The Best Single-Origin Coffee Beans

Allegro's pick of each year's Kenyan lots

Allegro, the roaster Whole Foods owns, calls its best Kenyan lots of the year "Grand Cru." Coffee Review has scored the coffee three times: 89 in 2003, then 93 in 2014 and 93 again in 2016, when its tasters found blackcurrant, blackberry, lavender and cocoa in a lot made mostly from SL28 and SL34. Allegro describes the current bag as red wine, blackberry and currant, roasted light.

The lot changes every year, so nobody can promise you the 2016 cup. What the scores do show is that Allegro keeps picking well under that name. At about $14 a bag, it's the cheapest coffee on this list with an outside score behind it.

Organic Colombian from three growers' groups

Jim's Organic Coffee says it has worked with the same growers for more than 20 years. Its Colombian comes from three partners: Montesierra in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Terra Verde, and Asoprocafees, more than 50 small farmers around Pitalito, in Huila. Which one fills your bag depends on the harvest. The coffee is washed and dried in the sun, then roasted medium.

Jim's describes it as deeply rich, with milk chocolate notes and some berry, and recommends it for drip, French press or pour-over.

Two kinds of Ethiopian in one bag

Groundwork roasts only certified organic coffee, in Los Angeles and Portland. On its own site this coffee is called the Heirloom Blend, and the name is honest: it mixes Ethiopian lots that were washed with lots that were dried in the fruit (natural), for depth and complexity. So it's one country, not one washing station. Groundwork describes citrus, dark fruit and milk chocolate, at a light roast.

Plenty of owners like it as a smooth cup that isn't bitter, in a pour-over and as espresso, and at about $1 a mug it costs two-thirds of the Café Grumpy.

Caramel and smoke from the Antigua valley

Antigua is a valley in Guatemala that sits between volcanoes, and Volcanica credits the young volcanic soil for its coffee. This is its Reserve: washed, dried in the sun, roasted dark and certified organic. Volcanica describes deep caramel, earthiness and smoke, a heavy body, a spicy edge and a sweet finish. If a dark roast with cream is your morning, this lets you keep the habit and still buy from one region.

One farm, from tree to bag

Kona coffee comes from the volcanic slopes of the Big Island of Hawaii, and Blue Horse is a farm there that does every step itself: it grows the coffee in the shade, picks it by hand, washes it with rainwater, dries it in the sun and roasts it. The bag says 100% Kona, not a blend. Blue Horse roasts it a shade darker than medium and describes fragrant floral notes, almond, vanilla and a soft bitterness that lingers.

The farm points out that its beans look matte, without an oily shine, and that this doesn't mean they're stale. The zip bag is vacuum-sealed; Blue Horse asks you to press the air out each time you close it.

Rwanda, for about $6

Rwanda grows arabica in its hills, and this is the Amazon house brand's bag of it: whole bean, sold as a light roast with citrus and floral notes. At roughly 35 cents a mug it's an inexpensive way to find out whether coffee from one country tastes any different from your usual blend.