A Beginner's Guide To Buying Great Coffee

Let me know if this is useful!

Chapter timecodes:
0:00 Intro to the series & overview of structure
1:50 Golden rules for buying coffee
2:29 Freshness: roast dates & best before dates
3:38 Fresh coffee in espresso vs filter
4:17 Ground coffee vs whole bean
5:02 Whole bean freshness
5:21 Traceable Coffee
6:57 Seasonality of harvests
8:03 Where to buy coffee?
8:27 Supermarket/grocery store purchases: pros & cons
9:41 Coffee shop purchases
10:46 Purchasing online directly from roasters
12:01 Skillshare ad & discount, including my favourite classes
12:52 Decoding bags of coffee from the supermarket
13:17 Roast degree or 'strength'
15:20 Guidelines on roast degree correlation with acidity and bitterness
15:41 Coffee descriptors
18:27 Category 1 of disliked coffee experiences: light-body & texture descriptors
19:31 Category 2: Acidity & fruit words
20:50 Category 3: Fermented fruit flavours & dry or natural process
22:15 Decoding supermarket bag descriptions
25:46 Closing of guide & questions from you

[clueless]

Whenever this guys says “and that’s okay” it makes me feel like I’m being accepted for my stupid, uninformed coffee preferences.

[jba]

I hope my fellow coffee professionals understand just how much this man has done for our industry. He's taught people so much, and the more informed consumers are, the more we can roast what we want to roast and brew what we want to brew.

[sconzey]

When he described “acidity” in coffee I experienced an almost physical sensation of puzzle pieces clicking into place and suddenly I could explain why, as a life long coffee lover, I nevertheless found certain cups unpleasant.

What I love about James is that he doesn’t gatekeep, or assert that there’s only one correct way to enjoy coffee. He’s a genuine enthusiast: “if you like X then here’s some things you can try to make your experience even more X-y”

[stevejoung]

You just saved me like $100 in unwanted coffee beans. And since I’m pretty cheap, I would refuse to throw it out and suffer through ten bags of acidic, fermented, pucker juice. My request is you do a blind taste testing between label description vs actual taste you experience. 🙏🏻👍

[bugsygoo]

It’s getting bloody expensive being subscribed to this channel!

[Corndog]

I REALLY liked how you said “grocery stores don’t treat coffee like fresh food” I’ve never thought of coffee as fresh food, very nice analogy.

[mazdaram]

Well…. Now I’m buying a machine, grinder, beans and all the extras now, thanks for sharing your passion and sharing your knowledge….although it would have been cheaper to scroll past your videos to be honest James .

[depeltenburg]

It’s funny… I have a costarican son in law and drank their ‘funky ‘ bean coffee..I couldn’t explain to anyone how different it tasted… now I know… it was a natural process bean, fermented…. I feel like I went 1 level up now😅… thank you!

[langzhi]

The best thing about James is that the way he communicates. He’s very good at drawing you into coffee instead of gatekeeping

[dragonmares]

I watched a 26 minutes video about coffee buying and i never buy coffee...a true testament to how great James is.

[Dialogue_SC]

At 13:44 i love that when James says "specialty coffee" he pats his chest almost saying "i am representing specialty coffee" and yes you are James. you are the personification of specialty coffee.

[Ljrobison]

I'm not a beginner to coffee but it's always nice to hear James say it's ok to like non-acidic coffees. Sometimes it feels a bit strange to be so deep into the coffee hobby and still finding a good dark roast to be hard to beat for me.

[thehackqueen]

“Grinding coffee is one of the great pleasures of life.” literally made me smile. ☺️

[Noobzilla_]

immediately pleased to see that “part 1”

[elviejohg]

I started buying whole grains of coffe this year and last week I gifted my girlfriend a bag of colombian coffe that said it tasted like "yellow fruits" (she uses a french press). She didn't like it, said it was too acidic and thought maybe she was doing something wrong. This video helped me a lot

[kevinpenfold]

Super markets: we can’t have a “roasted on” date, nobody will buy the coffee.

People who like coffee: dang, no “roasted on” date, not buying that.

I love how you’re so empathetic with ALL the people who love Coffee, not only one particular group and this is one of the reason I value your comments and opinions, James, you’ve really teach me a lot.

I’m enjoying coffee more each day and I’ve found happiness in experimenting, tasting and it’s just amazing.

Thank you

[alexandragrace]

I was a barista for 6 years, and even trained new staff. But James has taught me so much I never knew.

[simonmitchell]

James. I came across you after reading a Spectator article on being bored during lockdown and I am now hooked on your coffee videos.

This one caught my eye and as a result, I found a great online roaster and subscribed as per your advice, and chose a Rwandan coffee that arrived with a roasting date of a day after my purchase, a good sign I thought.

The whole experience of grinding is like another world, the kitchen was filled with the most amazing aromas and the subsequent brewing in my French press produced the best coffee I have ever tasted.

So thank you Sir, I didn't follow your advice on grinders, I got a cheap noisy grinder that does the job and I don't hold with your French press palaver of waiting ages and not pushing the plunger down, life is too short and I am impatient...

but overall, you have opened my eyes to what to look for and I am delighted to say that I have just received my second order of Rwandan coffee, this time a 5-kilo bag.

Yipee I am buzzing with enthusiasm.

Simon.

[charleslayno]

I know you very busy and have no time for this silliness, but I wanted to say before the pandemic, I rarely drank coffee, much less knew if it was good or bad. I stumbled on to your YT channel during the lock down and I have grown to LOVE coffee. While I still have no idea what the hell I am doing, I am loving discovering the world of coffee beyond a 16 YO kid slinging a cup of God knows what at me through a drive through window and me thinking, oh wow, great coffee, when I should be pouring it down the drain. To you sir, I thank you. I am also enjoying The World Atlas of Coffee, 2nd Ed. Thank you for writing it. I am finding it a invaluable reference. And to you sir, have a great day!