When it comes time to buy a gift, whether for the holidays or for another occasion, finding the perfect gift can often feel overwhelming. However, a giftable coffee subscription stands out as a thoughtful and practical choice, especially for the coffee lovers in your life. With a coffee subscription, recipients enjoy the convenience of high-quality coffee delivered right to their door.
The Benefits of a Coffee Subscription Gift
1. Consistent Access to High-Quality Coffee
One of the most significant benefits of a coffee subscription is that it consistently provides high-quality coffee. Noted Coffee Roasters specializes in small-batch, freshly roasted specialty coffees that highlight unique tasting notes from various regions, allowing your gift recipient to enjoy a fresh brew regularly.
2. Cost-Effective Giftable Coffee Subscription
Coffee subscriptions can lead to decreased costs compared to placing individual coffee orders. When you sign up for a coffee subscription with Noted Coffee Roasters you will save at least $1 per bag, plus you may qualify for free shipping depending on quantities. This makes it an economical gift option that doesn’t sacrifice quality. Instead of paying upfront for a large coffee order, your payments are spread over a period of months.
3. No More Last-Minute Orders
With a coffee subscription, you’ll never need to worry about remembering to order coffee again. Each delivery is scheduled based on the recipient’s preferences, removing the hassle of running out of coffee or making last-minute trips to the store. This approach not only saves time but also encourages consistency in coffee enjoyment.
5. Personalization
Coffee subscriptions allow recipients to select their preferred roast types and delivery frequencies. This level of personalization ensures that each gift is tailored to meet the specific coffee preferences of the recipient.
6. Supporting a Great Cause
A percentage of every Noted Coffee Roasters coffee subscription goes towards increasing mental health awareness through Noted’s partnership with NAMI Greater Cleveland. In addition to giving a great gift, your purchase helps to improve the mental health of those in the local community of Northeast Ohio.
How to Gift a Coffee Subscription
Ready to gift a coffee subscription? The process is simple. Just go the coffee subscriptions product, choose a coffee origin, check the box to gift the subscription, and enter an email address to send the coffee subscription to (if you want it to be a surprise you can set it to your own email address temporarily and then change it later), and then add it to your cart:
Conclusion
Opting for a giftable coffee subscription is a fantastic way to express thoughtfulness while giving others access to delicious, high-quality coffee. With benefits like reduced costs, convenience, and a better way to explore different coffees, it’s the perfect coffee related present. Noted Coffee Roasters stands out as an exceptional choice for those considering a coffee subscription gift, making it easier than ever to provide a gift for the coffee lovers in your life.
Choosing the right whole bean specialty coffee can seem daunting, especially for beginners. At Noted Coffee Roasters we seek to meet you where you are at and help you find the coffee that is just right for you. We offer a range of options that cater to various preferences and brewing methods. Here’s a guide to help you make an informed decision:
Choosing a coffee based on roast degree (how light or dark the coffee is)
Light Roast:
Characteristics: Generally fruity, floral, and acidic (for acidic think tanginess or tartness, like a lemony zip at the end of the cup). This is where you may identify more fruit and tea-like flavors and have less of a roast/smoky taste. Light roast coffees generally have less body and are slightly less balanced than medium roast coffees but highlight the unique characteristics of the particular coffee bean the most. Usually is a shorter flavor burst, with less lingering tastes after each sip.
Ideal For: People who enjoy complex flavors and bright acidity. Tea lovers. Great for pour-over and AeroPress methods. Can also make for a really unique cold brew.
Not Ideal For: Fast brewing methods such a Keurig or some Bunn electric drip makers. People who are looking for earthiness and smokiness in their cup of coffee. Beginners who want something comparable to a typical cup of coffee.
Characteristics: Balanced, with a mix of acidity and body. Flavors like chocolate covered cherry can come out in this roast degree. Keeps the flavors and characteristic of the coffee origin (this is the innate flavor qualities of the coffee bean based on where it was grown and what coffee variety it is) but also includes some of the tones from roasting. Some medium roasts can mask certain subtle qualities found in a light roast, while others can further highlight them. Medium roasts can highlight sweetness, or translate a gentle fruity or floral bean (think white wine) into a full bodied experience (think red wine). If you are unsure where to start, medium roast is usually a safe bet.
Ideal For: Those who want a balanced cup. Versatile and works well with most brewing methods.
