I used to be mostly into teas, but my wife has always been into coffee. I work night shift so I figured it would be nice if I brewed her a cup in the mornings and save her the time getting ready. I’ve learned a lot about brewing coffee and found a brand that I like but she isn’t as into it and doesn’t really have a brand she likes. She used to just get a random bag of pre-ground from the grocery store and add sweetener and creamer or almond milk until it was palatable but she’s trying to cut down on that stuff.
Does anyone know of a good sampler of whole beans that is somewhat representative of the varieties, origins, and roasts to hopefully narrow down someone’s preference?
There are so many variables to consider (depending on how deep into the rabbit hole you care go go) that you sort of have to pick a place to start and work on your “sampler sets” from there. The easiest ones to lock down are roast darkness and grind size. This is what I did recently-ish (after lockdown was over, but while we were all doing fun lockdown hobby-projects):
- Find a fancy supermarket with its own coffee grinder and whole bean selection near you – by me both Whole Foods and Fresh Market have them, as does the specialty Italian market.
- Ask what the minimum amount of coffee is that they’re willing to sell (in places that grind for you sometimes there is like a 1/8 lb minimum). Go with enough beans to brew yourself and your wife a cup or two each. 1/8 lb (2oz) is actually a good amount.
- Try 3 or 4 varieties at once. I’d say start with roasting depth first. The market will usually have at least a light, a medium a dark and a French or extra dark roast option. Buy a small amount of each one using the same grind setting for each.
- Try them all in a small period of time, always brewing them the same way. I’m not saying go home and drink 4 cups of coffee back to back (though I’m also not saying that), but do it in a day or two. When you’re buying 12oz bags from the store it might take a few days to get through, which could make it a long time before you find what you like.
If your market is like mine they have a “house bean” that they sell at each of these darknesses, but even if that’s not the case roasting has such a significant effect on coffee flavor it’s still a good variable to knock out first.
Once you have that dialed in, you can go back to the store and get 3-4 samples of your favorite pick now at different grind sizes, or (if you’re lucky) find 3-4 different bean options in your preferred darkness. The key is being able to buy in small quantities so you can try a bunch of options while keeping costs under control and not drinking weeks worth of coffees that you don’t really like.
S&W Roasting offers sampler packs. Pick up a natural or two, and a washed or two, with varying roast levels.
We subscribed to Trade Coffee for about 8 months and they sent us a totally new bag from a different roaster every week. We played around with it a lot, many different kinds and roasts of coffee, and found one roaster in Atlanta we really like. You rate each coffee as you try them and they adjust what to send you next week. You can read descriptions of each coffee on their site and pick what order things come in.
It’s perfect for when you want to have a broad selection of coffee over time.
My only warning is Trade doesn’t really do dark, dark roasts. My taste pallette falls all the way at the end of their range and their rating scale is a little confusing so it took me a couple conversations with their customer service department to get my account set to only send dark roasts.
A lot of variables to consider beyond the beans. Is your brewing method good enough (water hot enough, wetting the grounds completely, adding the water in proper manner)?
Are you in a decent size suburban or urban area with good roasters? Visit them if you have the time and get fresh roast and fresh grown beans for them in the smallest package size to get a variety.
I feel like a light roast either fruity or nutty, can be a good transition bean for folks trying reduce or completely eliminate sugar and cream.