Most coffee sold are/is made from Arabica beans. The coffee has mostly a strong, a bit more aggressive taste, a tad more refined taste compared to the other kind of beans: Robusta. It's more timid and unclear taste compared to Arabica, I was able to get some from Indonesia. But I have been mixing it together with Arabica at about a 60/40 (70/30) ratio. I find that it gives the coffee more depth rendering a bit more mild, and Arabica seems to be more potent in about every way. I just find that Arabica can be a bit intrusive at times, but it depends a lot on the way it is prepared. I for one tend to use a Moka Pot.
If you think that you would like to drink coffee that is more mild, or just want to experiment with different coffee styles and sorts, then you might want to keep an eye out for Robusta beans.
Arabica and Robusta are species, like tomatoes are a species of nightshade. There are literally thousands of totally different kinds of tomatoes, all with unique flavours and textures. The same is true of coffee.
If you would like a coffee with a mild taste (mild as in low acid) I would recommend a low-altitude coffee, like those grown in Brazil, Columbia, and Panama. These coffees are likely to have naturally present chocolat, malt, and nut flavours.
If you want a coffee that is mild as in (not so rich, delicate), I recommend a Yirgacheffe which has a thin body, tealike flavour, and floral and peach or even citrus aromas.
Robusta has the great benefit of being resistant to Coffee Rust, the disease which is currently killing a lot of the worlds crops, and for that reason, scientists are trying to incorporate the genome of the plant into new breeds, but generally speaking, Robusta itself produces a very woody, acrid coffee, that most people don't like in large doses.
The beans look good. I forgot to mention, but as dark as you go, do not drink coffee where the oil is all over the outside of the bean and the bean itself is very crumbly. The oil is very important to the flavour, but like nuts, when they have been toasted and the oil is on the outside, it rancidifies very easily at and above room temperature.
That's not the case with these beans. They look very nice, and the description leads me to believe that this a coffee a lot of people would like, :)
I'm a woman when it comes to my taste in "adult beverages" - coffee and alcohol alike, I tend to prefer more sweet stuff than strong stuff, so I much prefer creamer over milk.
I'm huge into coffee. Thinking about starting up a small roast-to-order business in the near future. I was building a sweet roast lab with strong ventilation in my basement and then my job disappeared overnight lol. So that's on hold. I roast using a Huky 500. Can do as many consecutive roasts (up to 550 grams per batch) as I want but for personal use I stick with 350 grams at a time for freshness purposes.
As far as brewing is concerned... For drip/pourover all that matters is freshly ground coffee, even extraction within a certain range of total dissolved solids (up to 21% usually) and between 1:15-17 coffee to water ratio and we've got a perfect cup. Thicker filters for lighter, more delicate coffees and thinner or metal filters for darker roasted coffee if you want the oils to come through.
Do you guys have any tips in preserving bean freshness? I don't like the use of the airlock bag that comes with most beans and I want to prevent as much air contamination as possible? Would an airlock jar work nicely or should I be looking at something else?
This works for long term storage but not if you take them out frequently as moisture will build on the outside of the beans. Take out enough for a few weeks at a time and you'll be fine though.
