espresso bean test

In order to offer you the best experience, we regularly try our range ourselves. On this page you will find our current espresso bean test. Here we put five different espresso beans through their paces. As pure espresso, but also as a milk drink.

Espresso bean test: Before you start

Before we open the coffee bean package, the test begins. We pay attention to information from the roasting companies on the packaging and on the internet. We look at details such as the type of bean, whether it is a blend or single origin and which farm the coffee was grown on. The more information, the better. Among other things, we pay attention to:

Roasting date
Flavor notes
Bean variety
processing
Origin
Price

The espresso beans in the test

Here we would like to briefly introduce you to the espresso beans we tested. You will find a range from fruity to classic chocolaty.

Five Elephant House Blend Espresso

Roasting date: Specified
Bean Type: Arabica • Red Bourbon
Origin: El Salvador • Finca El Majahual
Flavor notes: cocoa • chamomile • orange
Processing: Washed
Price: 250 g for €10.90

To the product

At the time of our testing, Five Elephant's House Espresso is a washed red bourbon from El Salvador. The house “blend” is no longer a blend per se. The flavors make us want to have our first espresso. Orange, chamomile, cocoa - an interesting combination that doesn't exactly scream Italy. However, this information is not found on the packaging. However, you can find them on our product page, as well as on the Five Elephant website.‍

The roasting date can be found on the sealed end of the package. There is no aroma seal here. So that means rolling it up well and wrapping it with a rubber band. Alternatively, you can pour your coffee into an airtight container.

Bean Bros Volcan Azul Omni

Roasting date: Specified
Bean variety: Arabica • Caturra • Catuai
Origin: Costa Rica • Volcan Azul
Flavor Notes: Red Apple • Brown Sugar
Processing: Honey
Price: 250 g for €18.90

To the product

Bean Bros leave nothing to be desired when it comes to their packaging. Here you will find everything you need to know, neatly lined up. From the farm, to the name of the producer, to the variety. In addition to the roasting date, the harvest date is also stated here.

The mixture of Caturra & Catuai is prepared using the honey method. Here the coffee is only partially removed from the skin and pulp before it is dried. The coffee tastes sweeter and fruitier due to contact with the remaining pulp during drying. This also explains the flavors of red berries, apples, etc.

19grams Italo Disco Espresso

Roasting date: Specified
Bean variety: Arabica • Catuai PB
Origin: Brazil • Santa Cecilia
Flavor notes: chocolate • caramel • cherry jam
Processing: Natural
Price: 250 g for €10.90

To the product

The Italo Disco is one of the classics from 19grams. 19grams sources its green coffee from the Santa Cecilia farm in Minas Gerais. The coffee is grown there at around 1,100 meters. After the harvest, the natural coffee beans are processed. You can find all this information on our website. The package itself tells you the flavor notes and the roasting date. The aroma seal makes storage easy.

The Italo Disco is an all-round espresso from 19grams. It works with or without milk and tastes of dark chocolate, caramel and cherry. We brewed the espresso beans with the portafilter for our test, but 19grams also recommends the Italo Disco for the fully automatic machine.

Seruni Coffee Jampit Espresso

Roasting date: Specified
Bean type: Arabica
Origin: Indonesia • Java Jampit
Flavor notes: hazelnut • coriander • cocoa
Processing: Washed
Price: 250 g for €16.66

To the product

Seruni from the Netherlands focuses entirely on coffee from Indonesia. This espresso comes from the Java Jampit region. Coffee farmers in Bondowoso, East Java, farm state-owned land at the foot of Mount Ijen, about 1,100 to 1,500 meters above sea level.

Seruni's Jampit Espresso has flavors of hazelnut, coriander and roasted cocoa. The pack can be resealed with an aroma seal so that you can enjoy your coffee even longer.

Heilandt Liebelein Espresso

Roasting date: Specified
Bean Type: Arabica • Blend
Origin: Ethiopia • Mexico • Brazil
Flavor notes: blackberry • chocolate • currant
Processing: Natural & Washed
Price: 250 g for €9.30

To the product

An incredibly interesting blend from three regions. For Liebelein Espresso, Heilandt mixes Ethiopian Bookkisa from Sookoo Coffee, with Mexican coffee from Red Beetle Coffee Lab and beans from partner OCAFI from Brazil. The preparation is also mixed.‍

The packaging tells you the flavors, the variety and the country of origin. You will also find a roasting date and a closure so you can store your coffee right in the pack. If you would like to find out more about the origin, you can do so on the Heilandt website or on our product page.

The espresso bean test – roasting and taste

After we have taken a closer look at the packages, we come to the actual espresso bean test. What do the beans look like and, above all, how does the coffee taste as an espresso or cappuccino? To do this, we took a close look at all the espresso beans with Marian, our coffee expert. Marian is our Operations Specialist and ran the “Happy Baristas” coffee shop in Berlin for years. At our company he is responsible for quality control and roastery management.

Bean image and roasting

To start, we take a close look at the espresso beans before testing. Are there any defects or uneven roasting visible? You can tell a lot about the quality of the coffee just by looking at the beans. If the beans are very oily or contain a lot of curds and elephant ears, it is often a poor quality roast. We also pay attention to even roasting, which means that all beans should have a similar color.

Five Elephants | House Blend Espresso

Roasting : Even medium to light roasting without any particular abnormalities.
Bean appearance : Very good bean appearance with hardly any noticeable breaks or other defects.

Bean Bros | Volcan Azul Omni

Roasting : Very even medium roast without any particular abnormalities.
Bean picture : Little noticeable breakage.

19grams | Italo Disco Espresso

Roasting : Even medium roasting without any particular abnormalities.
Bean picture : Good bean picture. A little breakage.

Seruni Coffee | Jampit espresso

Roasting : Very even, slightly darker roast without any particular abnormalities.
Bean Image : Excellent bean image. Hardly any noticeable defects or breakage.

Heilandt | Lovely espresso

Roasting : Very even medium to light roasting without any particular abnormalities.
Bean appearance : Excellent bean appearance with barely noticeable breaks or other defects.

All coffee beans tested meet our criteria and have hardly any defects or breakage. The cheapest candidate in our test from Heilandt surprised us positively. It is in no way inferior to the other beans in terms of roasting and appearance. In fact, it performs slightly better than average.

Taste test

Now it's time to get down to business. We brew all the espresso beans in our test and taste them together. Because every bean is slightly different, we adjust our recipe accordingly each time. Grinding is done with the Mahlkönig X54 Home. Our grind is also adjusted to the espresso beans in our test. Please remember that you should adjust the espresso to your taste. Just because we prefer a certain recipe doesn't mean you have to like the same one.

For the espresso bean test, we slowly work our way up from the basic recipe. For this we start with a ratio of 1 to 2 and a brewing time of 25 seconds.

For fans of milk drinks, we also try our espresso beans in the test as cappuccino and flat white.