Characteristics: Bold, rich, and often with chocolatey or smoky tones. Dark roasts usually leave the most lingering taste after each sip of coffee, for example Sumatra wet-hulled coffee which is known for leaving a smoky aftertaste. Can mask some of the innate qualities of the bean, so dark roasts must be chosen and roasted with care in order to accentuate the coffee and not mask all the good qualities (this is one thing that sets Noted Coffee apart from most other coffee roasters).
Ideal For: Fans of strong, bold coffee. Beginners and those looking for coffee that tastes like coffee. Safe bet for espresso machines and French press brewing. Those who plan to add things such as creamer or a sweetener to their coffee (try it black though first! You’ll be surprised how tasty Noted Coffee Roasters coffee is compared to the run of the mill stuff. But no judgement if you still choose to add to it!)
A coffee’s origin is the particular location that it was grown (generally named by country, sometimes specific to a particular farm or cooperative). Certain coffee origins tend to result in particular flavor profiles, though the rigidity of this assumption has been breaking down over the past 10-20 years.
Single Origin:
Source: Coffee beans from a specific region or farm.
Flavors: Unique characteristics that reflect the that particular location. Expect a wide variety of flavors based on the region.
Example Regions: Ethiopia (floral and fruity notes, sometimes very bold flavors such as blueberry or strawberry), Guatemala (smooth and balanced with nutty and chocolatey undertones).
Blends:
Source: A mixture of beans from different regions blended intentionally by the roaster to result in a particular balance of flavors.
Flavors: Harmonized flavors designed to create a consistent profile.
Ideal For: Those looking for a dependable and balanced coffee experience. Espresso.
Match Coffee to Your Brewing Method
Pour-Over:
Recommended Roast: Any
Tip: Allows for a precise and controlled extraction, highlighting the nuanced flavors of lighter roasts and single origins, while bringing out the high and middle notes of dark roasts and blends. If you have the time, I personally think this results in the best cup. Check out my article on brewing via Hario v60 pour-over for more information.
French Press:
Recommended Roast: Medium to dark.
Tip: Use coarser grounds to enhance the rich body and robust flavors. Dark and medium roasts work well here.
Espresso:
Recommended Roast: Medium to dark.
Tip: Use beans specifically labeled for espresso to achieve the right balance of acidity and body for the concentrated shot.
Drip Coffee Maker:
Recommended Roast: Medium to dark.
Tip: Consistent and easy to brew, making it a great choice for balanced blends. This is a good starting point for beginners.
AeroPress:
Recommended Roast: Light to medium.
Tip: Versatile brewing method that can adapt to various roasts depending on your preference.
Keurig:
I don’t recommend using this brewing method for any coffee even for beginners. It results in a watery cup that masks all of the flavors. Opt for an electric drip maker if you want to avoid a manual brewing method.
To sum it up
Identify Your Flavor Preferences:
If you prefer brighter, fruity flavors, opt for a light roast single origin from regions like Ethiopia and Kenya.
For a balanced cup, choose a medium roast, a dark roast, or a blend.
If you love bold, intense flavors, go for a dark roast like Sumatra
Consider the Brewing Method:
Select a coffee that complements your preferred brewing method for the best results.
Try a Variety:
Don’t be afraid to experiment. Noted Coffee Roasters often offers coffee sampler packs—perfect for trying different roast levels and origins to find your favorite.
By understanding roast degrees, coffee origin, and matching coffee to your brewing method, you can make a more informed choice when selecting whole bean specialty coffee from Noted Coffee Roasters. If you still would like more information before making a decision feel free to reach out!
There are many paths to becoming a coffee roaster, but I’ll share the path that I followed here in case it helps you on your journey.
Learn How to Taste Coffee
Before you even begin roasting it can be extremely helpful to become good at coffee tasting. I don’t mean paying for coffee tasting classes, but I do mean spending time trying different coffees black and taking notes on what you do and don’t like. If you can’t tell the difference between a coffee that you like and a coffee that you don’t like it will be hard to know if you are roasting good tasting coffee. I had notes on about 50 different coffees that I had tasted before I started roasting my own coffee. I knew some of the coffee origins that I tended to prefer regardless of the coffee roaster. You can skip this step, but it can save you time later.
Buy or Build a Home Coffee Roaster
Start by building your own or buying a home coffee roaster. Most people opt to buy a roaster, so you may want to go that route unless you really have the desire to tinker and learn to understand the “feel” of the coffee roasting process. My one beef with some of the higher end small capacity roasters is that they take a lot of the “feel” out of roasting through automation, making it easy to assume that the computer knows how to best roast when it often doesn’t. There’s no right way to get started on this, so feel free to just pick a budget friendly roaster option and get started!
