The Best Coffee For Beginners 2024
Here are a few of our league leaders…
| Best Beginners Coffee | Coffee Roaster |
|---|---|
| Best Overall Beginners Coffee | Batch Coffee |
| Best Espresso Coffee For Beginners | Volcano |
| Best Filter Coffee For Beginners | Assembly |
| Best Decaf Coffee For Beginners | Kickback |
Best Overall Beginners Coffee
I get it. I remember not really liking coffee.
Now I wake up to drink coffee rather than drinking coffee to wake up.
Like all things when you’re new and starting out, it takes some getting used to.
Consumed black and without sugar coffee can taste bitter, especially if the coffee beans are poor quality and incorrectly brewed.
Regular coffee drinkers come in all sorts of varieties.
Some began drinking the world’s most popular warm beverage as teens, others in their twenties, and if you were to ask ten of our customers that buy our coffee subscription uk, what coffee they might recommend for your first one you might get ten different answers.
With that being said, if you’re totally new to coffee, you may find the bitter flavour an acquired taste.
Hold tight and find out the ideal coffee for beginners.
What Coffee is Good For a Beginner?
As mentioned previously, milky espresso based coffee’s like latte’s or mocha’s are fairly beginner friendly coffees to get started on.
Another option, and a modern favourite, is iced coffee.
Having iced lattes or iced mochas, again paired with syrups or honey, and other flavourings, can make for a refreshing beverage, especially in summer.
Cold brew is also a great way to experience a more balanced flavour profile.
Once you’re used to the Iced version, (if you’re someone who prefers cold drinks to warm ones) making the transition to drinking hot coffee is easier.
Alongside that, you’re going to want to make sure you choose a coffee that uses Arabica beans instead of Robusta.
Arabica is known for being better tasting and for being smoother and sweeter whereas Robusta tends to be more bitter and carries the traditional coffee taste that beginners might do well to steer clear of in the beginning.
Best Coffee For Beginners In The UK
Batch Coffee - Seasonal Espresso
Best For Beginners - Batch Seasonal Espresso/Coffee Club.
What’s on Offer - Espresso Blend, Coffee Club, Decaf Club
Roast - Medium - Medium/Light
Volume of Bags - 200g or 1kg.
Shipping - UK
Rating - ★★★★★★★★★☆
Batch coffee is all about showcasing the best coffee in the world.
Whether it’s in the single origin discovery box, the best of UK decaf box or the season espresso blend. Batch coffee has anybody that is new to coffee covered.
If you’re looking to start your journey by easing into coffee and beginning with milk based coffees then the Batch espresso blend is the perfect choice.
The blend is perfectly balanced with smooth chocolatey notes to cut through milk so you can still taste the coffee but minus any bitterness that is often associated with espresso.
Otherwise a great coffee for beginners, especially if you’re not accustomed to caffeine is the Batch decaf box. The coffees showcased here are some of the best coffee beans in the UK has to offer.
Lastly, if you want to experience the incredible flavours of speciality coffee then the Batch coffee club is the perfect way to begin your coffee journey.
Volcano Coffee Works
Best For Beginners - Full Steam Espresso Blend.
What’s on Offer - 4 Blends, 1 Single Origin, 1 Decaf
Roast - Medium
Volume of Bags - 200g or 1kg.
Shipping - Worldwide
Rating - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Volcano coffee works which was founded in 2010, know a few things about coffee.
Volcano started life as a coffee cart that graced the streets of West Norwood but has now grown to a team of 30 passionate coffee people that operate out of their state of the art coffee roastery in Brixton.
The coffee that these guys showcase is always way above par.
They showcase a number of single origin coffees that rotate throughout the year alongside a couple of their signature blends.
Volcano make a great choice for beginners coffee as their roasting style is around a medium profile which means relatively low in acidity and bitterness - perfect for newbies.
Checkout our full Review of Volcano.
Assembly Coffee
Best For Beginners - Seasonal Single Origin
What’s on Offer - 2 Blends, 9 Single Origin, 1 Decaf
Roast - Medium - Medium/Light
Volume of Bags - 200g or 1kg.
Shipping - Worldwide
Rating - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Assembly, based in Brixton, London are super focused on quality.
They are one of the few coffee roasters in the UK that are pushing the boundaries of each aspect of their business.
The Assembly roastery is housed in a 19th century fire station in the heart of London.
Although they offer some of the more unusual tasting coffees on the market and do appeal to the snobbiest of coffee snobs, some of the coffees may be a perfect stepping stone for the coffee beginner.
Coffee doesn’t always have to look black and taste bitter. A light roasted Ethiopian coffee for example from Assembly may have the appearance of tea and taste floral and citrusy.
This may be a great way to start your coffee journey.
Checkout our full Review of Assembly.
Origin Coffee Roasters
Coffee Menu - 4 Blends, 9 Single Origins, 1 Decaf
Volume - 250g or 1kg.
Grind Size - Cafetière, Filter or Espresso
Shipping - Worldwide
Rating - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Origin coffee was founded over 15 years ago by Tom Sobey and roast their coffee in Cornwall.
Having worked closely with his fathers coffee business growing up, he has always been involved in the industry.
After a trip to Australia in the early 2000’s where coffee culture reigns, Origin was born.
Since then Origin coffee has evolved into a full team of industry professionals, a world class coffee program, 6 coffee shops and an ever evolving product range.
