Our Coffee
Our Coffee | Understanding Coffee | Tasting Coffee | Brew Guide
Our Coffee
Sourcing
We purchase the best tasting coffee regardless of its certifications and we always pay well above Fair Trade prices on every coffee we purchase. The world’s best coffees are known as specialty coffee and specialty coffee is purchased based on quality. We do not use “Direct Trade” terminology because we do not want to discredit the crucial role that exporters and importers play in the specialty coffee industry.
Third-party verification plays an important role in coffee, and the most common certifications include Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, and Smithsonian Bird Friendly. JJ Bean has intentionally included both Fair Trade (through Fairtrade Canada) and Organic (through Fraser Valley Organic Producers Association) over the years. At the same time, the specific meaning of these certifications is often misunderstood. So over the last three decades, we have developed an approach that we believe makes the most sense:
First, we purchase coffee based on its quality and have remained committed to paying above Fair Trade prices since we moved away from that certification in 2008. Last year we began phasing out organic certification and in early 2025, we will no longer offer a separate line of Certified Organic coffees. This means Railtown and Decaf will no longer be Certified Organic going forward. Rather than placing focus on certifications, we have chosen to tell the stories of the producers behind our high-quality coffees and also give credit to the critical role of importers.
Second, the coffee we enjoy would not exist without the hard work of the farmers who grow it. The farmers who produce the best coffee in the world also happen to live in some of the poorest areas of the world. While we are committed to always paying producers excellent prices for exceptional coffee, we believe we can do more to make a positive difference in the coffee growing countries over and above our basic responsibilities. We support making life better in coffee producing countries through our Over + Above initiatives, like Roasters for Wells. Click here for information about Over & Above, JJ Bean’s locally and globally focused charitable program.
Roasting
Our roasting style is characterized by a balance between complexity and drinkability. Every coffee requires individual care and attention to coax out its inherent character and harmonize acidity with sweetness.
Flavour
Every coffee is unique and requires individual care and attention to coax out its inherent character and to harmonize its levels of sweetness and acidity. Our single origin coffees are generally roasted to the end of first crack, producing a light roast coffee that boasts both complexity and balance. We aim to present coffees with defined origin characteristics paired with a high level of drinkability.
All our coffees are initially sample-roasted in a vintage Jabez-Burns four-barrel roaster inside of our Commercial Drive café. After that, it’s batch-roasted to order in a vintage 90kg cast-iron Probat drum roaster at our Powell Street café.
Freshness
Once coffee is roasted, it naturally produces carbon dioxide as an oxygen barrier for about two weeks. After that off-gassing period, staling begins. Vacuum-packing does not stop this process. Like freshly baked bread, nothing beats freshly roasted coffee. That's why we roast coffee to order five days a week and print the roast date on every bag that goes out of the warehouse.
Understanding Coffee
Coffee can seem complicated. Innumerable factors influence the aromas, tastes, and structure in a cup before it’s even roasted. Our goal is always to make you smarter about coffee and help you choose coffees that you will actually enjoy drinking.
Where do you even start with choosing a coffee?
Roast colour (or profile) is where most people start when differentiating between coffees. At JJ Bean we offer the three basic roast colours.
Light - Inherent flavours produced by the varieties, terroir, and processing method are distinct. Perceived acidity is higher, while body is lighter than darker roasts. Our single origins roasted for brewed coffee are all light roasts.
Medium - Inherent flavours are balanced with caramel and chocolate notes produced by the roast. This is the sweet spot for espresso, with body emphasized and acidity dialed down. JJ, Eastside, single origin espressos, and Decaf are all medium roasts.
Dark - Inherent flavours are eclipsed by smoky flavours produced by the roast. Body reigns and acidity is a distant memory. Railtown, our one and only dark roast, is a take on a traditional West Coast "French Roast."
Choosing between seasonal single origin coffees or blends comes next.
From one farm or co-operative within one specific growing region, single origin coffees express terroir, the many factors in the growing environment (elevation, soil type, climate, etc.) that produce aromas and flavours unique to the place wherein the coffee is grown. A wondrous variety throughout the year, they are best experienced in-season like local strawberries. With many exceptions, here are some very general hints for the adventurous coffee drinker:
- Latin America
- Guatemala: cocoa, subtle fruit
- El Salvador: toasty, cedar
- Colombia: caramel, subtle fruit
- Brazil: mild, nutty
- Africa
- Kenya: tart, berries
- Ethiopia: floral, delicate (washed), or berries, wild (natural)
- Rwanda and Burundi: spicy, subtle fruit
- Asia
- Indonesia: earthy, full
With a flavour profile in mind, blends make use of different coffees through the year to maintain that profile and offer consistent, reliable coffees year round. With JJ Bean's espresso blends, for example, JJ is always classic and caramelized and Eastside is always fruity and complex. Creatures of habit often gravitate toward blends to ensure their coffee tastes the same every morning.
