Best Coffee Beans for 2021

Our Whole Bean Coffee Roundup!

Your Guides: Shaun Gilley & Doaa Samir | Updated 11/30/2020

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Our top spot for best coffee beans goes to Kicking Horse Coffee, Three Sisters, Medium Roast, whole bean coffee.  Kicking Horse, Three Sisters is certified organic, fairtrade, kosher, Arabica coffee.  That’s a hard combination to beat!  It’s aroma is sweet dried fruit, toasted coconut, and chocolate malt.

Taste is well rounded and complex with notes of sweet tobacco, stone fruit and cocoa. Recommended brewing approaches: French press (coarse grind), drip machine (medium grind), pour over (medium-fine grind) and cold brew.  Roasted in the Rocky Mountains.  Easily among the best coffee beans.

There are two basic ingredients to excellent coffee – great water and great coffee beans.  Most people use their everyday water source, typically, local tap water.  So really, the defining factor for outstanding coffee is choosing the best coffee beans.  If you are not buying top rated coffee beans, you are missing out on the pleasure of having the best tasting coffee.

 

 

So how do you pick the best coffee beans?  Read on, and we’ll explain the important factors in choosing excellent beans.  If you just want to jump to light-speed, we’ll also give you our top recommendation (above) for the best coffee beans so you can make delicious coffee at home every day.

12 Top Rated Coffee Beans

Colombia Monserrate

Single-origin, shipped direct.  Medium roast whole bean coffee. These coffee beans bring balanced sweetness and acidity delivering an approachable cup of coffee.

Pros

• Supports workers
• Strong and full-bodied aroma
• Notes of hazelnut, citrus and brown sugar

Cons

• Hard to find negative opinions

Kauai Coffee

Kauai Coffee specializes in ‘Kona’ coffee, a very unusual and delicious coffee only grown in Hawaii on the shores of the Kona district. They are known for their full-bodied roasts and incredible flavors. You can be confident when you brew Kauai Coffee that you’re getting something special. Kona is widely considered to be in the best coffee beans.

Pros

• lovely aroma with floral notes
• sustainable, environmentally sound practices
• Hawaii’s largest coffee grower

Cons

• Blended with non-Hawaiian coffees

Black Rifle – Silencer Smooth Coffee

Silencer Smooth’s precise roasting specifications bring out its sweet aroma, citrus notes, and a crisp finish.

Pros

• Excellent flavor Black (without cream or sugar)
• Does not go bitter

Cons

• Hard to measure out from the narrow opening of the bag

Pairs a tart citric acidity and smooth, creamy toffee note to tie this light bodied blend together.  Crafted to enjoy fresh from your favorite coffee machine.

Pros

• Medium roast made with fair trade certified coffee beans.
• Contributes 5% of profits to support at-risk youth.
• Roasted in small batches to bring out optimum flavors in each bean.

Cons

• Do not put roast dates on bag

Carefully sourced, selected, and expertly roasted premium Robusta and Arabica coffee beans from 5 distinct bean origins around the world. Resulting in a smooth and earthy aroma of coffee beans that fill you up and leave you feeling fresh, energized, and ready to conquer the day.

Pros

• Fair Trade, USDA Certified Organic
• Natural caffeine boost
• Will refund your order, no questions asked if you don’t like

Cons

• Robusta and Arabica blend

A complex Kenyan microlot that tastes of sugary plum, chocolate, and a hint of lemon with a sweet finish. The Coffee Bros. Kenya Mutira is named after the smallholder farmer cooperative which this coffee derives from, “Mutira Farmers Cooperative Society”.

Pros

• Small Batch
• Coffee is from the famous SL-28 and SL-34 varietals which are known for unmatched sweetness.

Cons

• a little more expensive

Featuring a chocolatey body and notes of ripe plum. Arabica, Fair Trade and Certified Orthodox Union Kosher coffee.  Best coffee beans? – You decide!

