How To Choose a coffee

A great coffee experience, at the most basic level, is quite simple: make it hot, strong, and delicious. However, we have found that coffee is an astonishingly complex beverage. The total number of different aromatic compounds found in coffee is still not completely known, but the current estimate stands at more than 800, and it’s increasing every year. This would suggest that the possible flavor variations in your cup are essentially infinite. For some, choosing a coffee can seem quite daunting. If you approach the task with curiosity and an open mind, it can also be a continuous journey of discovery.

The basic components of coffee are Aroma (how it smells), Brightness (the presence of a high, sharp citrus element), Flavor (how it tastes), and Body (how it sits, or how heavy it feels, in your mouth). Then there are the distinctive flavors individual to the particular region, soil, climate, etc: eastern African coffees may express an almost tea-like quality, combined with a tart cherry note. Our Papua New Guinea, meanwhile, is full bodied with an earthy sweetness that is unique to that part of South-east Asia.

There are also specific flavors elicited based on processing methods that might have a bearing on which coffee you’d enjoy. For example, a natural processed Sidamo from Ethiopia will inherently contain earthy, blueberry notes due to the fact that the coffee bean is sun-dried while still inside the cherry. A washed Guatemala, by contrast, will contain cleaner, brighter notes and a more balanced, chocolatey body, because of the amount of water used in processing.

Finally, different roast levels can accentuate all these characteristics, and will have a strong influence over how the coffee eventually tastes in your cup. In simple terms, a lighter roast will bring out more of the unique flavor components of a coffee and will also generally be brighter than a darker roast. A darker roast will reveal more roastiness and sweet sugar flavors. Very dark coffees, such as an Italian roast, tend to be very oily and can often verge on the singed flavors reminiscent of burnt sugar, or charred meat on a grill.

 At Mighty Good, we roast to bring out the unique flavor profiles of all our single origin coffees, while our signature blends tend towards the darker side. As a rule, we never roast our coffee to a level so dark that the taste would be affected, or just to make a dark coffee for the sake of it. Instead, we carefully examine each individual coffee and assess the characteristics we wish to highlight. Only then do we offer it for sale through our website, Bean Shop, and local grocery stores and partner restaurants.

To view our coffees, please visit our shop.