Coffee beans that are best for your taste buds may be just around your neighborhood. When looking for a good cup of joe, you should first look into your local cafés. Perhaps, you should try one of the busy ones, since they will most probably serve you a fresh brew every time. From here, you may go on to try buying beans from grocery stores or even from an online catalog. Or, you may hop on to the next café that would interest you.

Small coffee shops, or micro roasters, who are devoted to brewing, sometimes have rare coffees that you won't find in any of the large chains in your area. Also, small shops tend to have more time to focus on quality of both product and service, while big coffee chains are burdened with the responsibility of expanding at a certain rate.

This is not to say that you should skip the large roasters. Starbucks, for instance, tries hard to integrate personalized service in their shops, no matter how rapid their expansion is. This multinational coffee company also has exotic coffee beans and even rarer blends, which they usually offer for a limited period. It should not be surprising for them, though, since they are expected to have an easy line to traders in origin countries.

Speaking of origins, you should remember not to judge by origins alone - at least, not before you taste them. You may not have liked the cup of Ethiopian brew the last time, but that does not mean every cup coming from the said origin will not be favorable to you. Coffees generally come from different regions of origin countries. You might have tasted one from Djimma, which leaves some medicinal taste in the mouth for some people. But you probably have not tried Ethiopia Yergacheffe or Sidamo that explodes with a good balance of floral and citrus notes. When excellently roasted, coffee beans from this region even give off a mysterious coconut-like flavor.

You should also consider how the roasting is done, since roasting plays a big part in the taste of the final product. Three aspects come into play here - the skill of the roaster, the equipment being used and how long has it been since the beans were roasted. Green beans are more stable than roasted beans, so it is essential that you get locally roasted beans for the best cup. Insist of freshly roasted beans. If the café does not know who roasted it or when, find a better barista. The remaining two aspects you have less control over. But don't write off a bad cup due to the types of beans. Try the same type of coffee elsewhere just in case the roaster did not get the best from those beans. If you don't like it a second time, look for another bean.

As you explore brews and roasts from different shops, you will also discover what you want to have in every cup. You might start to know your favorite brew and settle on that whichever café you go into. On the other hand, while you've found out the best variety of coffee beans for you, maybe you'll still decide to be adventurous and continue trying other flavors and origins.