Roasting Coffee Using a Home Coffee Roaster
Whichever roaster you choose to start out with, you will need to practice a lot to get familiar with your home coffee roaster. It took me about 100 roasts on my roaster until I felt really comfortable roasting any coffees that I sourced. Mine also had no temperature probe so I roasted by time, sight, and smell. Make sure to take detailed notes on every roast so that you can adjust after each roast, making your roasting an empirical process. And make sure you actually taste your roasts (give them a couple days to degas, and then brew a cup).
Selecting Your Coffee Beans
This is an important step to mention – make sure to choose high-quality green specialty coffee beans from a reputable source. I used Dean’s Beans and Sweet Maria’s for a long time since they sold in smaller batches, ideal for home roasters. Experiment with beans from different regions to understand the variety of flavors and roasting characteristics.
Find a Coffee Roaster to Learn From
You are in luck – I love talking to people about roasting coffee. Feel free to reach out using the contact form if you want help learning to roast coffee. Otherwise there are some good online forums that you can also use to learn more about how other home roasters roast. I found Home-Barista pretty helpful, but make sure you trust your gut when you roast – just because someone else has a process that works for them doesn’t mean it will be best for you.
Building a Client Base and Finding People to Sell Coffee To
Sell to Family and Friends: Initially offer your roasted coffee to people you know. Gather feedback and refine your product.
Farmers Markets: Start selling at local farmers’ markets. This not only helps to build a local following but also offers direct customer feedback and makes it easier to understand what your customers do and don’t like. Selling at a farmers market was the first big step in scaling for me
Building Relationships: Network with local cafes and businesses that might be interested in selling your coffee. Local coffee shops and local boutiques can be a great way to start into wholesale coffee sales. Don’t underestimate the value of wholesale – you will likely not be able to make a jump to a commercial roaster until you have a few wholesale accounts.
Online Presence: Create a website and use social media to sell your coffee and tell your roasting story.
Participate in Coffee Festivals: Depending on where you live, participating in a regional coffee festival can be a great way to meet other coffee roasters, find new customers, and get your coffee in front of a lot of new people. This was my second big step in scaling. When I started attending the Columbus Coffee Festival I had to commit to roasting more coffee and making my operation more efficient, and then I got to learn from that experience.
Maximize Home Roaster Capacity
Before the big leap to commercial roasting, ensure you’ve maximized your output on the home roaster. When demand consistently exceeds your roasting capacity, it’s time to consider the transition to using a commercial roaster.
Check for Roast-On-Demand Options
I got lucky in that I stumbled upon First Crack in Cleveland right before my first stint at the Columbus Coffee Festival and shortly before I got my first wholesale coffee order. See if you can find any coffee roasters or roasting facilities nearby that would let you roast from time to time on commercial equipment. This also gives you useful insight into the how-to’s of roasting on a commercial coffee roaster, as most of them function differently from home coffee roasters.
Stay in Touch
If you are at some point along this journey, feel free to reach out with questions or feedback! Head over to my contact form and send me a message!
The Hario V60 is my single cup brewing contraption of choice. I brew myself 3 cups of coffee a day by hand using one of these combined with my Baratza Encore grinder, a simple kitchen scale, an electric kettle, and of course a fresh batch of my own coffee beans. Here is the recipe I use for brewing with a Hario V60. Print this out and stick it on your fridge!
Brewing a Single Cup of Coffee with the Hario V60
Preparation: Start by heating your water to between 195°F to 205°F (202 is my preferred temp). While the water is heating, measure out 20 grams of your favorite Noted Coffee Roasters whole bean coffee. Also calculate your ideal water to coffee ratio (mine is 17:1), which usually is anywhere from 13:1 to 22:1 depending on the drinker. This recipe assumes 17:1 so adjust the final weight accordingly.
Grind Your Beans: Using a ceramic burr grinder, grind the coffee beans to a medium-fine consistency, close to table salt. On my Baratza Encore it is between settings 10 and 14.
Set Up the V60: Place your Hario V60 on top of a mug or carafe and insert a filter into the V60 cone. Pour some hot water through the filter to preheat your mug and to get rid of any papery taste from the filter. Discard the rinse water from your mug.
Weigh and Add Coffee: Place the mug and V60 on your kitchen scale and tare it to zero. Add the ground coffee to the filter.
Bloom: Start your brew timer and slowly pour about 40 grams of hot water over the coffee grounds, ensuring all the grounds are saturated. This allows the coffee to “bloom” for about 30 seconds, releasing any excess gases. Depending on the roast date and the roast degree you may want to tweak the bloom time. I find 40 seconds better when brewed within one week of roasting, while 25 seconds works great for a darker roast or coffee older than 3 weeks.
