Two bags of good coffee can taste completely different depending on how you brew them. A delicate honey-processed Ethiopian that sings as a V60 can taste thin and lost in a flat white. A blend built for milk can seem heavy and flat through a filter. Matching the coffee to the way you brew is one of the quickest ways to improve what's in your cup.
It's also how we think about roasting. As an Australian-influenced, third wave roaster, we run two separate roasting programmes: one for white coffees and one for black coffees. Understanding the difference makes choosing a bag much easier.
Our two roasting programmes
White coffees are the ones you drink with milk: flat whites, piccolos, cortados, lattes, cappuccinos. These are nearly always blends, and we roast and build them to be pulled as a ristretto. More on that below, because it's the single biggest thing most people get wrong at home.
Black coffees are everything you drink without milk: filter, pour-over, AeroPress, cafetière, and black espresso. This is where our single origins live. They're roasted lighter to keep the acidity, clarity and character that make a particular farm, variety or process worth seeking out.
A coffee can cross over, and plenty of ours do. But knowing which programme a bag comes from tells you what it was designed to do.
Why ristretto matters for milk drinks
A ristretto is simply a shorter espresso: the same dose of coffee, less water through it. Our house recipe is 20g of coffee in, 15 to 20g of liquid out, in 25 to 35 seconds.
It's the Australian and New Zealand café approach, and it's why coffee in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland tastes the way it does. A shorter shot pulls out the sweetness and body and stops before the drying, bitter end of the extraction. That matters with milk, because milk mutes acidity and sweetness. A long, thin shot disappears into a flat white and leaves you with hot milk and a bitter edge. A ristretto pushes back against the milk and keeps the caramel and chocolate notes in the cup.
If your flat whites at home taste weak or bitter, try shortening your shot before you change anything else. It's a small adjustment that transforms the drink.
Ratio matters just as much. For a flat white, we'd suggest a 1:1 ratio of ristretto to properly steamed milk, in a smaller cup. Piccolos and cortados do the same thing in miniature, which is why they're such a good test of a coffee.
Choosing beans by brew method
Flat whites, lattes and cappuccinos
You want a blend from the white coffee programme: something sweet, balanced and built for milk.
The Captain is our definitive milk blend, and the one that started everything. It's a blend of Kenya, Colombia and Sumatra with notes of blackcurrant, sultana and salted caramel. Pulled as a double ristretto into a piccolo or flat white, that salted caramel really comes forward.
Hokey Pokey (Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador) is the one to reach for if you like your milk drinks sweet and comforting: almond, cream and dark chocolate, like vanilla soft serve and honeycomb.
Drake (El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil) is smooth and clean with honey-roasted hazelnut and bittersweet cocoa. It's adaptable enough to work in a cafetière too, if other people in the house drink theirs black.
Black espresso
If you drink espresso without milk, you can go either way. A milk blend pulled as a ristretto is rich and sweet. A single origin will be brighter and more complex, but it takes more care to dial in and gives you a smaller margin for error.
Pour-over (V60, Chemex, Kalita)
A paper filter and a slow pour give the cleanest cup of all, which makes pour-over the best way to taste what makes a coffee distinctive. This is single origin territory.
Sidama Gatta is an Ethiopian honey-processed heirloom with papaya, vanilla and parma violet. Through a V60 the florals and lighter fruit really open up. Try 15g of coffee to 250g of water, medium grind, over about two and a half to three minutes.
Rocala is a natural Yellow Catucai from Minas Gerais in Brazil, with papaya, cantaloupe melon and a creamy milk chocolate finish. For pour-over or cafetière, push the ratio up to 63 to 65g per litre to emphasise the syrupy body.
AeroPress
The AeroPress flatters almost everything, which makes it a great way to explore new coffees. It pushes tropical and stone fruit notes forward, so fruit-driven single origins do particularly well. Our starting point is 25g of coffee, medium grind, 100g of water, one minute.
Cafetière (French press)
The metal filter lets oils and fine particles through, giving a fuller body. Sweet, chocolatey coffees hold up best here, so a blend from the white programme drunk black works nicely. Joe's Green Balloon (Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia) is our all-rounder for exactly this, with roasted walnut, nougat and chocolate, and a tea-like quality. Try 30g coarse-ground to 500g of water for six minutes, or 60g per litre for filter.
Stovetop (moka pot)
A moka pot makes a strong, concentrated brew, so it suits sweet blends rather than delicate single origins. Very light coffees can taste sharp. Start with 15g of coffee, ground fine to medium, and 150g of water.
Cold brew
Long, cold steeping brings out sweetness and body and keeps acidity low. Chocolatey, nutty coffees make a smooth cold brew, while fruity naturals give you something more interesting.
Three things that matter, whatever you brew
Grind size. Even the right beans will let you down if the grind is wrong. Fine for espresso and stovetop, medium for pour-over and AeroPress, coarse for cafetière and cold brew. Buy whole beans and grind just before you brew if you can.
Freshness. Most coffee is at its best from about a week after roasting up to six weeks or so. Espresso usually wants a little more rest than filter.
The tasting notes. They'll tell you more than the origin will. Chocolate, caramel and nuts point towards milk. Berries, florals and citrus point towards filter.
Still not sure?
Tell us how you brew and what you like, and we'll point you at the right bag. Our roasters are on BrewBuddy, our WhatsApp line, seven days a week.
