Just because your favorite coffee is out of stock, doesn’t mean you’re out of options.
As an agricultural product, coffee is subject to seasonality. Unfortunately, this means keeping any specific single originSingle Origin refers to coffee from one location, in contrast to blended coffee. This term is particularly useful in discussing espresso, since most commercial espressos are made from blends. This is what the term "SO More coffee in stock year round is impossible, and we’ll eventually sell out of your favorite coffee.
It can be difficult to predict if/when a specific coffee will be back in stock because, as an agricultural product, there are a number of factors beyond our control that can affect crop quality. Even if we purchase a subsequent lot from the same farm, cooperative, etc, the character of the coffee can shift from harvest to harvest and next year’s coffee may not taste or roast exactly the same and this year’s coffee.
This can be frustrating if you were hoping to reorder the same coffee. But the good news is, there will always be a few fresh coffees with similar flavor notes on our list that we know you will enjoy!
Here’s a list of factors to consider when searching for a comparable coffee:
- OriginIn coffee talk, it refers to a coffee-producing region or country; such as, "I was just at origin." Of course "Origin" for most product we use is not a beautiful farm in a temperate climate, More – Look for a bean from the same or nearby region, as the cultivar
USDA is (obviously) the United States Department of Agriculture. USDA also had coffee plant breeding programs in the past and one variety they distributed to Indonesia and was widely planted is called USDA (sounds like More and climate is most likely similar. - ProcessingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural dry, and we abbreviate it DP sometimes). More – How a coffee is processed will have a big impact on the flavor. A dry processed coffee from EthiopiaEthiopia is the birthplace of coffee: it is in the forests of the Kaffa region that coffee arabica grew wild. Coffee is "Bun" or "Buna" in Ethiopia, so Coffee Bean is quite possibly a poor More may not match the flavor profileFlavor Profile implies a graphical impression of a particular coffee, whether it be an artistic portrait or data graph of the perception of flavor compounds. In the case of our spider graph charts in each More of its neighboring region’s wet processed coffee, but it might taste a lot like the dry processDry process coffee is a method for taking the fruit from the tree to an exportable green bean. The whole intact coffee cherry is dried in the sun with the green bean inside. Later it More BurundiBurundi coffee bears resemblance to neighboring Rwanda, in both cup character, but also the culture surrounding coffee. Burundi is a small landlocked country at the crossroads of East and Central Africa, straddling the crest of More that just went out of stock (and vice versa!).
- Flavor Attributes – This carries the most weight when looking for a replacement. Just because a coffee is the same cultivar and origin as the one you’re replacing, doesn’t mean it tastes the same.
Of these three criteria, flavor is probably the most important factor to consider. Just because we have coffee from the same origin as the coffee you’re trying to replace, for example, doesn’t mean it will taste the same. Conversely, you just might find that the coffee bearing the closest resemblance comes from the opposite side of the world!
When Guatemalan coffees run out, we look to other origins producing sweet, balanced coffees, such as RwandaRwandan coffee was, at one time, rarely seen in the United States as either a Specialty grade or low-end commercial coffee. There simply was not that much coffee produced in Rwanda that went anywhere besides More, Burundi, even FloresFlores is an Indonesian island, and as a coffee bears more resemblance to the coffees of Timor-Leste, New Guinea and Java than to the wet-hulled coffees of Sumatra and Sulawesi. It is sweet, with good More and Java
There are several types of Abyssinia, but they are not from Ethiopia but rather Indonesia. Abyssinia 3 = AB3. PJS Cramer, a Dutch plant researcher, introduced this variety in 1928, supposedly from Ethiopia seed stock. It was More, in addition to other parts of Latin America.
Trying to replace the singular cup profile of an Ethiopia or KenyaKenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both in the cup, and the way they run their trade, everything is topnotch.: Kenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both More may prove a bit more difficult. Though perhaps not so floral
Floral notes in coffee exemplify the connection between taste and smell. Describing the taste of a specific flower is near impossible...we always default to “it tastes like it smells” which, admittedly, isn’t the most helpful. More, some Burundis will tick off boxes for ‘delicate’ and ‘elegant’, aspects I enjoy in washed Ethiopian and Kenyan coffees.
CongoKivu is the general name for East Congo (Kinshasa), covering a very broad geographical area, and the lake of the same name that divides them. It borders on Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Lake Tanganyika on More and even some Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea (PNG) occupies the eastern half of the island it shares with the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, part of Indonesia. The two primary areas for coffee production can be grouped roughly as More coffees can have the citrus and fruit intensityWe have a simple scale to rate intensity in our coffee reviews, from Mild to Bold. Low intensity does not mean low quality!: We have a simple scale to rate intensity, from Mild to Bold. More of a Kenyan cup. GeshaGesha is a long-bean Ethiopia selection with unique cup character.: Gesha (often wishfully misspelled as Geisha) is a long-bean Ethiopia cultivar selection with unique cup character. It is most famously grown on the Jaramillo plot More coffees should also satisfy those looking for a nice, floral option to Ethiopia, but unfortunately to the tune of 4x the cost!
But with 40+ single origin coffees on our list, this can also mean a lot of scrolling! Our flavor attribute tags will narrow the search by only showing coffees with certain core cup characteristics. The spider graph and flavor wheel are also helpful tools in finding a coffee that has certain attributes you like, such as bodyAssociated with and sensed by mouthfeel, body is sense of weight and thickness of the brew, caused by the percentage of soluble solids in the cup, including all organic compounds that are extracted from brewing More and brightnessA euphemistic term we use often to describe acidity in coffee. A bright coffee has more high, acidic notes. : A euphemistic term to describe acidity in coffee. A bright coffee has more high, acidic More.
Should you need help finding a replacement for your favorite coffee, you can always reach out to us directly for our recommendations – [email protected]
Learn more about our coffee descriptions in Understanding Our Coffee Reviews
Check out and green coffee
Green coffee refers to the processed seed of the coffee tree fruit. Coffee is a flowering shrub that produces fruit. The seeds of the fruit are processed, roasted, ground and prepared as an infusion.: Coffee More overview and valuable basics in our Green Coffee FAQ’s
Here’s a primer on understanding our coffee reviews
In this video, Tom discusses how to go about choosing what green coffee to roast, both for folks just beginning to home roast and for those who love a certain coffee that is now unavailable.