Coffee is the seed of a fruit. How the seed is removed impacts the final flavour. We call this the processing method, and there are three main categories.
Washed (AKA Wet) - Coffee cherry skins are removed and the seeds are fermented in the fruit’s slimy flesh (mucilage), then washed to remove the mucilage and dried on a patio or raised bed. Most of the world’s specialty coffees are washed. Taste: showcases the inherent varietal and terroir characteristics of a coffee.
Semi-washed (AKA Pulped natural, honey) - The mucilage is left on the coffee as it is dried, rounding off acidity and imparting body. Taste: usually exhibits a mellow roundness and possibly some dried fruit characteristics.
Natural (AKA Dry) - The coffee is dried as a whole cherry with the fruit and skin on and intact. Taste: in many cases, wild with berry-like aromas.
Like apples or grapes, coffee subspecies are called varieties and each has its own characteristic properties. Here are a few of the most prominent.
Bourbon: Natural mutation of Typica with excellent cup quality.
Catuai: A productive and sturdy dwarf hybrid of Caturra and Mondo Novo.
Caturra: Dwarf natural mutation of Bourbon with similar cup quality with higher yields.
Ethiopian Heirloom: Some of the most aromatically amazing coffees ever. Often floral and lemony, especially in Yirgacheffe.
Geisha: Ethiopian variety made famous in Panama for its floral and citrusy characteristics. Very pricy because of rarity.
Maragogype: Massive size. Can be fruity.
Mondo Novo: Natural Brazilian cross of Typica and Bourbon with high yields.
Pacas: Natural mutation of Bourbon. A classic of El Salvador.
Pacamara: Large-size hybrid of Maragogype and Pacas with creamy body and lovely fruity characteristics.
SL-28: Excellent, distinctively fruity/winy variety produced by Scott Laboratories in Kenya.
SL-34: More disease resistant than SL-28 but perhaps not as high in cup quality.
Typica: The OG coffee variety and the mother of many, taken from Yemen and spread the world over. Low yields but high quality.
Villa Sarchi: Dwarf mutation of Bourbon first grown in Costa Rica.
How to taste coffee
Our guiding principle is “the best taste wins.” But when we taste coffee, what are we tasting for? There’s plenty of jargon in coffee tasting, but these basics help discern what you want and what you don’t. Tasting is all about figuring out what coffees you like. Ultimately you have to decide whether you enjoy a coffee or not.
Before you begin: flavours emerge from a coffee as it cools, so we always give a coffee a few minutes in the cup after brewing before evaluating it and continue tasting as it continues to cool… it also helps avoid burnt tongues.
ACIDITY - Acidity is the perceived tartness of a coffee, not the actual pH (coffee is around 5, nerds!). A coffee without acidity is like an orange without acidity: it just ain’t right. Too much becomes sour, overwhelming other characteristics in the coffee, but everyone has different thresholds for pleasant liveliness. We describe acidity with words like bright, juicy, and tangy. If that sounds like your cup of coffee, gravitate towards lighter roasts from Kenya, Colombia, and high-altitude Central America.
BODY - Body is the perceived weight of the coffee in your mouth: full-bodied, thin, or somewhere in the middle? Body is difficult to determine when starting to taste coffee. Cream is heavy or full-bodied, while non-fat milk is thin or light-bodied. In general, lighter roast coffees are thinner in body, while darker roast coffees are heavier in body. But brewing methods also contribute to perceived body as well. French press, for example, will feel heavier while filtered drip absorbs more undissolved solids resulting in a lighter mouthfeel. Try medium-dark or dark roasts, and coffees from Brazil or Indonesia.
FINISH - Finish is coffee jargon for “aftertaste.” How quickly did the coffee leave your tongue? If the flavour lingers on your palate long after the coffee is swallowed (or expectorated!), it’s called a long finish. If the flavour drifts off quickly, the finish is short. Some coffees have flavours that aren’t initially perceived but develop in the finish.
AROMA - Aroma is how brewed coffee smells. Simple, right? Coffee contains more than 800 aromatic compounds. Enjoy yourself and don’t worry if you can’t smell that obscure subspecies of white peach. We think that finding the subtle aromatics enhances the pleasure of drinking coffee. Some primary aroma categories are fruity, floral, chocolate, sugar-browning, nutty, earthy, spicy, and herbal.