Continue Pouring: After the bloom, continue to pour the remaining water in slow, concentric circles or gentle zigzags, adding about 40-60 grams of water at a time every 20-30 seconds and keeping the water level consistent until you reach about 360 grams of total water (for a 1:17 coffee to water ratio). Aim to complete the final pour by the 2:30 mark.
Final Brew Time: Allow the water to drip through the coffee grounds. Your final brew time should be around 4 minutes for most roasts, or may exceed 6 minutes for some (my Kenya is best right around 7 minutes). Many people recommend a sub 3 minute brew, but I would only recommend that if you dislike body in your coffee and seek primarily high notes (no judgement, everyone has their own preferences!)
Enjoy Your Coffee: Once the brewing process is complete and all the water has filtered through, discard the used grounds and filter and slowly enjoy your coffee. Don’t forget to note any imperfections – too weak, too bold, too sour, too much body? You can tweak all of these attributes by adjusting your grind coarseness, brew time, and coffee to water ratio.
The key to getting the best cup with a Hario V60 is trial and error and fine tuning. Comment below or reach out with any questions, or any extra tips of your own!
Download my free printable coffee journal pdf below.
This is a great resource if you enjoy trying different coffees and want to take your coffee tasting up to the next level to get an even better idea of the types of coffees that you enjoy. Having a coffee journal has been the number one most useful tool for me in determining what coffees I like.
After practicing with a coffee journal like this one you too can become an excellent coffee taster and can get to a point where you have a good idea which coffees you will and will not like before you try them without any professional training (hey, I’m self taught and I was able to start my own coffee roastery with minimal professional training so you can take my word for it).
When I started out my coffee tasting journey I kept a digital note of all the coffees that I would taste, and I have taken the most common fields that I used in this digital note and placed them in a single printable coffee journal for you to use. I find there are not a lot of free coffee resources like this available, and I hope that you enjoy this free coffee journal.
Feel free to use this printable coffee journal to keep track of the coffees that you taste. You can also repost this free coffee journal PDF electronically, I just ask that you link back to me here.
Email me at [email protected] with feedback! And If you enjoy my free coffee resources, it would mean a lot to me if you bought a bag of coffee to show your support!
Download my free printable coffee tasting flavor wheel pdf below.
When I started out my coffee tasting journey I kept a digital note of all the coffees that I would taste. I would have loved to have a resource like this available but only found coffee tasting flavor wheels that were meant for printing and hanging up, as opposed to making notes on them as a one-time use printable.
Feel free to use this printable coffee tasting wheel to keep track of the coffees that you taste. You can also use this resource electronically, I just ask that you link back to me here. This wheel is inspired by both the Counter Culture Coffee Wheel and the SCAA Coffee Tasting Flavor Wheel (I have had both hanging up in my house!) mixed with my own personal way of describing coffees.
Looking for a little bit of light knowledge on coffee? Here are some things that you may not know about coffee beans that you can pull out of the memory bank the next time that you share coffee with someone.
Whole bean coffee vs. ground coffee
Which to choose – whole bean or ground coffee?
Coffee starts out as whole bean and is either ground before brewing, or ground before packaging. so the question is, should I leave my coffee whole bean or have it pre-ground?
While many developments in coffee packaging have improved the freshness of ground coffee including nitrogen-flushed coffee packaging, the reality is this: coffee beans stay fresher for longer when they are whole bean than when they are ground. It is worth picking up a burr grinder and grinding directly before brewing in order to preserve the freshness of the coffee and bring out the more subtle nuances of a particular coffee. Especially if you are buying specialty coffee.
What if you freeze your ground coffee… is it still less fresh than whole bean?
I have had a lot of people ask me if they should refrigerate or freeze their ground coffee. The answer is that coffee is best stored on a cool but not cold dry atmosphere, like a pantry. Refrigeration and freezing can introduce moisture, which can cause problems with your coffee. It is better to make sure that your coffee is properly sealed for freshness using either a zipper pouch or another airtight container and keep it around room temperature. This prevents oxygen and moisture from getting in and making your coffee stale.
Roasting Coffee Beans
Roasted coffee beans vs green coffee beans
Coffee beans must be roasted prior to using them (unless you are one of those companies that adds green coffee bean extract to your drinks for a caffeine boost, but we are talking about brewed coffee). It starts out as a pale green coffee bean prior to roasting. In the picture below you can see the difference in color between a green coffee bean and a roasted coffee bean.
