Why coffee in whole beans? - Alternative Café
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Why coffee in whole beans?

Quentin Rouyer
Quentin Rouyer - Auteur
Fondateur d'Alternative Café
Wiki, le 01 April 2021

We offer our coffees exclusively in beans. If this seems very natural to us, it is clear that the coffee industry has accustomed the consumer to end up with pre-ground coffees, or in pod and capsule formats, making the coffee beans surprising or even incongruous.

We’ll help you understand the many interests of coffee in whole beans, it’s up to you to make up your mind!

1 – When it comes to quality coffee, the whole bean format is a no-brainer.

In a way, for a coffee, to be sold in beans, you need to deserve it! Indeed, it is the only way to fully preserve the aromas and flavors it possesses.

If the coffee is basic, has low aromatic potential or has defects, there is no reason to offer it in beans. You would feel no difference and would even be annoyed by the extra effort that its preparation will have required.

On the other hand, a freshly ground quality coffee enhances the quintessence of coffee in an incomparable way. To make a parallel, selling an exceptional coffee already ground or in a capsule is like selling a bottle of champagne already open. Coffee is a complex product, of which more than 800 volatile aromatic compounds have been identified, and every minute counts once it is ground. Grinding your coffee becomes an essential step and the scent that escapes makes the preparation ritual enjoyable.

2 – It is the freedom to choose the most suitable grind for the chosen method of preparation.

By definition, pre-ground coffee can no longer be ground. However, each method of preparation requires a certain grinding to function and deliver all the taste of coffee.

A grind too fine, and your infusion at the French Press will be wasted. A grind too coarse, and your espresso will flow too fast and without capturing the essentials of the coffee. The comfort of not having to grind the beans quickly fades in the face of the frustration of having to prepare your coffee with an ill-suited grind.

Having your coffee in beans means being able to choose the perfect grind in relation to the method of preparation chosen, and also the freedom to vary the methods of preparation since at each preparation you can chose a new grind. Depending on the coffees, we recommend the brewing methods or the espresso. Keep in mind that the same coffee can be very different as a brew, pour over or espresso, which invites you to vary the pleasures and find the method that suits you best.

3 – It’s an assurance of the product compliance.

The whole beans format is the only one that allows full transparency. Through its beans, a coffee tells us a lot!

Indeed, thanks to the beans we can recognize each variety by its size and shape, ensure the balance of the roasting and the overall composition of the coffee. It’s both reassuring and informative for someone who’s discovering a coffee for the first time!

4 – Finally, it is the most natural and environmentally friendly format, since it does not involve unnecessary additional waste.

We have to go back to the agricultural reality of the product: coffee beans are the nuclei of the cherries of the coffee tree. The art of the coffee grower lies in the way he makes the coffee go from a seed to something with which we will prepare our cup. It is clear that once the beans are roasted, his work is finished and we only have to prepare this cup.

The coffee industry has introduced additional formats, sometimes for rather positive reasons, such as practicality, but often for less laudable reasons, such as the ability to capture the customer. Indeed, once we acquire a machine that requires a particular pod or capsule, we are condemned to buy coffee from the brands that have adopted these particular formats. All this at the cost of a real expenditure on matter and energy: no matter the origin of the material used, regardless of its ability to be recycled, this coffee format requires further transformation and involves waste management.

Coffee in beans is the simplest and most essential form. It does not involve unnecessary transformation and does not produce waste. It also makes it easy to recover the coffee grounds. Every gardener knows the virtues of the grounds which are very useful in the garden.

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