An omni blend is an espresso coffee that is post-blended. Its beans will usually be roasted to different levels. Some will be lighter-roasts while others will be darker. This is often very desirable because you get a mix of light and dark characteristics in one coffee. Think of it as the best of both worlds.
7. Should I buy single origins or blends?
Both! The trick is knowing what the main differences are and what to look for.
Blends are as described above. They combine flavours from different beans to produce a more complex, balanced result. They are usually (but always) roasted a little darker than single origins. Buy coffee blends when you are wanting a really good, balanced coffee where the emphasis isn't heavily on savouring subtle or novel flavours.
Single Origin Coffees are coffee beans from just one source. That may be one farm or one region. They are characterised by the uniqueness of that region. Due to local terroir flavours, processing methods, varietals and environmental factors, each origin has its own thing going on! Buy single origins when you want to really taste what that region tastes like! The more you taste just one origin's characteristics, the better your palette becomes. Also, while blending masks the uniqueness of its components to a certain extent, single origin coffee beans showcase exactly what is there. They are roasted lighter in small batches and usually consumed black. Consuming coffee this way showcases as much of the bean's true flavours. Blends on the other hand start to take on a more generic coffee flavour.
8. Should I buy whole beans or ground coffee?
Whole beans! Ok, so maybe it's not that easy for some people but buying whole coffee beans instead of pre-ground coffee is always preferable where possible. Once coffee has been ground, it starts to age much faster. The staling process is related to oxidation.
9. Are coffee beans imported or exported?
Well, both actually. Almost all of the world's coffee is exported from the main coffee-ben-producing regions along the equator. These include all of the above countries and regions. In particular, imports from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, PNG and Indonesia are very well-known and popular blending choices here on the East Coast of Australia. What is cool, though, is that we actually export our own coffee too! While Australia's climate is generally not well-suited to growing coffee beans, there are a few regions that successfully grow some really nice Aussie coffee beans.
10. There are so many coffee brands! Why should we choose yours?
Yep, it's true. The East coast of Australia is one of the most coffee-obsessed regions in the entire world. Not surprisingly, there are now thousands of coffee brands out there. New coffee brands seem to pop up all the time as well so the trend isn't going anywhere. The question is, how do I know which coffee brand to choose? While we won't tell you to choose one brand over another, because discovery is half the fun, we will tell you what to look for in a coffee brand. These are the considerations that we think are most important when deciding who to buy your coffee from.
They roast their own coffee!
This should be a no-brainer but it's not always obvious. The rise of ecommerce has created the opportunity for just about anyone to start an online venture selling coffee beans. It is quite common to find marketplaces, on-sellers and wholesalers who sell coffee from other roasters. Obviously, to make things profitable, they often ask for higher prices than you would spend when buying directly from a roaster. We recommend that you always buy direct from the people who roast your coffee. They will be more likely to control how fresh it is and you will end up paying less as well.
They aren't selling an image for a markup
This won't come as a surprise, but many coffee brands are selling a lifestyle. Sure, their coffee tastes good, maybe even great, but you know all of that extra hype that comes with the product? Well, you also pay extra for that. It's often not hard to determine if you are paying a certain price for the special privilege of drinking a coffee brand's coffee and being one of their image-conscious consumers. There's totally nothing wrong with this by the way, but at Aromas, we are more about the coffee itself than the posturing around it. Sure, it's fun to be one of the cool kids, but it's also nice to have extra dollars in the bank, just saying...
They have really fast delivery
This one is also a no-brainer. When buying coffee beans online, freshness is everything. It's very convenient to buy fresh coffee beans online, no doubt about it. However, you don't want to buy fresh beans only to find that they are too small as an online business to have good relationships with fast courier companies. As you now, when a distributor is large enough, they can attract better prices and priority service from courier companies. This can be the difference between 1 and 7 day delivery! And with coffee freshness, every day counts! So make sure, when buying coffee online, you are aware of how long shipping might take.
They are passionate about coffee
Duh! If you get the gut feeling that coffee is less important to a coffee brand than making money, run! Yes, there are LOTS of coffee brands to choose from, however amongst that is a sea of mediocrity and new kids on the block, hoping to distinguish themselves from the pack with fancy design and buzzwords. Yet, their coffee is average at best, probably roasted too-dark and sourced with profit-margin in mind rather than cup quality. Remember that people who are truly passionate about something just want to do that thing and usually don't seek the spotlight by nature. Those who say, don't know. Those who know, don't say.
