The coffee shelf is long: beans, ground, instant, granulated, powder. The names look alike, but the taste and the price per cup differ a lot. Let us see what is what and how not to overpay.

Three kinds of coffee

Whole bean coffee is sold as whole roasted beans. You have to grind them before brewing. Its aroma is the strongest, and it keeps the longest.

Ground coffee is already ground and can be brewed at once. It is handy, but the aroma fades fast, so buy small packs and close them tightly.

Instant coffee is made from brewed coffee that has been dried: a powder or granules that dissolve in hot water. It is the simplest and quickest, but the taste is clearly different from brewed coffee. Granulated is usually milder than powder.

Each kind suits its own case: beans for people who love the ritual and the aroma, ground for the morning cezve, instant for a quick cup at work or on the road.

How to work out the price per cup

The price of the pack says little. You need to know how many cups it gives. Take the weight of the pack in grams and divide it by a serving.

A cup takes about seven to ten grams of bean or ground coffee. For instant, about two grams is enough. So a two-hundred-gram jar of instant gives roughly a hundred cups, while a pack of ground coffee of the same weight gives about twenty to thirty.

Now divide the price of the pack by the number of cups. Often it turns out that instant, which looks expensive, costs no more per cup than beans, and sometimes less. And good beans in a big pack can be better value than small packs of ground.

Here is what the catalogues have on coffee right now:

In the catalogues now: coffee

All offers

Arabica and robusta

These are the two main species of the coffee tree. Arabica is usually milder and more aromatic, with a fruity or floral acidity. Robusta is more bitter and denser, with a strong taste and thick crema, and has more caffeine.

Blends are often sold. The pack says how much of each is in it, or simply "arabica and robusta". If it says only arabica, do not expect miracles: roast and freshness matter as well.

Roast comes light, medium and dark. Light keeps acidity and aroma, dark gives bitterness and a "smoky" taste. For the cezve and espresso people more often take medium and dark.

How to read the pack

Look at the roast date if it is given. Fresh coffee smells strong. A pack that is many months old is one to treat with care.

Look at the packaging: a bag with a valve for letting gas out and a good seal suits beans and ground coffee. A jar with a tight lid suits instant.

Look at the ingredients too. Good coffee contains only coffee. If there is chicory, grain or flavouring, that is not bad in itself, but it is a coffee drink, and you should not pay for it as for coffee.

How to brew in a cezve

The cezve, also called a džezva or ibrik, is the most familiar method in Moldova. You need a fine grind, almost powder, cold water and medium heat.

Add one or two spoons of coffee per cup of water, stir and set on the heat. When foam rises to the surface, take the cezve off the heat so the coffee does not boil over or boil hard. Let it stand a minute and pour.

Boiling coffee turns bitter and loses aroma. If you like it with a foam, heat it slowly.

French press, moka pot and filter

In a French press medium-coarse coffee is covered with hot, not boiling, water, left for four minutes, and the plunger is pressed down. The taste is soft and full.

In a moka pot water forced by steam pressure passes through the coffee. The grind is medium; heat it on low and take it off when the last trickle comes through.

In a filter machine and in pour-over, coffee is extracted slowly and the taste is clean and light. The grind is medium.

Pour instant coffee over with water that has cooled slightly, not freshly boiled. It turns less bitter that way.

How to store coffee

Coffee does not like air, light, heat and damp. Keep it in a tightly closed jar or a bag with a seal, in a dark, cool cupboard. Do not put it next to the stove.

Beans keep their aroma for a few weeks after opening, ground coffee dulls noticeably after about two weeks, instant lasts longer but must be closed tightly too.

Do not keep coffee in the fridge: it picks up smells, and moisture settles on cold beans. Buy as much as you will drink in a month.

What to take for home

If you drink one or two cups a day, take a small pack of medium-ground coffee and a cezve. If you love a strong aroma, take beans and a hand grinder. For a quick cup, instant is quite fine too.

To avoid a mistake, compare not packs but the price of a cup. And where coffee is better value right now shows across stores:

Where it is cheaper: coffee

All offers

Morning coffee also belongs in the breakfast basket, and the discounts on coffee are worth looking for in the catalogues.