Buying coffee beans in Spain: a short practical guide

What to look for on the bag, what to ignore, and how to keep beans from going flat once you get them home.

Most of what is printed on a bag of coffee is marketing. Four things actually matter.

1 · The roast date

Not the expiry date. The roast date. Coffee is at its best roughly two to six weeks after roasting. Before that it is still degassing; long after, it flattens out.

If a bag does not carry a roast date, that tells you what kind of coffee it is.

2 · The origin

A serious bag names the country and often the region, the farm and the producer. Vague terms like "mountain blend" usually mean the roaster does not know or does not want to say.

As a rough guide:

• Ethiopia — floral, tea-like, bright acidity
• Kenya — intense, blackcurrant, high acidity
• Colombia — balanced, caramel, approachable
• Brazil — nutty, chocolatey, low acidity, great for milk drinks
• Guatemala / Costa Rica — chocolate and citrus, well balanced

3 · The processing

• Washed — clean, transparent, bright
• Natural — fruity, sweet, big body
• Honey — somewhere in between, silky

If you think you dislike acidic coffee, try a natural. It is the single most useful thing on the label.

4 · Whole beans, always

Ground coffee loses its aromatics within minutes. A modest hand grinder costs less than a couple of bags of good coffee and improves your cup more than any machine upgrade.

Storage, briefly

• Airtight, opaque container, at room temperature.
• Not in the fridge — humidity and odours ruin it.
• Buy small amounts more often rather than a kilo at once.

Roasters in Spain

There are excellent roasters working with seasonal coffee across the country. We work mainly with Nomad Coffee from Barcelona, and our offering rotates through the year.

If you are in Málaga and want to know what is in our grinder this week, just ask at the bar. It is the question we most enjoy answering.