Pros

• Rich. Fruity. Full-bodied
• tastes even better as iced coffee
• Medium roast blend of African and Indonesian coffee beans

Cons

• Bold flavor is not for everyone

Venturing a little out of our path… A great little find with six 3.2 oz bags of gourmet organic Arabica whole bean coffee – each one enough for a full pot! Sumatra, Peru, Guatemalan, Colombian, Espresso and Good Morning Blends Bullet Point

Pros

• Small batch roasting
• grown by socially and environmentally responsible farmers

Cons

• Some say on the bitter side

We just had to throw this S’mores flavored coffee in the mix! Low acid coffee made from medium roast Arabica beans infused with chocolate and toasted marshmallow flavor with a hint of sweet graham cracker

Pros

• Strong, sweet aroma with a delicious, addictive flavor
• captures the taste of smores roasted over a campfire

Cons

• This is Flavored coffee – purists might not like

Single Origin Premium Peruvian Coffee Beans.  Stone Street takes pride in their ethical & intimate sourcing relationships with the best coffee beam farms and growing regions.

Pros

• Fair Trade Organic
• Strong and full-bodied aroma

Cons

• Packaging not optimal for freshness

A mixture of the best coffee beans from the world’s leading rising regions. Peet always puts the customer first, so they select the best quality and freshest coffee. Peet’s Major Dickason’s coffee is roasted in small batches by artisans and handcrafted to give you the most delicious coffee flavor.

Pros

• Handmade coffee
• Exceptional taste

Cons

• Some coffee drinkers don’t like the blend

Dark Roast is Seattle ‘s finest whole bean coffee. It has an intense, rich, and smoky flavor. From the best coffee beans in Seattle. One hundred percent Arabica and are sourced solely from Latin America.

Pros

• Bold and deep taste
• 100% Arabica
• Smoky and intense French roast

Cons

• Flavor is too intense for some

How to select the best coffee beans

There are thousands of coffee beans in the market to choose from, so it’s helpful to understand the key factors related to coffee bean selection that influence great taste. Here are some useful tips on how to pick the right coffee beans:

• Know your coffee species preference

There are two key species of commercial coffee beans on the market today, Robusta and Arabica. Arabica coffee typically grows in high altitude regions. It is mildly acidic, and known for its smooth taste. Robusta, on the other hand, grows in areas at lower altitudes and has a good, bitter taste. While Arabica is seen as the better choice by connoisseurs, this depends largely on its growing process and the care it receives during its journey to the coffee roaster.

• Check the roast date of the coffee beans

The best coffee beans are freshly roasted. Look for the roast date on the label before purchasing your beans, so you have an idea of how many days have passed since the beans were roasted. You want to choose coffee beans that have been recently been roasted. If stored properly, coffee can last months, but the closer you are to roasting the better the flavor and aroma of coffee beans.

• Determine the amount of caffeine you want in your coffee

Dark roasted coffee beans contain lower amounts of caffeine than those of light or medium roasting, contrary to what most people assume. Of all the three, light roasted beans have the highest caffeine amount. Espresso beans are usually roasted to a medium roast. So if you are looking for maximum caffeine octane, choose a blonde roast over a dark roast.

• Get beans from a reputable coffee roaster

Select beans from a roaster that has a reputation for using high quality beans and delivering consistent roasting performance. We’ve delivered a list of high quality roasted coffee bean brands you can trust.

The best method to find your new favorite coffee beans is to take our list of best coffee beans and test a handful.  If you already know that you like a medium roast, for instance, buy 2 – 3 different bags and make your own home taste test.   Don’t purchase a bean because you’re told by others what you should want. Drinking coffee is an experience which is profoundly personal. There’s a coffee bean for every one of us out there. So, trust your intuition about the flavor you want and once you’ve made up your mind if a mild, full-bodied, floral-tasting, nutty, winy, etc. is your preferred option, just go for it.  Experiment by trying a few different coffees on our list to find what is truly YOUR BEST COFFEE BEANS!  Bon Appetiet!