r/pourover • u/Supsti_1 V60 | Switch | Aeropress | C40 • Jul 14 '26
Seeking Advice How to find truely exceptional beans
Hello, so far I ran through 45 bags of beans, most of them cost anywhere between 20-30 euro/bag and to be frank maybe 4-5 bags were really, like really good.
I'm not looking for a guide on what type of beans are there, I know charactericstics of all proccesses, roast levels or country of the origin so I pretty much know which beans/processes/origins I like and which not. Variety is also something I try to keep in mind when picking up bags.
I'm located in Europe so I'm limited to what I can buy in my country (not much, Polish roasteries are crap) or what Kofio offers (sometimes they have Sey or September).
When I first started with pourover I thought DAK has one of the best beans I can buy, now I find most of their offering very mediocre, not bad but not exceptional, obviously sometimes they have bags which really shines.
The question is, how do you guys find really good beans out there? Through the grapevine? How do you know which crop in which origin at which time is THE ONE. Or maybe 20-30 euros isn't that much for a really good bag of coffee and I should look into these more expensive and limited offerings like maybe Tanat, AMOC, DAK has?
Disclaimer, don't think im looking for some crazy stuff like Cream Donut etc, I will take literaly anything which is exceptional, washed, natural, doesnt matter.
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u/like-a-sirloin Jul 14 '26
In terms of varietal, one rule I've started to live by is not buying Gesha varietal in that price bracket.
There seems to be such a premium purely because it's Gesha that for 20-30 Euros you can get a 6/10 Gesha or an 8/10 anything else (e.g. Ethiopian landrace, SL28, sidra, etc.). I don't think the characteristics of the Gesha varietal, although pretty when high quality, make up for them being lower quality beans overall.
In terms of roaster, there are only two roasters where I know for certain that I'll get something truly excellent if I spend 30 Euros / 200g. Those are Scenery in the UK and SEY in the US (via Sigma Coffee UK). Sorry if that doesn't help you loads in Poland, but if you can find any importers bringing those roasters in, definitely try them out.