Top 10 Best Tasting Coffee Beans of 2021

Making great coffee at home starts with high-quality beans. Choose from the 10 Best Tasting Coffee Beans of 2021 below.

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Making great coffee at home starts with high-quality, freshly roasted coffee beans.
The method of preparation will largely determine the type of coffee beans to look for, which is why each brand of coffee below has been categorized.
for additional gourmet coffee beans, scroll to the bottom of this post to see our honorable mentions.
get the free pdf version of this list with quick links of the best coffee beans of 2021 to have on hand when you’re running low on coffee. click here to go directly to it.

If you’re not yet ready to kick your home-brewing habit (which you picked up during quarantine), you’ll need to know where and how to get freshly roasted specialty coffee beans.

Reading: Best blue bottle coffee beans

but with tons of coffee brands, how are you supposed to tell the difference between the coffee beans that are just okay and the ones that are actually worth buying? Sure, they seem to get decent reviews online, but when you try them at home, you find that the beans are over-roasted, or worse, expired and tasteless.

To help you out, we’ve done the hard work of cupping and testing (well, that part wasn’t hard), as well as the extensive research necessary to find the best-tasting specialty coffee beans around. this year. that way, you can still make amazing coffee at home even though the quarantine is almost over.

here are our top 10 picks for the best specialty coffee beans of 2021.

Best Overall: Volcanica Coffee Company tops our list for its unique, smoky flavors.

volcanic coffee company tops our list for its unique, smoky flavors. In an effort to provide customers with one of the most refined coffee drinking experiences around, Café Volcanica sources its beans from the best volcanic regions around the world. this produces incredibly unique and flavorful coffee that you won’t get anywhere else.

In addition to producing amazing coffee, Volcanica Coffee Company also sources sustainably. This coffee brand works directly with local coffee farms and cooperatives to obtain the best beans of the highest quality. Additionally, 1% of all sales go to a non-profit organization called charity:water.

Best Espresso Beans: Westbean Coffee Roasters offer award-winning beans for that perfect shot of espresso.

For espresso lovers, it’s important to find a coffee with a medium or medium-dark roast. this reduces acidity and provides a fuller & color for your resulting espresso. And one brand that has mastered their espresso game is Westbean coffee roasters. Their sweet Sussex blend is, in fact, an award-winning espresso. it boasts of apricot jam, sweet chocolate and brown sugar tasting notes.

Each of the Westbean Coffee Roaster’s coffees are carefully roasted multiple times before proceeding to a full production roast to ensure the highest quality yield. In addition, all its coffees have been tasted and approved by its roasting and production team. Beyond espresso beans, Westbean coffee roasters also have a number of coffee offerings, including their unique blends and origins.

Best for Pour Over: Blue Bottle Coffee offers customers the freshest beans by roasting each bag fresh.

If you’re a fan of the pour-over method, look no further than blue bottle coffee. This specialty coffee company takes their coffee very seriously. They offer blends, single origins, and mostly certified organic premium coffee. You will also occasionally find extremely rare Gesha coffees on their site, possibly one of the best coffees that stand out as pour-overs.

In addition to its wonderful pour over coffee options, blue bottle also excels at providing the freshest coffee beans to its customers. This is ideal for brewing coffee using the pour-over method, as it ensures the best flavors and that beautiful bloom seen on the first pour over ground coffee. blue bottle achieves this freshness factor by roasting in small batches and shipping their beans directly to their customers from their roastery. this ensures that all coffee is delivered as fresh as possible.

the best light roast: go for the tiger provides a specialty coffee full of bright acidity and intense floral flavors.

for those who are big fans of light roast coffee, there’s certainly a lot out there. but one brand of coffee worth trying is to go get them tiger. This Los Angeles-founded coffee brand is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable coffee experiences, and that’s what they’ve got.

Go find Tigre’s aricha, Ethiopia’s only origin is its current light roast, and it’s bursting with bright, floral, and tart flavors. coffees from this region are known for their bright citrus acidity and intense florality.

Beyond this, go look for tiger tender blends, other single origins, and decaf options worth trying. and if you get the chance, stop by one of their cafes in Los Angeles.

best medium roast: one village coffee has a diverse selection of medium roast coffees.

If brightness and tartness aren’t your thing, sometimes a medium roast coffee will do the trick to give you a better balance between sweet and tart. a medium roast coffee tends to be sweeter and less intense than a light roast, and has a more balanced and full overall flavor. and one brand of coffee that has a particularly good medium roast is a village coffee.

From Peru and Colombia to Ethiopia and Burundi, this coffee brand offers a diverse selection of medium roasts while focusing on balance and sweetness in all of its coffees. You’ll also find light and dark roasts if you want to try one of their other roasts.

best for cold beer: intelligentsia frequency blend has a smooth body with chocolate & amp; molasses tasting notes, ideal for making cold brew.

