean. The start of the CO2 gas release we actually hear during the roasting process, at about 190deg in the roasting process we start to hear what is called First Crack – it starts to sound like popcorn going off in the roasting drum. At this stage the coffee bean is starting to expand and steam and CO2 are released from the bean. CO2 continues to be released from roasted coffee, depending on the weather, for between 5-10 days after roasting. This process is called de-gassing, in warmer weather it happens quickly, colder weather it is slower. This is why coffee bags will always have a one-way valve on them. This allows the CO2 out of the bag, but no oxygen can get into the bag to age the coffee. The other key thing that happens to be beans in that roasting phase is the unlocking of the oils in the coffee, so we want to use the coffee while that oil is still present in the bean. In the roasting process we start to unlock the oils in the centre of the bean, and then over a six week period those oils are moving to the surface of the bean and will evaporate and/or go stale and rancid. You want to use coffee while the oil is still present, so when you grind it, pack it into your handle and run water through it, you are then extracting the oils into the espresso shot.

Today we will drop either a 30ml single espresso shot, or a 60ml double shot. Included in that 30ml or 60ml we will see a dark gold creamy head called The Crema, the crema is the oils that have extracted from the fresh coffee. If you use coffee that is old (over 6 weeks from roast date) there is be no crema on a shot, the espresso will look dark and black (rather than golden) and will taste flat and bitter and have a thin mouthfeel. But if you use the coffee within that first 6 week window you will get the crema coming through, it will taste delicious with a creamy mouthfeel and will be sweet. So that is why we recommend that 6 week best before date.

You also don’t want to be using coffee that is too fresh though, so you want and try to not use coffee during the de-gassing phase. The coffee that we are roasting this week will be held in the warehouse for at least 5 days and will be sent out to our clients after that. Coffee that is too fresh and still de-gassing will cause your espresso shots to extract too quickly giving you a fast shot time – you won’t get the flavour, or the crema of the sweetness coming through. Let it degas for 5 days, the coffee will mature and settle and your espresso shots will extract more slowly.

How To Store Coffee

Coffee storage is essential because coffee is like bread - it goes ages and goes stale if it's not stored properly. To maintain the freshness of the roasted coffee you need to store your coffee correctly so that you help the beans hold on to that oil for as long as possible and get that 6 week lifespan out of your coffee.

Four things to avoid:

• MOISTURE – We recommend you do not store your coffee in your fridge or freezer, the condensation that builds up on the inside of the bag or container will be absorbed by the coffee, this addition of moisture will affect the quality of the coffee and the extraction.
• SUNLIGHT & HEAT – Avoid direct sunlight onto the coffee bags or the hopper on your grinder also store the beans somewhere cool. Don’t store bags or containers on top of the espresso machine or in the hottest area of the kitchen or café. Having the beans somewhere hot will cause the beans to heat up and release the oil from the coffee quicker than you expect and will lessen the expected life span of the coffee, you will find the flavour and the crema from the coffee will deteriorate quicker than that 6 weeks.
• OXYGEN – Storing your coffee in an airtight container is so important for freshness – exposure to oxygen over a long period of time will also mean your coffee loses flavour and crema. Use a clip to reseal a coffee bag or store your beans in an airtight container. We also recommend that you keep a minimal amount of beans in you hopper, only put in there what you intend to use that day, keeping the rest of you beans stored in a cool place in you airtight container.