Whether you buy African coffee beans or Ethiopian coffee beans, continue buying your coffee in whole bean form. Buying canned ground coffee at the store should not be an option as you really have no idea when those coffee beans were ground up. A roasted whole coffee bean is a thing of beauty. Here are a few very good reasons why you should not buy pre-ground coffee from a grocery store.

The cells inside a roasted coffee bean contain over 1,000 different flavors and aromas. Once the coffee bean has been ground, these aromas and flavors are released and interact with oxygen, known as oxidation, thus losing up to 60 percent of its aroma.

The oils in coffee beans are water-soluble. Which isn’t a bad thing as this is what basically creates your morning cup of joe, but when the coffee is ground, these oils begin to immediately dilute. So it is better to wait until you are ready to brew to grind your coffee beans.

There are also factors that you should consider when choosing your coffee beans.

The longer a coffee bean is roasted, the more moisture it loses. Therefore, a lightly roasted coffee bean will be more pliable and a darker roast more brittle.

Coffee beans grown in lower altitudes roast differently than coffee beans grown in higher altitudes. You see, coffee beans grown at high altitudes mature at a slower rate, leaving them harder and denser than their low-altitude cousins.

These are just a few factors worth considering when making coffee bean purchases. Stay tuned and in future posts we will explore the coffee bean even further.