Read the full Origin Coffee Review.
If Carnival Coffee sound like the ground coffee for you Visit Origin’s Online Shop Here.
Rounton
Best For Beginners - Decaf.
What’s on Offer - 3 Blends, 11 Single Origin, 1 Decaf
Roast - Medium
Volume of Bags - 250g or 1kg.
Shipping - UK
Rating - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
The North Yorkshire based Rounton Coffee Roasters are on a mission.
They aim to source coffees that guarantee a fair cut for everyone at origin, and they make sure that their hard work comes through in the taste of the coffees that they roast.
Their story began 8 years ago in Sumatra, where they met a wonderful group of farmers in a region that they continue to support today.
It was this meeting that brought to their attention the plight of many smallholder farmers around the world.
We featured their decaf coffee on our decaf coffee club which was a fans favourite.
Checkout our full Review of Rounton Decaf.
One To Aviod - Dark Roasted Coffee
Coffee for beginners should really taste as balanced and as sweet as possible.
Coffee has a stigma of being bitter, although this can also be because of the raw coffee bean it is mainly because of the roast profile.
Dark roasted coffee is generally low quality where the unpleasant flavours are masked by the burnt bitter flavour profile.
As a coffee new comer I would advise steering clear of any coffee that has been roasted past medium roast.
This means anything that is darker than a milk chocolatey brown colour stay away from.
Particularly black or oily coffee beans.
FAQs
How do beginners start drinking coffee?
There’s no definitive way to start drinking coffee, however, there are some tips and recommendations that are generally considered sensible when you’re first starting to drink coffee.
Coffee drinking should be enjoyed in reasonable amounts.
If you’re not used to the caffeine content of coffee, you’ll want to give yourself time to adjust and gradually develop a tolerance, rather than downing four large ones in a single day.
If you find yourself wanting to explore flavour profiles more, try and get good quality coffee, and do your research on the types of beans, different coffees, we’ve got a ton of coffee guides here on what types of beans suit different brewing methods.
For each brewing method, you’re going to want to learn the processes involved, so as to extract the desired flavour, texture and consistency in your liquid.
This should also help regulate the caffeine content of your intake.
What is the best brewing method for beginners?
The best brewing method for beginners might be one that is easy to use and consistent, such as a drip coffee maker or a pod-based system. These methods require less skill and produce a reliable cup of coffee with minimal effort. French press and pour-over methods are also good options that allow more control over the brewing process
How do I get myself to start liking coffee?
Coffee will seem like an acquired taste at first, but as mentioned above, there are some things you can do in the beginning to start liking it.
First you need to accustom yourself to the taste.
That means trying some of the coffees mentioned above, starting with light roasts and Arabica coffee beans.
Additionally, when you’re able to prepare it yourself, you can have some control on how bitter it is.
The bitterness comes from oils that are extracted in the process, but there are three ways you can mitigate this.
Don’t steep your coffee in the water too long because the shorter the time ground beans are in the hot water the better if you’re trying to lessen the bitterness
Use cooler water, because the hotter the water, the more rapid the rate of extraction of the acids.
Use a coarse grinder, which helps slow extraction.
This is meant to demonstrate how coffee becomes bitter. We would recommend sticking to a recipe for the optimal brew.
Alongside the aforementioned flavours of milk, cream and syrups that can be added to both hot and iced versions, as bizarre as it may seem, adding salt can also help as a bitterness reducer.
When should I start drinking coffee?
If you’re a parent, you might worry more about your kids starting to drink alcohol rather than coffee, but with research showing millennials and Gen Z are less and less interested in consuming alcohol and more interested in consuming coffee, it brings the questions…
When is it too early to start drinking coffee? When is an ideal time to start?
Whilst guidance on the amount of caffeine that is safe to consume exists on adults, for children, it can be harder to determine, as there is little solid scientific research to verify.
It’s probably best not to introduce children to coffee drinking until they are teenagers, the caffeine may cause some to become restless.
For adults, 3-5 coffee cups a day is probably as much as you may want to consume.
More than this can make us overly jittery due to the caffeine, or raise our stomach acid to uncomfortable levels.
The lack of scientific research on this is a little bit problematic, as a child’s brain or (even an adolescent) is still in development.
Research shows that caffeine affects the central nervous system, thus potentially affecting the development of a child’s brain. When studies were conducted on lab rats, rats exposed to caffeine adopted more addictive traits than those that weren’t.
As humans are also mammals, a similar effect might occur in people.
Almost all of us are addicted to caffeine in some form and whilst this addiction doesn’t tend to involve too many detrimental effects, should you want to avoid withdrawal, you might want to be conscientious with your consumption patterns.
Having the odd ice cold latte on a summer’s day might not be so bad, but regularly drinking multiple cups every day
Is it better for beginners to buy whole bean coffee or pre-ground coffee?
Whole bean coffee is generally fresher and allows you to grind it specifically for your brew method.
What's the weakest coffee drink?
In terms of caffeine content, an Espresso is actually the weakest coffee drink. Though that may come as a surprise to some, an average Espresso contains anything from 60-90mg of Caffeine compared to most other drinks that start around 100mg and upwards.
Now be aware, espresso has the most per volume so if you’re drinking it in the traditional Italian style where it’s drunk in a Demitasse cup you’ll be fine, but if you’re drinking a regular cup filled with espresso, you might find yourself bouncing off the walls!