#001 - Introducing Bean Base!
The Specialty Coffee database for coffee casuals & professionals alike
Published 20 March 2024 - 5 minute read
Hello Aficionado!
I am pleased to announce the initial release of Bean Base, a project I have been working on for the past 6 months. Bean Base is a filterable and sortable Specialty Coffee bean database, allowing you to quickly compare thousands of coffee beans side by side. For example, if you are a fan of washed Geshas, you can filter out “Gesha” varieties and “Washed” processes and voilà – you now have a list of beans fulfilling your deepest coffee desires.
The Beginning of an Idea
As my love of coffee grew, I started to have major frustrations with certain coffee roasters releasing and subsequently selling out on certain sought-after coffee beans before I could get my hands on them, never to be found again. If only there was some way or database that monitored these coffee roasters I thought. As any reasonable coffee addict would do, I scoured the internet for a solution and found multiple email newsletters and certain discord channels that did just that. I subscribed to them all… and unsubscribed after a few weeks. Let’s just say I was not very keen about the daily email and phone notification spam.
As a career engineer, what I really wanted was a good old fashioned spreadsheet. Just a big list of coffee beans, consistently updated with all the terroir, production, and tasting note information I could ever want. Straight up data baby. So, using Google Sheets I made just that, the coffee spreadsheet of my dreams.
How it works
Bean Base is quite literally a spreadsheet that uses Google Sheet import functions to extract the entire list of products from each coffee roaster’s website and filter out any new products. This process occurs a few times a week. Any new products are then added to a separate spreadsheet which I can view and revise before adding it to the main Bean Base database. No query spam and fancy coding required. The Bean Base database is then uploaded to the Loffee Labs website using WordPress plugins and then filter options were created for usability. I usually update Bean Base a couple times each week on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The filtering options of Bean Base are powerful and I challenge you to take advantage of these tools that I am personally quite fond of. Almost any combination of coffee bean qualities is searchable in Bean Base and you can get quite specific about what type of beans you want. I personally love searching for some of my favorite washed South American coffee bean varieties (Sidra, Gesha/Geisha, and Mejorado).
Coffee Roasters
The initial list of Coffee Roasters in Bean Base were chosen based on popularity on the Espresso Aficionado discord channel and partially my personal preference, but any future additions will be based on recommendations I receive from the community. At the minimum, these roasters need to be considered speciality and have regular single origin releases worth monitoring. If you have a coffee roaster you would like to see added to Bean Base, submit your suggestion here.
To see the full list of Coffee Roasters in Bean Base, click here.
Conclusion
Whether you are the casual coffee drinker looking for your next espresso blend, or the seasoned aficionado looking for the latest and greatest, Bean Base is made for you. When you find your coffee bean cellar growing empty, come to Bean Base to expedite your next coffee bean purchase. Bean Base will also continue to grow and get better over time so the next time you come to visit, check our update log to see the latest changes to Bean Base.
And finally, thank you reader for supporting this project. May your next cup of coffee be nothing short of extraordinary.