Finding Your Perfect Coffee
At Coffee-Direct, you will find more than 100 varieties of freshly roasted coffee for you to enjoy. While we are very proud of our wonderful range, we also understand that it may be slightly daunting for those new to the world of coffee who may not be sure yet of their favourite coffee variety. That’s why we do our best to provide as much information on our coffees as possible, allowing you to find your own perfect coffee or discover a new favourite.
Our Coffee Finder and Coffee Sorter Tools
At Coffee-Direct, we have two great tools that you can use to help you choose your perfect coffee:
Coffee Finder: answer a few simple questions on your preferences and let our Coffee Finder provide you with some helpful suggestions for your perfect variety.
Coffee Sorter: an extensive, detailed overview of all our wonderful coffees, giving you information including roast level and levels of acidity, body and aroma.
How We Categorise Our Coffees
For each of our delicious coffees, we provide detailed descriptions of flavours and aromas, the coffee’s origins and history, and sometimes preparation suggestions. We also include a profile for each variety that shows details on some key characteristics of the coffee: strength, acidity, flavour, body, aroma and oil level.
Understanding Roast Levels
When coffee is roasted, the roasting process can be carefully controlled to influence three key aspects of how the coffee will taste: acidity, sweetness and bitterness. Therefore, we further categorise our coffees into four roast levels: Medium, Dark, Espresso and Continental.
Medium Roast
Our lighter, medium roasts generally make coffees of lower strength than our darker roasts and are often sweet, with bright flavours that can include notes of fruit, nut or chocolate.
Dark Roast
Dark roasted beans tend to be roasted for longer than lighter, medium roasts, which results in a coffee with a fuller body. The flavours of dark roasted coffees can reveal bitter chocolate and sometimes spicy notes.
Espresso Roast
This strong, deep roast is rich in flavours and aromas and is, as expected, perfect for espressos. However, although the full body and powerful flavours are very well-suited to a smaller coffee, our Espresso roasts can still be enjoyed when prepared as a filter coffee or using a cafetiere.
Continental Roast
Our darkest roasted coffee, Continental roast, offers heady aromas and well-balanced, rich and robust flavours. The low acidity and strength of this roast make it ideal for intense espressos, although it also works well for rich filter coffees.
Coffee Grinds and Preparation
One of the key influences on your finished coffee drink is your chosen preparation method. There are a number of different ways to prepare your coffee, each bringing unique characteristics to the finished drink.
Bean-to-Cup
Quick, clean and easy to use, bean-to-cup coffee machines are favoured by many coffee lovers for their versatility and simplicity. Use whole beans in your bean-to cup-machine and let it do the work of grinding and preparing your drink. While bean-to-cup machines may not offer the precision of using a separate grinder, they are certainly worth the investment and can be relied on to create all your favourite coffees with minimal fuss.
Cafetiere
The cafetiere, or French Press, is a very accessible preparation method for most coffee drinkers, given that they can be bought quite cheap and do not take up much room in the kitchen. When coffee is prepared in a cafetiere, the ground coffee and water are steeped together (instead of the water passing through the grounds, as in other methods) which results in a particularly uniform extraction. Cafetieres will also filter grounds from the brewed coffee and water while allowing a little coffee oil to pass through, giving a rich body and texture to the finished coffee.
Espresso
Espressos are prepared using espresso machines and very finely ground coffee that is placed under high water pressure, resulting in a small, strong drink that has long been at the heart of coffee culture. It is advised that, if you plan on preparing your own espressos at home, you invest in a quality coffee grinder to ensure a fine, even grind. Once you have your preparation down, you can then enjoy a range of delicious drinks other than espresso, including lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites.
Filter
One of the oldest coffee preparation methods still used today, filtering involves passing water through a bed of coffee in order to extract flavour, with a cloth, paper or fine metal mesh used to filter the ground coffee from the flavoured water that drips through the mesh. Filter coffees can create delicious drinks, particularly when the beans have been very finely ground: finely ground filter coffee offers a greater surface area for the water to flow through, resulting in more coffee flavour being extracted.
Percolator
Coffee percolators work by providing separate chambers for water and ground coffee beans. The lower chamber, where water is placed, is heated, causing the water to gradually travel up a vertical tube where it meets with the ground coffee. After running over the coffee grounds, the flavoured water then drips back to the bottom of the pot in a process that is repeated several times. Coffee prepared in a percolator is strong and full-bodied, with plenty of flavour.
Turkish
The method used to prepare Turkish coffee results in a drink that is unfiltered, high in caffeine and full of flavour. Traditionally brewed in a cezve, Turkish coffee is made by combining ground coffee with water and heating the mixture to just below boiling point. Once heated, the ground coffee will sink to the bottom of the cup, allowing the delicious, strong coffee to be enjoyed.
Why not try our Coffee Finder, or have a look at our Coffee Sorter, to find your perfect coffee today!