Roasted coffee beans on the left are brown and larger than the unroasted green coffee beans on the right, which can vary in color from green to tan to yellow. The coffee on the left is my Kenya AA Evas Estate which is a particularly large bean.
Ways to roast green coffee beans
The coffee that you purchase is generally roasted in a commercial coffee roaster, but coffee can also be pan roasted over a fire or on the stovetop, roasted in a small countertop coffee roaster, or even in a homemade coffee roaster like the one pictured below!
This was the roaster that I used to get started – if you are interested in learning about roasting coffee to try it out yourself, definitely contact me. My roaster was based on the Stir Crazy Turbo Oven, and if you are mechanically inclined you can build your own 1lb roaster for under $200, maybe under $100 if you are really resourceful. It is also fun to be able to mod your machine and not worry about breaking anything on an expensive machine.
This is the home coffee bean roaster that I used to get started. Nothing fancy needed!
Right now I have shelved my home coffee roaster and I roast my coffee beans on a commercial coffee roaster in Cleveland Ohio.
Coffee roasting basics
Roasting coffee isn’t particularly difficult, it just takes a lot of practice to get to the point where you can roast it exactly how you want and bring out specific tasting notes in a particular coffee.
You can get into a ton of detail on how to roast coffee, but as a general overview you basically apply a heat source, keep a good amount of airflow and motion to evenly roast the coffee, and aim for somewhere between 8-15 minutes per roast depending on how and what you are roasting.
You can either roast by sight and sound or use instruments to measure your roast. I highly recommend trying roasting by sight and sound at least once. There are visual and audio cues that you can go off of to know how far along in the roast you are, and it is a very grounding experience. You can also get fancy and use a professional model roaster with thermocouples and computer programs to be able to dial in your roast profile and roast your coffee beans exactly the way you want.
Types of coffee roasts
Coffee roasts are generally broken into three categories – light roast, medium roast, and dark roast, which signify how long the coffee bean is roasted – light roast coffee is roasted for less time than a medium roast coffee, which is roasted for less time than a dark roast coffee.
A light roast coffee will retain more flavors unique to the bean itself, while a darker roasted coffee will have more flavors that come from the roasting process.
Light roast coffees are more tea-like, with various possible flavor notes that come from the coffee bean itself including fruit tones, floral tones, nut tones, and grassy/herbal tones.
Dark roast coffees often have a degree of roast flavor, smokiness, chocolate tones, and a full body. There are still variations in flavor between dark roasts of different origins, but the differences may be a bit subtler.
Medium roast coffees often are balanced, have a degree of sweetness, and have some of the characteristics of both light and dark roast coffees – containing flavor notes from the coffee itself as well as characteristics picked up from the roasting process (roast, smoke, chocolate, etc.)
Types of Coffee Beans
The types of coffee beans that we roast are broken into 3 or 4 species, the most common of which are Arabica and Robusta, with some Liberica, and a debatable 4th species called Excelsa, which may actually be a sub variety and not its own species.
Arabica is by far the most common coffee bean species found in specialty coffee, but there are some quality Robustas that are worth checking out – when I was roasting on my home roaster I made a real tasty blend of a Balinese coffee and an Indian Robusta from Dean’s Beans. But in general robusta is most commonly found in espresso blends or in lower grade non-specialty coffees. And Liberica is a pretty cool coffee but is rare to come across from North American coffee roasters. I roasted a pretty tasty Liberican coffee from Len’s coffee from the Phillipines.
Coffee Origins
Coffee requires a particular climate to grow, which can be found in what is referred to as the coffee belt – a strip of the world around the equator that expands north and south of the equator roughly 25 degrees. Coffee also grows differently in different elevations, with higher elevations often producing higher quality coffees (up to a point).
When you hear the word “origin” when referring to a particular coffee bean, that is referring to the country that the coffee comes from. Single-origin coffee therefore means coffee from one particular country that is not blended with coffee from another country.
Specialty Coffee Origins
There are a ton of coffee origins, but some of the most popular for specialty coffee are Columbia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Mexico, and Indonesia (this is where Sumatran coffee comes from – a particular island in Indonesia). There are over 50 coffee growing nations so there are plenty that I have not included in my list.
Beyond origin, you can get more specific down to region, processing station, and farm, depending on the traceability of a given coffee.
End (or beginning?) of todays coffee bean lesson!
Like what you read? You can shop from my coffees using the origin links above or browse all coffee here.
