Which Single Origin CBD Coffee Should You Buy? Every Bean Compared
If you take milk, start with Mexico. If you drink it black and like it bright, start with Ethiopia. If you want fruit that tastes like actual fruit, go to Burundi or Laos. That covers most people, and you can stop reading there.
The longer answer is that our coffees split into two camps, and the split has less to do with country than you would expect. It comes down to what happened to the cherry after picking. Washed coffees taste like the bean. Natural and fermented coffees taste like the fruit the bean grew inside. Once you know which camp you want, eight choices become three.
Every coffee we sell, compared
| Coffee | Grown in | Tastes like | Body and acidity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethiopia Kochere | Kochere, Yirgacheffe, 1,800m and up | Jasmine, bergamot, lemon, stone fruit | Light and tea-like, high acidity |
| Colombia | Salgar, Antioquia | Bright citrus, caramel | Medium, balanced |
| Costa Rica | Tarrazu | Toasted cacao nib, hibiscus, vanilla cream, sweet pea | Medium, clean finish |
| Mexico | Chiapas | Milk chocolate, toasted almond, soft citrus | Medium, mild acidity |
| Peru | Cajamarca, 1,750m | Chocolate, caramel, honey, star fruit | Full and silky, low acidity |
| Burundi | Burundi, natural process | Blackberry, dried cherry, dark chocolate | Full and syrupy, wine-like |
| Brazil | Brazil, 48-hour anaerobic | Raspberry, white wine | Light, mild acidity |
| Laos Xam Tai | Xam Tai, Houaphanh, around 1,200m | Strawberry jam, wafer, rhubarb, nougat | Round, sweet for a coffee |
Chocolate or fruit?
This is the fork in the road, and almost everyone lands firmly on one side.
Mexico, Peru and Colombia are the chocolate side. Medium roast, mild acidity, and they hold up with milk. Mexico is the gentlest of the three and the one to hand someone who says they do not like specialty coffee. Peru is the heaviest, silky and almost buttery, with the lowest acidity in the lineup. Colombia sits between them with more citrus lift.
Costa Rica is the odd one on that side. It reads as dry cacao rather than sweet chocolate, and a hibiscus tartness runs through the middle of it. If the chocolate coffees bore you but the fruit ones are too much, this is the one.
Burundi, Brazil and Laos are the fruit side, and the difference is not subtle. Burundi is dried blackberry and cherry over dark chocolate, full and syrupy. Brazil drinks lighter, closer to raspberry and white wine. Laos is the loudest of the three, strawberry jam and nougat with a tart rhubarb snap across the top.
Ethiopia belongs to neither. It is floral rather than fruity, jasmine and bergamot with lemon underneath, and it is the lightest cup we sell. Brew it as pour over. In a French press it goes muddy and you lose the reason you bought it.
What processing does to the cup
Three methods explain most of the table above.
Washed means the fruit is stripped off before drying. Our Ethiopia, Colombia and Costa Rica are washed, and it is why they taste clean and defined. You get the bean, the varietal and the elevation with nothing layered over them.
Natural means the cherry dries whole with the fruit still attached. Sugars and aromatics migrate inward instead of evaporating. Our Burundi is natural processed, which is where its blackberry and syrupy body come from.
Anaerobic means the cherries ferment in sealed, oxygen-free tanks first. Without oxygen, different microbes take over and build aromatic compounds the other two methods never produce. Brazil and Laos both ferment for 48 hours, and they still taste nothing alike, because elevation and the microbes living on the fruit differ at every farm.
None of this involves added flavoring. The fruit was in the cherry. Processing either keeps it or throws it away.
What if you want less caffeine?
Two options, both Colombian.
The decaf uses the Swiss Water process, so no chemical solvents, and it cups as milk chocolate, hazelnut and light caramel. The half-caf runs around 50 percent of standard caffeine and tastes of caramel, milk chocolate and citrus.
Worth saying plainly: decaf is the more interesting choice with CBD, not the compromise. If you are drinking infused coffee for calm rather than for a jolt, caffeine is the thing working against you.
How to taste them side by side
Brew the same way, at the same ratio, on the same day. A 1:16 ratio in a pour over shows the most difference between origins.
Then let the cups cool for five minutes before judging. Heat flattens aromatics, and a coffee that only reads as interesting while scalding is usually thin underneath. Most of what separates Burundi from Mexico shows up at drinkable temperature, not at 200 degrees.
If you want to compare without committing to full bags, the coffee flight is built for exactly that.
Shop the beans: Ethiopia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Burundi, Brazil, Laos Xam Tai, Decaf Colombia, Half-Caf Colombia.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This article is general information, not medical advice.
