Guatemalan vs Tanzanian coffee: taste, roast and which to buy

Buy No. 7 Praxis (Guatemala) if you want a medium roast that tastes of dark chocolate and butterscotch and works in any brewer. Buy No. 9 Optimism (Tanzania) if you want something lighter, with pear, jasmine and strawberry, and you brew with a pour-over or an AeroPress. Both are $28 for 12 oz, so the choice is purely about taste.

How do Guatemalan and Tanzanian coffee compare side by side?

Both bags are fully washed and both come from high ground, so on paper they look close. The differences are in the roast, the varietals and the flavor notes the roaster prints on each label. Here is everything we can say about the two, straight from the bags.

Both coffees are roasted by Temecula Coffee Roasters in Temecula, California. The roaster does not print anything else about them that we would want to add, so we will not.

Which one tastes sweeter, and which one tastes brighter?

Read the notes column again. Praxis leads with dark chocolate and butterscotch, which are sweet, round flavors, and then adds bright fruit. Optimism leads with pear and florals, then jasmine and strawberry. If you like a cup that tastes like dessert, start with Praxis. If you like a cup that reminds you of tea or fruit, start with Optimism.

The roast level points the same way. Praxis is a medium roast and Optimism is medium-light. A lighter roast generally leaves more of the fruit and floral character in the cup, and that matches what the label describes. We are describing the labels here, not promising how your cup will taste. Your grinder, your water and your brew time all move the result.

Does the process change the cup?

Less than you might expect. Both are fully washed, which in general means the fruit is removed from the seed before drying. The only difference on the label is the drying: Praxis is sun dried, Optimism is dried on raised beds. We do not claim that this difference explains the taste gap. The roast, the varietals and the growing region all play a part, and the label does not tell us how much each one matters.

On the varietals, Praxis lists four (Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra, Typica) and Optimism lists two (Bourbon, Kent). Bourbon is the one they share.

How should you brew each one?

The roaster's own guidance on the labels is short and useful. For Praxis: any method, and brew it twice, once at 60 g per litre and once at 70, then keep whichever you preferred. That makes it a good coffee for learning what you like. For Optimism: pour-over or AeroPress, bright and tea-like, and drink it while it is hot, because it flattens faster than the others.

If you pick Optimism, our No. 9 Optimism brewing guide has three ways we make it, and what No. 9 Optimism tastes like goes through the cup in detail. We will not repeat those recipes here.

Who should buy which?

If you cannot decide, order one of each. With the subscription (11% off, skip or cancel in one click) you can keep the one you like and change the other. If you want to see how our Guatemalan label compares with a typical supermarket bag, read our Guatemalan coffee vs a supermarket Guatemalan bag. For more on Tanzania, see Tanzania coffee regions and what ends up on our bag, or compare it with other origins in Costa Rican vs Tanzanian coffee and Tanzanian vs Peruvian coffee.

See all ten coffees if neither one is quite right.

Chocolate and butterscotch or pear and jasmine: pick the sentence that made you hungry.