コーヒー豆

The price of commodity coffee is set on the New York Mercantile Exchange for Arabica and on the London Mercantile Exchange for Robusta.
The standard price for Arabica is cents per pound (about 453g), and for Robusta it is dollars per ton (1,000kg).
In reality, coffee importers and producer-exporters often make contracts to purchase a certain amount of coffee of a specific quality over a specific period, such as the next three years.
This is called a forward contract.

Major convenience store chains' huge distribution networks for coffee are supported by procurement from trading companies, but these primarily consist of commodity coffee.
Not only in convenience stores, but also in the regular coffee, instant coffee, and canned coffee sold in supermarkets, as well as much of the coffee served in cafes and coffee shops, all are commodity coffee.
Currently, the price of commodity coffee is determined by the New York Mercantile Exchange and, for some Robusta varieties, the London Mercantile Exchange.

Major convenience stores have a large number of stores, with Starbucks having 2,000 stores in Japan and 7-Eleven having 20,000.
Starbucks is a major cafe chain and has the largest number of stores in Japan, but the huge distribution network of convenience stores far surpasses even those of major cafe chains.
FamilyMart has 16,000 stores and Lawson has 14,000, so if each of these stores had a cafe, they would be the largest cafes.
The beans supplied to these stores by roasters are also on a large scale.

When you go to a coffee shop, you'll most likely find blended coffee on the menu.
Even the regular coffee sold in supermarkets often has the word "blend" in its name.
A blend is coffee made by combining beans from multiple origins and types.
Blending makes it possible to combine acidity, bitterness, richness, and aroma to create a flavor that can't be achieved with a single bean.
By blending beans from Ethiopia, which have a strong acidity, with beans from Brazil, which have a strong bitterness, it is possible to create a well-balanced flavor.

Single origin coffee is not a blend, but rather made using beans from a single country, region, or farm.
It can be referred to by country, such as Brazil or Ethiopia, by region, such as Alta Mogiana in Brazil or Yirgacheffe in Ethiopia, or even by farm, such as Farm Bau in Brazil or Farm Metad in Ethiopia.
In this way, single origin coffee is a style that celebrates the individuality of the place of origin.

Coffee is sold in both whole beans and ground form.

Ground coffee is originally beans that have been ground up.

With beans, you buy them, then grind them into powder and brew them yourself to drink.

Why are some coffees sold as whole beans and others as ground?

Beans stay fresher longer. Ground coffee increases the surface area, oxidizing faster and losing flavor and aroma more quickly.

Whole beans, on the other hand, help preserve flavor and aroma for longer.