Lighten Up

Coffee's just another dried bean until roasting releases flavors and aromas. If you're like most people, you've probably been drinking a lot of dark-roasted coffee—the stuff Starbucks and Peet's made their mark with. But coffee connoisseurs prefer a lighter treatment that allows the bean's unique characteristics to shine through. There are four basic roasts: Light, for a softer color and taste; medium, which is darker and slightly stronger, and the most popular in the U.S.; medium-dark, which yields some oil on the surface and a slightly bittersweet aftertaste; and dark, where beans look oily and taste bitter. Ken Davids, editor of CoffeeReview.com and author of three books on coffee, advises against dark and extreme-dark roasts like French and Italian. "Extreme dark roasting destroys sugars in the bean," he says.

Handle the Grind

Since flavor compounds break down fast in ground coffee, coffee snobs prefer to grind at home just before brewing. If you choose to follow suit, blade grinders are popular and relatively cheap. But they can chip the bean into different-size pieces, leading to bitter or weak brew, maintains Kyle Glanville, who won the 2008 United States Barista Championship. Coffee connoisseurs insist on burr grinders, which create more uniform particles.

Know the Rich Joe

The white truffle of the coffee world? Expect to pay about $34 for a 12-ounce bag of Esmeralda Estate beans from Panama—if you can find it; the beans sell out almost instantly at retail. You can always try booking a table at the French Laundry, which serves Esmeralda Estate exclusively.

A Java Date

Coffee seems like one of those products that has an infinite shelf life. But Glanville cautions that roasted coffee will go stale after about 14 days, so buy only what you need. "If there's no roast date [on the bag], the retailer might have something to hide, like coffee that's not so fresh," he says. Store beans in an airtight container in a cool, dry spot—and that doesn't mean the fridge, which is full of moisture.

Take the Plunge

Sure, drip machines take care of business fast. But aficionados opt for slower French press plungers, which work by infusion. "It's the purest form of brewing," says Felice Aiello, barista at New York's Cafe Grumpy, which uses revered $11,000 Clover coffee machines to brew individual cups (Starbucks bought Clover's maker in March). Snobs also swear by vacuum brewing, which forces boiling water through a funnel of grounds, then back into a carafe for more intense flavor. Using a special stove-top kettle or an electric espresso machine, you can also brew creamy, foamy drinks. For most methods, Aiello advises 7.25 grams of coffee per five ounces of water. (Two level tablespoons will do fine.)

Choose Cool Beans

"Shade-grown" might sound like marketing-speak—think "handcrafted" beer or "steel-cut" oats—but Giuliano says shade-grown beans are worth seeking out. Lack of sunlight slows some of the biological processes in the plant and makes trees produce fewer cherries, which ultimately means sweeter, more-flavorful coffee. Trees grown on large-scale, industrialized coffee farms tolerate full sun but produce less-distinctive coffees.