Beginner’s Guide to Coffee

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Here at The Benton Boutique, we offer a wide variety of gift items, but we also offer high-quality snacks, baked goods, and coffee for our customers to enjoy. In our experience, the world of coffee can be difficult to navigate, so we have put together this article to help you. If you are interested in branching out to more and better coffee varieties, we encourage you to keep reading.

Beginner’s Guide to Coffee

•  Coffee Beans. The first thing you should know about coffee is that not all coffee beans are the same. For example, Robusta coffee beans have a stronger, more bitter taste than arabica beans, and about double the caffeine. Conversely, arabica beans tend to taste milder and have more fruity notes.

•  Coffee Roast. Another important aspect of coffee is how much the beans are roasted. All coffee beans need to be roasted to make them palatable and give them their distinct flavor, but some beans are only roasted a little while others are roasted until completely dark. A lighter roast will have a milder taste and preserve more of the top notes of the beans, while a darker roast will create a more intense, bitter flavor.

•  Brewing Method. A third thing you should be aware of when getting into coffee is that different brewing methods affect the flavor in different ways, and coffee fans have passionate opinions about which method is best. While you can certainly take the time to experiment with brewing methods later, if you’re just getting started, we recommend first trying various coffees at a specialty coffeeshop, then picking one method of brewing to try at home and mastering that.