How to choose a coffee you will actually enjoy drinking

One of the questions we get asked all the time at the St Peters roastery is:

"What's your best coffee?"

It's never a question I can answer straight away.

Not because I don't know the coffees. More because I don't know the person asking.

The best coffee for me might be completely different to the best coffee for you, and that's the thing that can make choosing coffee feel harder than it needs to be. Most people walk in expecting there to be a right answer, but what they're really trying to work out is which coffee they're actually going to enjoy drinking every day.

The good news is that you probably already know more about your own taste than you think you do.

Start with how you normally drink coffee

When someone asks for a recommendation, the first thing I usually ask is how they drink their coffee.

For most people, the answer is either with milk or black, and that one answer immediately narrows things down.

If you're mostly drinking flat whites, cappuccinos or lattes, there's a good chance you'll enjoy coffees with chocolate, caramel and nutty flavours. They tend to work really well with milk and create the sort of comforting, familiar cup that many people want first thing in the morning.

If you're drinking long blacks, filter coffee or straight espresso, you're more likely to notice some of the smaller details in the coffee. Fruit, florals, brightness and acidity tend to stand out more clearly without milk softening them.

Neither approach is better. They're simply different ways of experiencing the same coffee.

You probably already know what you like

One thing I see all the time is people feeling like they need to understand coffee before they can choose coffee.

I don't think that's really the case.

Most people already know what they like. They just don't always trust themselves enough to follow it.

If you're the type of person who naturally reaches for dark chocolate, rich desserts and deeper flavours, that's useful information. If you're drawn to citrus, berries and brighter flavours, that's useful too.

Coffee preferences are often just an extension of the things you already enjoy eating and drinking. You don't need to learn a whole new language to work that out, and you definitely don't need to be able to identify stone fruit or bergamot before you're allowed to choose a coffee.

Once people realise that, the whole process becomes much less intimidating.

Blends are popular for a reason

Every now and then someone will apologise for liking blends, as though they're supposed to move on to single origins at some point.

A good blend is often exactly what people are looking for. They're designed to be balanced, approachable and consistent, which is a big part of their appeal. For many people, especially those drinking milk-based coffees every day, that familiarity is not a compromise. It's the entire point.

In fact, a large percentage of the coffee we sell is blend-based for a very simple reason.

People enjoy drinking it.

If you're after something reliable and easy to enjoy day after day, that's often the best place to start.

If you'd like to explore a few options, our espresso blend collection is a good place to begin.

Single origins are where things get interesting

Single origins tend to be where coffee becomes a little more adventurous.

Because they come from a specific region, producer or community, they often express their flavours more distinctly than blends. You might find bright fruit notes, floral characteristics or a sweetness that surprises you.

That's what many people enjoy most about them. Every coffee can feel slightly different, and there is always something new to discover.

If that sounds appealing, our single origin collection is a great place to start exploring.

Some people love trying something different every few weeks. Others try a single origin and decide they would rather go back to the blend they've been happily drinking for years.

Honestly, both outcomes are perfectly reasonable.

If there is one thing I wish more people knew

If there is one thing I wish more people knew about coffee, it's that there isn't a best coffee.

There really isn't.

The coffee that wins competitions isn't automatically going to be your favourite. A coffee with a long list of tasting notes isn't automatically better than the one you happily drink every morning. I've seen people spend twenty minutes trying to choose the "right" coffee, only to walk out with exactly what they were originally drawn to in the first place.

Most of the time, your instincts are pretty good. The best coffee is usually the one you're genuinely looking forward to drinking tomorrow morning.

Start simple

If you're not sure where to begin, don't overthink it.

Start with how you normally drink coffee. Think about the flavours you already enjoy in food and drink, then pick something that sounds appealing and give it a go.

You don't need to get it perfect on the first bag. In fact, that's part of the fun. Every coffee you try makes the next choice a little easier because you're learning more about your own taste. Before long you'll have a pretty good idea of what you enjoy and what you don't.

Once you find a coffee you genuinely enjoy, a flexible subscription can make life a little easier too. Instead of remembering to reorder every few weeks, your coffee just turns up when you need it.

The takeaway

After having this conversation hundreds of times in cafes, I've noticed something. Most people already know more about their coffee preferences than they think they do.

They don't need someone to tell them what they're supposed to like. They just need a bit of confidence to trust their own taste.

Start with the way you drink coffee today. Pay attention to the flavours you naturally enjoy and don't worry too much about getting it wrong. There isn't a perfect coffee waiting to be discovered. There is only the coffee you enjoy drinking.

And once you find that, everything else becomes much simpler.