Buying coffee online means choosing without tasting. You cannot smell the bag or ask the barista what they are drinking this week. What you do have is the page in front of you, and a good page tells you a lot. This is the guide we would give a friend: what to look for, and how we try to get each part right at Swallow.

Start with where it comes from

A good coffee has a home. Not just a country, but a region, a farm and the person who grew it. When a page tells you all of that, someone has taken the time to know where their coffee came from, and they are proud enough to share it.

Take Flight 001. It comes from Finca Motta, a 4.6-hectare farm in Acevedo, Huila, Colombia, where Jefferson Adrián Motta grows a rare variety called Ombligón at 1,700 metres. We know his name, his land and how high his coffee grows, and we think you should too.

One thing worth knowing: where a coffee comes from tells you how it was bought, not who roasted it. It is the first thing to look for, not the only one.

Look at how it was grown and processed

What happens on the farm shapes what ends up in your cup. How the cherries were picked, how the fruit was handled and how the beans were dried all change the flavour. A page that skips this is asking you to take the coffee on trust.

Flight 001 was handpicked when ripe, processed using the yellow honey method and dried on raised beds. Leaving some of the fruit on the bean as it dries builds sweetness and body. In the cup, it tastes of coconut, clean and sweet.

Read the tasting notes closely

Tasting notes should say something specific. "Smooth and balanced" could describe almost any coffee. "Coconut, clean, sweet" tells you what to expect, and it gives the roaster something to live up to.

When we choose a coffee, we look for clarity and character. We want the kind of cup you still remember after you have finished it, not one that is simply pleasant.

Look for a range that changes with the seasons

Coffee is a crop, and like any crop it has seasons. Harvests come and go, and the best lots are often gone within months. A roaster whose range never changes is buying for consistency. A roaster whose range moves with the harvest is buying for character.

Our range is small, and it changes through the year as new harvests arrive and others run out. If something catches your eye on our coffee page, it may not be there next season.

Choose a roaster who explains itself

The best sign of all is a roaster who is happy to tell you how they work: where the coffee came from, how they roasted it and why. When the decisions are out in the open, you can trust them.

We choose our green coffee ourselves, roast each lot to its own profile and taste every batch before it goes out. From roastery to cup, every decision is ours. If you would like to see how that works in practice, we wrote about it in How Swallow Roasts.

Small batches are a good sign

The most special coffees tend to come in small amounts. One farm, one variety, one harvest. When it is gone, it is gone.

That is why some of our coffees go out as Flights: a single coffee, released in a small numbered run. The number on the bag reflects what the farm produced.

A quick checklist

  • Can you name the farm and the person who grew the coffee?
  • Does the page tell you how it was grown and processed?
  • Do the tasting notes say something specific?
  • Does the range change with the harvest?
  • Does the roaster explain how it works?

Try it with ours

We ship across Spain, Europe and the UK, so wherever you brew at home, you can put this guide to the test with our coffee. You can see everything we have right now on our coffee page, or start with Flight 001.

If you are ever in Alicante, come and taste it with us. You will find Swallow Specialty Coffee, Plaza del Carmen 13, Alicante, open every day from 08:30 to 16:30.