What are the Kinds of Coffee?

Single Origin Coffee
Single Origin coffees refer to those beans originating from a single growing region. Coffee, much like wine, takes on the flavor attributes and characteristics that shape the plant variety growing in that region. Altitude and soil acidity give these coffees the unique flavors found only in these unblended coffees.

Blends
Blends are combinations of coffee beans collected from a number of different origins. The goal of blending is to create a coffee that uses the collective attributes of it's single origins to compliment one another and ultimately result in a superior quality cup of coffee. Another advantage of blending is that a coffee retailer can create a signature taste available only in their shops. Often times, the percentage of each single origin going into a blend is kept secret by the roaster. Blending is an art that requires a roaster to know intimately the flavors and attributes of each coffee used in the blending process.

Dark Roasts
Depending on the roast of the bean, coffees will be labeled light, cinnamon, medium, high, city, full city, French, or Italian roast. Full City, French and Italian are considered dark roasts. French and Italian roast have nothing to do with these countries, they are simply the name of the style of roasting. Dark Roasts are generally smoother because of their lower fiber content and slightly sugary flavor. Longer roasting times destroy oils and fibers which create some of the stronger, bitter flavor found in lighter roasts. Roasting also decreases the amount of caffeine found in Dark Roasts.

Flavored Coffee
Flavored coffees are usually light roasted coffees that have been coated with a high concentration of flavor extracts. The extracts are allowed 24 hours to soak into the beans before they are bagged. Extracts do not add calories or fat to the beans, and the beans are ground and brewed just like regular coffee. We have over 50 variety of flavored coffees available at the leaf and bean. Jamaican Me Crazy is our most popular flavor and is infused with Jamaican rum and cinnamon extracts.

Estate Coffee
Estate coffee is grown, harvested and packaged all from a single plantation or estate. It is never blended with coffee from another farm and is a pure reflection of the farms product. Some popular Estate coffees you can find at the Leaf and Bean are Ethiopian Harrar, Kenya AA, and Tanzanian Peaberry.

Decaf Coffee
You may hear a lot of people say they dont like the taste of decaf coffee, or that they are allergic to it. What they are tasteing, or having a reaction to, is not the lack of caffeine but the presence of chemicals used to decaffinate the product they are drinking. Many decaffination processes use chemical solvents like methylene chloride. At the Leaf and Bean, our coffee is decaffinated by a process called Swiss Water. The SWISS WATER® Process uses only water when removing caffeine, producing water processed decaf coffee. There is no left over chemical residue to flavor the coffee or cause an allergic reaction. Our teas at the Leaf and Bean are also decaffinated by this same process.