Top 5 Recommendations for Japanese Coffee Beans – ZenMarket.jp

The Benefits of Coffee

How To Choose Coffee Beans

For coffee drinkers, do you end up drinking the same coffee every time because there are too many brands out there? Or you do not know how to choose which coffee is best for you? Here in this blog, we will talk about the 4 main considerations to choose the right coffee for you.

When purchasing coffee beans, the first thing to look at is the brewing method. There are 4 main brewing methods –

1. Decotion (through boiling method)
2. Infusion (through steeping method)
3. Gravitational Feed (using percolators and in drip brewing method)
4. Pressurized Percolation (an example is espresso)

First, choose your coffee brewing method. If you prefer the easiest way of making coffee, we recommend choosing instant coffee. By just pouring hot water and stirring the water into the coffee mixture, you get a cup of coffee in less than 5 minutes. Of course, if you are looking for the traditional way of making coffee, then coffee beans are the right place to start. 

Pour Over/Drip coffee is one of the most popular ways of brewing coffee. You grind the coffee beans and use special brewing equipment to make coffee, enjoying the aroma while the coffee is brewed. There are many ways to brew coffee, so choose your preferred coffee brewing method depending on your lifestyle and taste. 

There are Powered Coffee and Ground Coffee Beans. When coffee is exposed to air, it oxidizes and loses its flavor. The coffee then becomes stale and bitter. As a result, grounded coffee beans can be stored longer than powdered coffee as it has less surface area that is exposed to air. However, it also takes more effort to make coffee with ground coffee beans. On the contrary, powdered coffee is quick and easy to make, but it oxidizes quickly once exposed, so it is recommended for those who consume the whole pack in a short period of time. 

When purchasing coffee beans, the one thing to pay attention to is whether the coffee is “single-origin” or “blend”. Coffee that uses only beans from a specific production area is called “single-origin”, and coffee that mixes beans from various production areas according to its own specific standards is called “blend”.

Coffee beans have different characteristics such as color, flavor, and smell depending on the place of origin, so the taste also changes greatly. If you have a specific coffee production origin that you prefer, we would recommend looking for your favorite single-origin blend coffee beans.

On the other hand, with blend coffee, you will be able to create a customized flavor by mixing the characteristics of various coffee beans, and every coffee shop always has its own special house blend. Some coffee shops have devised coffee flavor profiles so that you can visually understand the richness, texture, and acidity of the coffee that the shop provides, it is always interesting to try different flavors of coffee. 

By slowly roasting raw beans over a fire, coffee beans gradually give out a unique fragrance and aroma depending on the roasting level. The length of roasting time is called roast levels, it can be mainly classified into four types: light roast, medium roast, medium-dark roast, and dark roast. 

Light-roasted coffee beans have a strong acidity and a gentle mix of bitterness, medium-roasted coffee beans have a well-balanced profile of sourness and bitterness, and dark-roasted coffee beans have the least sourness. The coffee flavors change greatly depending on the degree of roasting.

Coffee beans are perishables that deteriorate rapidly once exposed to air. In order to store coffee beans in the proper conditions, be sure to pay attention to four things: temperature, humidity, direct sunlight, and oxygen level.

Store coffee beans in an airtight container in a dark, cool, and dry place. Also, in general, it is good to store coffee beans at room temperature. Some people recommend storing coffee beans in the refrigerator, but storing coffee in the fridge can cause condensation and moisturize the beans due to temperature differences. The beans will also absorb the odors inside the refrigerator and this affects the flavor of the beans.

To make delicious coffee, it is recommended to use all the coffee beans within 2 weeks of opening the package. Keep your coffee stored properly and let’s enjoy good coffee at home! 

Even coffee is just one word, there is a wide variety of coffee types and various coffee manufacturers all over the world. Of course, the taste is different for each manufacturer, and the characteristics of each blend are also different, so be sure to try different kinds of blends and find the one that suits your taste.

We have carefully selected the best 5 coffee beans made in Japan. Here is the list of recommendations in descending order with our comments on each coffee’s characteristics, please do enjoy our commentary and try them yourself!

Summary

When it comes to coffee, often overseas coffee brands like Starbucks or Nestle are well-known. But as coffee enthusiasts, coffee blended and roasted in Japan is also very delicious. It is recommended to classify the different unique tastes by sourness, richness, sweetness, bitterness, etc., and find your own preferred taste.

In this blog we have carefully selected and introduced our top Japanese coffees. All coffees made in Japan are of high quality. Please take this opportunity to enjoy a relaxing time with Japanese coffee!