In addition to being a supporter of direct trade and environmental enthusiasts, the intelligentsia is also known for its naturally sweet coffee. this sweetness lends itself to making great-tasting cold brews. And while you can’t go too wrong with any of the master coffee beans when it comes to your home cold brew efforts, their frequency blend is a favorite for cold brewing.

Intelligentsia Coffee Frequency Blend has a smooth body with flavor notes of golden raisins, raw sugar, chocolate and molasses. This blend hails from El Salvador and Brazil, and produces a velvety smooth batch of cold beer.

best high-end: ciel café prive select offers beans from the most elite coffee farms in the world that provide a unique tasting experience.

If you’re looking for coffee beans that offer complexity, flavor and a flavor experience that won’t disappoint, check out any selection from ciel café prive select. This coffee brand offers beans from the most elite coffee farms in the world. most of their coffees are extremely rare and therefore produced only in small batches, making them even more desirable.

ciel’s signature flavor is an elegantly smooth coffee, perfect for sipping. You’ll find beautiful blends, unique origins from Ethiopia and Panama, and even rare Geisha coffees. all beans are roasted to order, ensuring your customers the freshest beans for the ideal home brewing experience.

The Finest Organic Coffee Beans: Dean’s Beans sources 100% of its coffee from organic, fair trade farms.

For a high-quality organic specialty coffee option, Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Company offers only certified organic, fair trade, and kosher coffee. This coffee brand has been dedicated to using specialty coffee as a vehicle for positive change since its inception in 1993. One of the most important ways that Dean’s Beans accomplishes this is through its partnerships with coffee cooperatives.

the best responsibly sourced coffee: lined coffee uses its own brand name on its coffee bags that guarantees quality specialty coffee that is sourced directly.

If you’re interested in supporting an ethical specialty coffee brand that goes above and beyond, Forced Coffee is making great strides in its coffee sourcing and marketing efforts. This coffee brand sources as much of their coffee as directly as possible, which means they select the lot and determine the price, quantity, and quality of the lot directly with the farm or mill owners. the reason for this is so that coffee roasters can better support coffee farmers and get more money in their pockets through direct trade.

and since there is still no certifying agent for direct origin coffee, lined coffee uses its own brand which ensures quality specialty coffee beans that are also economic/social and/or environmental factors are highly above consideration, if not focus.

Best Variety: Blossom Coffee Roasters is fully committed to providing its customers with only the sweetest, cleanest, most flavorful coffee.

If you love to mix the type of coffee roast you use for your home brews, blossom coffee roasters has a wide range of coffee offerings. from various single origins and blends to organic options and a surprising number of decaf options, there is a coffee here that is sure to satisfy your passion for coffee.

Beyond this, blossom coffee roasters is fully committed to providing its customers with only the sweetest, cleanest, most flavorful coffee. Every coffee is tested and must meet Blossom’s high standards to produce only the best-tasting, most impactful cup of coffee. This is achieved through the search for quality green coffee, establishing good relationships with the importer and directly with the producer, and tasting hundreds of coffees each year.

honorable mentions

We thought these specialty coffee brands were also worth mentioning if you’re looking for even more gourmet whole bean coffee options.

Best Single Origin: Stamp Act Coffee

Stamp Act Coffee, a Seattle-based coffee company, is fully committed to the quality and flavor of its coffee beans. This brand achieves these goals by roasting its coffee in small batches that ultimately lead to the freshest coffee. stamp act coffee offers a range of delicate and vibrant single origins that you won’t want to miss.

Best Vietnamese Coffee: Nguyen Coffee Supply

It might be a bit unorthodox to include a coffee bean category for Vietnamese coffee, but we found the nguyen coffee offering to be too innovative to pass up when putting together this list. While most of the specialty coffee industry sources come from Africa and South America (specifically Arabica beans), Nguyen Coffee Supply is the first specialty coffee company in the United States to offer single-serve Robusta coffee beans. Vietnamese origin. Their most popular coffee is their Loyalty Blend consisting of Robusta and Arabica coffee beans that produce the perfect balance of sweetness and nutty flavor.

best sustainable coffee: counterculture coffee

counter culture coffee, a north carolina coffee company, is dedicated to supporting sustainability through high-quality specialty coffees. this coffee brand supports environmental stewardship efforts through premiums, third-party verification, and its seed program.

Best Lot: George Howell Coffee

While it is not recommended to buy more coffee than you can consume beyond 2 weeks, there are exceptions to this rule. For anyone with a large family or a quick coffee drink at home, George Howell’s Coffee offers large quantities of specialty coffee beans to keep your home well-stocked with their 2- and 5-pound bags of whole beans.