FLAVOUR - Flavour is the fusion of aromatic and structural elements in your mouth. Sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and body are tastes we detect with the tongue. Aside from these, everything else we taste in coffee is aromatic, or detected by the nose. The broad flavour categories often found in coffee include sugar browning (toasty, caramel, etc.), nuts, chocolate, fruit, floral, earthy, herbal, and smoky.
French Press Brewing Guide
There is no “best” way to make coffee. Each brewing method offers a unique way of presenting the aromas, flavours, and textures of a coffee. New or rediscovered brewing methods are often the focus of trends and fads in the coffee industry.
We selected the time-honoured French Press because it is essentially the same as cupping (the industry standard for evaluating coffees), but on a larger scale. It is a total immersion brewing method, producing even and thorough extraction of the coffee because all of the coffee is in contact with all of the water for all of the brew time.
French Press allows all of the potential flavours to end up in the cup. None of the coffee’s flavour is trapped behind a filter, and there are no foreign flavours imparted to the brew by a filter.
French Press can easily and quickly produce coffee at an equal or higher quality to Kone, Aeropress, Syphon, Clover, and other methods for a large volume of customers.
Some people have bad associations with press coffee, usually the result from over-extracted, muddy coffee made with a press. But brewed correctly, French press should be sweet, expressive of origin, and free of sludge.
How to Brew French Press Coffee
You will need:
- Freshly roasted coffee
- Water
- French press
- Burr grinder
- Kettle
- Scale
- One spoon, or two if you’re a keener
Steps:
Pre-heat your press with a brief hot water rinse.
Weigh out the appropriate amount of coffee for the size of press:
- 4-tasse (17 oz): 28 g
- 8-tasse (34 oz): 56 g
- 12-tasse (51 oz): 84 g
We highly recommend using a scale if you want the best flavour, but you can use a coffee scoop (1 flat scoop of ground coffee per 4oz “tasse”) if you must.
Grind the coffee.
Achieving the right particle size is crucial here, and for that you will need a burr grinder like a Hario® Skerton. Aim for a medium-coarse grind. You want the particles to be uniform in size, so if they are chunky and uneven, go finer.
Dump the ground coffee into the pre-heated press.
Pour hot (200ºF/93ºC) NOT BOILING water onto the coffee until the level reaches the spout of the press, making sure to get all the coffee wet but DO NOT STIR.
The temperature of the water will make or break the quality of your brew. If the water is too hot, you will burn the coffee and it will taste bitter. Use a thermometer, or make sure the kettle has rested for at least a full minute before pouring it on the grinds.
The grinds will form a crust on the surface of the coffee. Do not disturb the crust. If you stir at this point, the grinds will fall out of suspension and extraction will slow down considerably. We know this from innumerable TDS readings and taste tests.
Set the timer for 4 minutes. Do not put the lid on.
The brew time is directly related to the grind particle size. If your grind is on the finer side, you may only want a 3 minute steep. If your grind is quite coarse, you may need a 5 minute steep. Some experimentation is needed. 4 minutes is about right for a medium-coarse grind.
When the timer hits 4 minutes, quickly break the crust with a spoon and inhale the aroma.
If you’re really keen, you can scrape the crust off with two spoons, cupping style, to maximize cup clarity.
Put the lid on and plunge, slowly and gently.
For the best flavour, allow the press to rest for up to 5 minutes before pouring your first cup. The fines will sink to the bottom, and your cup will be clear with articulate in flavour.
Everyone is paranoid about the coffee over-extracting and getting bitter if it is not poured out immediately after plunging. We have found this to be simply untrue. We feel the coffee tastes great for up to 30 minutes after plunging, especially in an insulated press like a Bodum® Columbia.
Drink it up!
French Press FAQ
Q: Isn’t French press muddy? I don’t like sludgy coffee.
A: It is true the French press contains more undissolved solids than filtered coffee, rendering the cup more opaque and textured. However, when a burr grinder and good technique are used, French press coffee is not muddy or sludgy.
Q: French press highlights body but reduces aroma and acidity, right?
A: Nope! Through many tests and trials, we have found that French press is actually more aromatic and highlights acidity better than other brewing methods.
Q: Doesn’t the coffee over-extract sitting at the bottom of the pot?
A: Through lots of experimentation, we have found this common assertion to be untrue. Coffee doesn’t over-extract in a cupping bowl, so why should it in a press pot? Coffee that has been sitting in a pressed pot for up to 30 minutes doesn’t taste over-extracted. No need for immediate decanting. Try it!
Q: But it’s not cool or hip.
A: Nerd life forever.