Coffee Beans: Get the most out of your super-automatic coffee machine

To get the best possible coffee from your super-automatic coffee machine, you need to use high-quality coffee beans that are always well preserved.

How to tell if coffee beans are fresh:

• If you drop them on the floor, they bounce
• If you soak them in water, they float
• If you make a coffee, less than a finger's width of foam comes out

How to store it:

• Store in a cool, dry place away from light
• Vacuum-sealed glass, ceramic or plastic containers are ideal
• Coffee suffers from high temperatures and loses its aroma. If you cannot vacuum-seal the coffee, store it in the fridge.
• Allow it to reach room temperature before use and never use it cold. This could damage the grinder.
• Change the water daily, or if you do not make a lot of coffee, avoid filling the tank to the brim. Stagnant water can cause bad coffee. Use a water softener filter for models that have one.
• The water hardness should be around 9°F or 90mg/l.
• Use concave cups, ideally double-walled.
• Adjust the height of the dispenser as close as possible to the cup to improve the crema and body.
• Plastic cups degrade the taste of the coffee.

How to tell if coffee is of good quality

• It should not be oily.
• It should not show signs of ‘sweating’ or moisture.
• It should not be too dark (dark brown or blackish).
• It should not crumble when pressed between your fingers.
• The beans should be uniform in shape.

Regardless of the brand you buy, 90% of supermarket coffee is low quality and does not make the most of your super-automatic coffee machine.

A dark-coloured coffee indicates over-roasting, a practice carried out in roasting to try to cover up the defects of the beans by hiding them with a burnt and very bitter flavour.

There are various blends that may be more or less pleasant depending on your taste, and they usually differ in Arabica or Robusta or blends of the two in different proportions. Arabica blends are usually more expensive.

The Arabica blend has a more delicate and creamy taste, while the Robusta blend is more full-bodied and has twice the caffeine content by weight.
The beans can be of mixed origin or single origin; single origin coffees are usually of higher quality and more expensive.