What Are The Best Espresso Beans? Tasting & Buyers Guide

So, can you use any type of coffee beans for espresso or do they have to be specifically marketed espresso coffee beans or meet any other prerequisites?

Here’s a piece of good news. Generally, you can pretty much go all out with any type of coffee beans you can get your hand on to make an espresso shot.

A blend of both Arabica and Robusta is considered the traditional take to make a balanced espresso shot that has both the mildness and sweetness of the former and the earthiness and boldness of the latter.

Should espresso coffee be dark roasted?

It’s recommended that a darker roast is more suitable for espresso beans as the lower level of acidity and the higher level of oiliness make the brew stronger in taste and fuller in body, capturing the essence of espresso.

Though it’s the general guideline that most baristas follow, no one’s gatekeeping you from venturing out and experimenting with lighter and fruitier roasted beans.

If you’re thinking of getting ground coffee, don’t.

The best coffee beans for your espresso you can get your hands on might not be single-origin, certified organic, dark roast coffee, have a super crema, a hot chocolate flavor tone, or sourced from a prestigious coffee company.

But it’d better be whole-bean beans instead of pre-ground coffee. Pre-ground beans can’t preserve freshness as well as whole-bean beans, so their peak quality doesn’t last as long as the latter.

Our best pick for espresso beans is the Lifeboost Espresso Organic Coffee.

Lifeboost has long been known for going the extra mile by supplying ultra-low acid coffee beans that are stomach-friendly with no GMOs and 3rd-party-tested for mycotoxins.

In addition, its coffee beans are also Fair Trade with no middlemen, organically grown and procured, and single-origin for the highest and most consistent brew quality. So you can expect the brand to do the same for this espresso coffee.

The Arabica beans are hand-picked from the shady and high altitudes of Mount Kilambe in Nicaragua, a coffee-growing region in Central America popular for its hard-to-surpass flavor complexities and balanced quality.

This is another brand that made it onto our list of best low-acid coffee and actually came on top.

This time Cafe Don Pablo brings its Classic Italian Espresso Medium-Dark Roast to the espresso game.

These 100% Arabica beans are a blend of the mild large-sized Colombian Supremo and the rich and mouthful Sumatra Mandheling. The result is a very deep, full-bodied, and smooth brew with layers of flavor complexities.

This medium-dark coffee is also GMO-free and low-acid, perfect for coffee drinkers with sensitive stomachs.

If you prioritize the crema most of all, this type of espresso whole bean coffee from the brand Lavazza, Super Crema, can give you that and more.

Most espresso blends that contain both Arabica and Robusta beans opt for either an 80/20 or 90/10 ratio.

That way, they can make the most out of the mild and light taste of Arabica beans yet still retain Robusta’s characteristics to make a pronounced crema layer and balance the sweetness in espresso-based drinks.

Koffee Kult knows how to gather a “kult following” with its selections of exquisite coffee beans, including the dark roast that’s famous for its smoothness, cleanness, and richness in flavors with little to no bitterness.

That’s enough “ness” in one sentence. So how did the brand make its business happen?

100% gourmet Arabica beans are sourced from 3 big coffee-growing regions in the world, Brazil, Colombia, and Sumatra. They are then roasted in small batches to a dark profile with no visible shiny oils on the bean surface despite the dark brown color.

If you missed out on my review of this cheeky coffee brand, Kicking Horse Coffee, don’t worry. Here’s a summary.

Kicking Horse Coffee is the number 1 Organic and Fair Trade roaster in Canada for 13 consecutive years! So rest assured that 100% of its coffee is certified Fair Trade, organic, and Kosher, including the 2 roasts I’m about to introduce next.

The brand’s coffees are also generally milder in acidity, for coffee lovers looking for more low-acid espresso beans options.

Kicking Horse Cliff Hanger Espresso is a medium roasted blend sourced from big coffee-growing regions around the world, Indonesia and Central and South America.

If you’re a fan of something darker and earthier, grab a dark-roasted 454 Horse Power from the same supplier.

Like many other roasts of Kicking Horse Coffee, 454 Horse Power also contains an interesting blend of beans. This blend, in particular, is sourced from the tropical climate and high altitudes in Indonesia.

The “champion roast” boasts a very velvety and smooth-sailing texture, a heavy body, earthy and toasty sweet tobacco-like flavors, and an aromatic black licorice finish.

Don’t forget to look forward to the nutty notes of cacao nibs, nutmeg, and roasted hazelnuts as well.

