We drink more coffee each year than any other legal substances. While ensuring that you prepare it in the best possible way help to enhance the drinking experience, by far the biggest choice you have to make towards making sure you have the ultimate drinking experience is to make sure that you pick the best beans to meet your needs.



With so many different coffee products available in the markets these days, picking the right beans can be a bit of a hit and miss experience. To assist you in your selection choice, the following are 5 useful tips on how to pick the best coffee bean:

1. Although there are many different types of bean available, essentially there are two main species of coffee plant, from where the beans come. Arabica, which is believed to have originated in Kefa (from where "coffee" gets its name) and is the oldest known beans. Coffee canephora (robusta), which is thought to originate in Uganda and grows in climates where arabica cannot normally be grown. Generally, of the two, arabica is seen by connoisseurs as being the better choice, while canephora is generally the coffee bean used in branded commercial coffees.

2. Many coffee lovers are particular about where they buy their beans from. Knowing something about the different regions of the coffee growing world is critical if you want to be taken seriously among the serious coffee drinkers. For example, Brazil exports the most in the world, and Columbian coffee is used by many commercial coffee companies, but many of the world's coffee lovers prefer the beans from Kenya.

3. In order to enhance your experience you need to select a bean that has been roasted. However, you want to make sure that the bean you pick has been recently roasted. As such, before you decide which one to buy, make sure you ask the sales person how long ago the it was roasted. If it was more than a day or so ago, you should probably avoid it.

4. The way in which a coffee bean is roasted has an impact on the overall flavor of the coffee. Knowing the different roasting procedures will help you to select not only the best beans, but also the best roasted coffee bean. Generally they are either French roasted or Italian roasted, so make sure you ask before buying.

5. Don't buy a bean because others tell you what you must like. Drinking coffee is a deeply personal experience. Eventually there's a coffee bean out there for each of us. So, trust your instincts about the taste you like and once you have made up your mind whether your preferred choice is a mild, full-bodied, floral-tasting, nutty, winy, etc., just go with it. Obviously feel free to experiment with other coffee beans, but savour the pleasure of what you love - the best possible coffee bean for you.