Coffee beans for your business in Amsterdam: how to choose
Choosing coffee beans for your café, restaurant or office? Start with your machine, your guests and freshness. A practical guide with a checklist.
By Tiago
Published
Last updated
3 min read
Resumo · the short answer
Choosing coffee beans for your business starts with three questions: what machine do you use, what do your guests or colleagues drink, and how much coffee do you go through?
Answer those, and the choice becomes simple. We roast in Amsterdam, but the questions are the same wherever your business is.
Ficha técnica Choosing beans
| Best window | About 1 to 6 weeks after roasting |
|---|---|
| Look for | Roast date on the bag |
| Format | Whole beans, grind fresh |
| Practical size | 1 kg bags, 4 x 1 kg bundles |
| Samples | Free for cafés and offices |
| Our roast | Every week in Amsterdam |
Below we walk through the steps, with a checklist at the end.
01 · Máquina
Start with your machine
Espresso machine with a separate grinder
You have the most freedom
→ Most cafés choose a medium-roast espresso blend as their house coffee.
Bean-to-cup machine
Common in offices
→ Choose a medium roast with a lot of body, and avoid very dark, oily beans: they can clog the grinder. Very light filter roasts often taste sour in these machines.
Batch brewer or filter machine
Choose a filter roast
→ These are roasted lighter, so the coffee tastes sweet and clear, not flat.
02 · Com leite
Milk or black?
Cappuccino, latte, flat white
Body and sweetness
→ A coffee that stands up to milk: think chocolate, nuts and caramel.
Black, as espresso or filter
Room for fruit
→ There is more room for brighter, fruitier coffees.
03 · Frescor
Freshness
Coffee is at its best from about a week after roasting until around six weeks later. So look for a roast date on the bag, not just a best-before date, and order in amounts you will finish within a few weeks. Whole beans stay fresh much longer than ground coffee, so grind just before brewing.
At Brazuca we roast every week in Amsterdam. The coffee we send was roasted 2 to 12 days earlier, and orders leave within 1 to 2 working days.
04 · Café da casa
One house coffee, or more?
Most businesses do well with one reliable house espresso and a decaf for the afternoon and evening. Cafés that want to stand out often add a filter coffee or a changing single origin.
Do torrador
“Keep it simple at first: it is easier to keep one coffee consistently good than five.”
Tiago, who roasts our coffee every week in Amsterdam
05 · Prova
Taste before you decide
A coffee that tastes great at the roaster can taste different on your machine and with your water. Ask for samples and taste them on your own setup, black and with milk, before you commit. We send free samples to cafés and offices, and offer barista training to help your team get the best out of the coffee.
06 · Quantidade
Size and quantity
For a business, 1 kg bags are usually the most practical: less packaging and a better price per kilo. If you go through a lot of one coffee, a bundle such as 4 x 1 kg is the better deal. See our 1 kg value packs.
07 · Checklist
Checklist: which beans suit your business?
| Your situation | What to look for | Our suggestion |
|---|---|---|
| Café with many milk drinks | Medium-roast blend with body and sweetness | Paulista Blend or Mistura Fina |
| Office with a bean-to-cup machine | Medium roast, not oily, easy to like | Paulista Blend |
| Batch brew or filter machine | Filter roast, sweet and clear | Fazenda Sertão 100 Years Reserva or Sítio Matuto |
| Guests who want something special | Single origin with a clear story | Maragogipe Southern Boundaries or Funky Jumper Banger |
| Afternoon and evening | A decaf that still tastes like coffee | Swiss Water Decaf |
08 · Brasil
Why Brazilian beans work well for businesses
Brazilian coffee usually has a full body, natural sweetness and a soft acidity, with notes of chocolate, nuts and caramel. That makes it easy to like, black or with milk, and forgiving on different machines. It is a safe base for a house coffee that guests and colleagues come back for.
Contato · ready to taste?
See how our wholesale coffee for cafés and offices works, from free samples to regular delivery.
Wholesale coffee for cafés and offices
Want to know more about espresso specifically? Read the best espresso beans for cafés and restaurants, or browse all our Brazilian coffee beans.
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