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What do coffee's flat beans, round beans, hard beans, and soft beans mean? Flavor characteristics of Panama's highest grade coffee

Published: 2026-05-14 Author:

Last Updated: 2026/05/14, As we all know, in addition to varieties, coffee beans have many different classification methods, so this gives coffee beans many aliases. For example, flat beans and round beans often shared by Qianjie are called by classification based on the appearance of coffee beans. There are many other nicknames! If you are here often

As we all know, in addition to varieties, coffee beans have many different classification methods, so this gives coffee beans many aliases. For example, flat beans and round beans often shared by Qianjie are called by classification based on the appearance of coffee beans. There are many other nicknames! If you often participate in discussions related to coffee beans online, you should have seen special nicknames such as "hard bean" and "soft bean." Yesterday, a friend asked this question when buying coffee beans at the Front Street Coffee Shop: What do the "hard beans" in coffee mean?

What do "hard beans" in coffee mean? In fact, Qianjie believes that when you see the name "Hard Bean", you already have a general guess in your mind, that's right! This refers to coffee beans with higher density. The earliest proposal of the term "hard beans" can be traced back to the coffee bean grading method in Central American coffee producing areas, because the hardness of coffee beans is divided according to the altitude at which they are planted, and then the grade difference is made. The higher the altitude at which coffee beans are planted, the higher the grade of coffee beans will be!

It is often shared on the front street. The altitude at which coffee beans are planted is one of the factors that determines the quality of coffee beans. The higher the altitude at which coffee beans are grown, the longer the time it takes for coffee beans to mature will become due to the greater temperature difference between day and night. A longer ripening time will allow the coffee beans to accumulate more substances, which will allow the coffee beans to develop a richer flavor. Therefore, these Central American producing areas did not follow the "old" size classification method, but used the planting altitude of the coffee beans to grade the coffee beans to be exported. The higher the altitude at which coffee beans are planted, the more material they accumulate, and the higher the density will naturally be. Therefore, there are differences between extremely hard beans, hard beans, and slightly hard beans in the altitude classification method.

When it comes to baking and brewing, the easier way to distinguish the hardness of coffee beans is to knead, pinch, and press with your hands. Of course, friends with better teeth can also bite with their mouths. Just what everyone needs to know is that judging the density of coffee beans during roasting and brewing is not to measure the quality of coffee beans, but has nothing to do with quality. The purpose of distinguishing the hardness of coffee beans here is to find the right parameters to be used during roasting/brewing., thereby "cooking" an ideal coffee.

Because everyone is exposed to more brewing, Qianjie here will share in detail the brewing parameters corresponding to coffee beans with different hardness. As Qian Jie mentioned in yesterday's sharing, the density of coffee beans is affected by many factors, including the roasting of coffee beans. The deeper the roasting of the coffee beans, the lower the density will be due to the expansion of the coffee beans. The easier the coffee beans with low density will be extracted, and vice versa. So when brewing, what we need to judge is the roasting degree of the coffee beans, and then use the corresponding brewing parameters according to their roasting degree to ensure that the coffee can get the right extraction rate, so as to make a cup of delicious coffee.

The deeper the roast coffee beans will be, the higher the crispness and lower the density, so they will be easier to break up and grind into powder, and then easier to extract. So when faced with coffee beans with less hardness, we can use parameters with slightly lower extraction efficiency to brew; on the contrary, the lighter the roast coffee beans, the higher the density, so they will be hard and grind. It is more difficult. When brewing this type of coffee beans, we need to use parameters with high extraction efficiency to ensure that they are fully extracted.

Take Qianjie as an example. Qianjie Yejia Shefei Fruit Tintin in the Qianjie Bean List is a high-hardness coffee bean grown in high-altitude areas and baked with medium and light intensity. The coffee brewed with it will have elegant aromas of white flowers, lemon, green tea, and berries. It has a light and full taste and a long aftertaste, which is very good. If we want to break out of these characteristics, then as Qian Jie said, we must use parameters with higher extraction efficiency! The parameters used in Qianjie are as follows: powder amount 15g, powder and water ratio 1:15, grinding degree 75%~80% of No. 20 sieve, brewing water temperature 92°C, extraction time 2 minutes.

If it is coffee beans that are easier to grind and are easy to extract because they are roasted deeply, for example, Qianjie bean list uses the deep-roasted Qianjie Queen's Estate Yellow Bourbon, then Qianjie will use extraction efficiency when brewing. Parameters with relatively low extraction efficiency prevent over-extraction! The parameters used in Qianjie are as follows: powder amount 15g, powder and water ratio 1:15, grinding degree of 70%~75% of the sieving rate of No. 20 sieve, brewing water temperature of 88°C, and extraction time of 2 minutes. The yellow bourbon from Qianjie Queen's Estate in Brazil boiled in this way has a very mellow taste, with a balanced taste and almost no acid. When drinking it, we can clearly feel the flavors of nuts, cream, chocolate, and caramel, which is very good.

The above is all the content shared by Qianjie this time! So the question arises. In addition to the classification methods mentioned in Qianjie above, do you know of any other classification methods for coffee beans?

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FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou China, selling freshly roasted beans from its own farm in Yunnan as well as dozens of carefully selected single-origin beans from around the world for both pour-over and espresso. The products deliver consistently excellent quality and great value, with shipping within 24 hours. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers, and the beans are now available online at the Tmall 。