Coffee is one of probably the most extensively consumed psychoactive drinks on the planet. Nearly each nation, area, and tradition has its personal distinctive approach of getting ready and consuming espresso. There’s nothing easy about espresso. Those beans in your kitchen are the sum whole of a posh collection of interactions between worldwide firms, roasters, shippers, entrepreneurs, wholesalers, and even the growers who put the seeds within the floor. It’s difficult.

Below we bust a number of the most typical espresso myths and misconceptions, that will help you turn out to be a extra knowledgeable shopper of this deliciously bitter elixir.

We’re critically wired right here at WIRED. Be certain to take a look at our information on How to Make Better Coffee at Home, or check out our coffee-related shopping for guides to the Best Espresso Machines, the Best Coffee Subscriptions, and the Best Coffee Grinders.

Updated March 2024: Added a pair new myths, up to date hyperlinks and duplicate all through.

1. Coffee Is Not a Bean

Coffee is not a bean, or a legume like many different meals we name beans. It’s a seed! Technically, it is the endosperm (pit) of a berry. Initially, it is wrapped in a skinny purple fruit that is peeled off in the course of the cleansing course of. Then it is a mild silvery inexperienced coloration till it is roasted.

That does not imply you possibly can plant your beans and develop your individual espresso bushes. The beans we grind up and brew are usually not plantable anymore, because of the roasting. Even in the event that they have been, it may possibly take years earlier than a espresso plant is mature sufficient to supply the berries that comprise the espresso bean. Not to say, Coffea arabica (the most well-liked cultivar) grows and thrives solely in a couple of locations on this planet. It’s a demanding little plant with very explicit local weather wants—which brings us to our subsequent level.

2. European Coffee Isn’t From Europe

Coffee beans don’t grow in Europe. They develop in Central and South America, East and West Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, components of Asia, and the Pacific. So if you happen to’re shopping for costly imported espresso from Italy, France, or wherever exterior of those areas, you’re doubtless getting fairly dangerous espresso (except you reside in Italy or France, that’s). That’s as a result of the best-tasting espresso is at all times roasted shortly earlier than it is consumed.

If your espresso beans say they’re from Ethiopia, that is the place they have been grown. But if the bag says they’re from someplace in Europe, it doubtless means the espresso was roasted there, and that is dangerous. Roasting brings out the flavors in espresso, however these taste compounds begin to break down shortly after they’re roasted. Coffee roasted exterior your locale has doubtless sat in a delivery container or cargo aircraft for a very long time. So when it arrives, all these flavors that make the espresso so tasty in a Parisian café have tremendously degraded.

That’s why my recommendation is to at all times purchase domestically roasted espresso beans and grind them at residence (with a burr grinder).

3. Dark Roasts Don’t Have More Caffeine

We usually hear that darker espresso is “stronger,” that means it accommodates extra caffeine, and that is not precisely true. When inexperienced espresso goes right into a roaster, it is actually simply roasted to completely different ranges of doneness—similar to your morning toast.

Blonde roasts are among the many lightest-roasted beans, and since they do not spend as a lot time cooking, they really contain more intact caffeine compounds than medium- or dark-roasted beans. Heat accelerates chemical interactions, which suggests it additionally breaks down caffeine compounds. So it stands to purpose that the longer a espresso bean is roasted, the much less caffeine it should comprise when it is floor up and brewed.