You probably didn’t expect a giant coffee chain like Starbucks to appear in this lineup of roasteries and bean suppliers.

Well, Starbucks sells coffee beans for home baristas as well and we need to give credit where credit’s due. The coffee is good so of course, I have to include it.

This Kosher-certified Espresso Roast contains 100% premium Arabica whole bean coffee that’s ethically sourced from multiple coffee regions in the world, from Latin America to the Asia Pacific. The interesting flavor combinations and complexities are guaranteed.

Here is another medium-dark roast espresso beans option for coffee lovers looking for both flavor balance and intensity and prioritizing quality.

Jo Coffee is known for only directly sourcing the top 2% specialty grade of organic Arabica beans from all over the world with its team of dedicated experts.

Jo Espresso is also USDA certified organic, Fair Trade certified, Kosher certified, and hand-roasted in small batches by artisan coffee roasters.

So you can expect the best quality espresso beans from the brand and know that your consumption has helped support the livelihood of coffee farmers with minimized effects on the local environment.

Looking for more toasty dark roast alternatives? Try these whole bean coffee beans: Coffee Bean Direct Italian Roast Espresso.

Coffee Bean Direct has 10 years of experience in sourcing the best coffee beans and roasting practices to deliver a wide variety of fresh beans to the hands of home baristas.

The Italian Roast Espresso is a signature blend of both the mildly sweet Arabica and the earthier Robusta beans sourced from the Americas and India.

This is the traditional artisan Italian blend of roasted espresso beans that bring out the best espresso flavors and pair extremely well with milk and sugar.

Here’s another large coffee chain making its appearance on this list of the best espresso beans, Peet’s Coffee.

The brand has specially crafted Peet’s Espresso, the first blend they created specifically for pulling the best espresso shots due to how much more demanding this brew method is compared to others.

Espresso Forte is a blend of whole bean coffee that perfectly balances the bold and earthy depth of the Indo-Pacific and the robust and bright spiciness of the coffee in the Americas.

Despite being a dark roast, it’s not too dark, not bitter, and balanced with a medium body and a luscious layer of crema.

Another type of espresso beans that you should thank Peet’s Coffee for is the dark-roast Arabian Mocha Sanani. This whole bean coffee is for coffee lovers who are looking for the consistent flavor quality of single-origin beans.

Sourced from the mountains of Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, one of the earliest origins of the coffee plants, the mocha variety here struggles to produce from the wild, limited, and poor growing conditions in the low altitudes.

It’s not an article about the best espresso beans without at least one mention of a French Roast.

Today, I’ll introduce you to Lion Coffee, one of America’s oldest major coffee companies. Since its move to Hawaii in the late 1970s, Lion Coffee has made a household name for itself in the local coffee scene.

And the brand certainly didn’t disappoint with its allergen-free dark French roast made with 100% premium hand-picked single-origin Arabica beans to make a flavorful and rich cup of espresso that is Hawaii-inspired.

If you’re looking for a more balanced and brighter medium-roast brew from this list of mostly dark roasts, give Blue Horse 100% Kona Coffee a try.

Kona coffee is often known and highly regarded for its earthy and uniquely sweet flavors with hints of almond, vanilla, and caramel in both the taste and the aroma.

This 100% all-natural artificial chemical-free Kona coffee can give you just that, despite not being certified organic. It’s sourced from an authentic single coffee estate, which means the coffee is grown on a single same farm with no external blends to guarantee the best consistency in brew flavors, aroma, and quality.

Coffee Bros is determined to turn the coffee situation on Amazon around, and one of its prime candidates made it to our list of the best espresso beans in the market.

The Espresso Roast boasts 100% of Arabica coffee that’s sourced from the high altitudes of Ethiopia and Colombia. The former is where the first Arabica coffee plant was first discovered, or so the story goes, and the latter is one of the biggest coffee producers in the world, just behind Brazil and Vietnam.

Colombian coffee is loved for its mildness in both taste and acidity, whereas Ethiopia prides itself on its large variety of coffee plants and bolder more complex flavor profiles.

Marketed as the “world’s strongest coffee”, it’s not super strange to see Death Wish Coffee in this line-up.

If you want a cup of espresso with an extra kick of energy to stay awake in the morning, Death Wish Coffee’s OG Dark Roast is the way to go.

It contains a blend of both premium Arabica and Robusta beans to boost the caffeine content and boasts earthier flavor profiles. That doesn’t mean you won’t get to enjoy the fun and exciting fruity notes of black cherry and the comforting yet bold taste of dark chocolate.