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renatoa
03/29/2024 1:55 AM
Soubriquet and kaicee18, welcome to forum

renatoa
03/25/2024 12:38 PM
coffee drink, Ramper?

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03/23/2024 3:02 PM
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03/21/2024 5:10 PM
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In Memory Of Ginny
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Where to get budget greens
DocZ
It seems to me the place to get cheap greens would be from an importer. One that is close enough to a warehouse to be able to drive down and pick up. Each bag weighing about 134-155# would require roughly 20 ppl committed to buying +/- 7.75#?s, plus incurred cost of travel gas and shipping.
I have never bought wholesale greens or greens at all for that matter so I?m not sure of any cost. But what I do know is at $16.00# roasted I will need to drive that cost down. So is there or will there be any significant saving?s in setting something like this up?
 
seedlings

Quote

DocZ wrote:
It seems to me the place to get cheap greens would be from an importer. One that is close enough to a warehouse to be able to drive down and pick up. Each bag weighing about 134-155# would require roughly 20 ppl committed to buying +/- 7.75#?s, plus incurred cost of travel gas and shipping.
I have never bought wholesale greens or greens at all for that matter so I?m not sure of any cost. But what I do know is at $16.00# roasted I will need to drive that cost down. So is there or will there be any significant saving?s in setting something like this up?


You're exactly correct- and this is my main method for acquiring beans. Depending on origin, current prices are between $2.75 and $4.75 per pound the last time I checked. $4 is a good ballpark guess if you are buying good (not COE) beans. So you're looking at spending $4 x 132# or $4 x 152# so that's $528-$608 outlay in advance, which is always the hardest part for me. I ask for $.50/lb to cover my time and materials, which means I get 15 or 20# of beans for my time. The other frustrating part is lack of variety... but that can be overcome by different roast profiles, especially this last Harrar. Call the importer and talk with the reps. Ask them what coffees they like. My experience is they'll tell you if a bean is worth getting.

CHAD
Edited by seedlings on 12/06/2011 9:55 AM
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
DocZ
But when you say varietywhat do you mean? I look at this http://www.royaln...isting.php and there seems to be a lot of variety more than I would know where to start. What is it ppl are looking for?
Edited by seedlings on 12/06/2011 12:48 PM
 
seedlings

Quote

DocZ wrote:
But when you say varietywhat do you mean? I look at this http://www.royalny.com/cube/listing.php and there seems to be a lot of variety more than I would know where to start. What is it ppl are looking for?


I mean for you to have variety in your stash you need to buy several $600 bags of coffee.

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
DocZ
wifey wont like that!:@
 
atalanta
I was looking at royal coffee because I would want to be able to justify filling the trunk of my car with coffee (or bribe my friend to drive her truck).

I've gotten greens on eBay, believe it or not. I'm currently roasting some decaf columbian that I was lucky enough to win for about $4.00/lb (with $40 shipping). It was a 35kg bag.
 
roybwilliams
I just bought some Nicaragua SHB EP on ebay. 16 lbs. came to about $3.85 per pound including shipping. I haven't received it yet so I don't know if it's any good, but for the price I thought I would give it a try.
 
gumyppah
Happy Mug Coffee breaks down bags for small roasters and home roasters. http://happymugco... until you can justify ordering full pallets of green coffee.
 
snwcmpr
Brasc Coffee importers has "Red Harvest" for home roasters.

Ken
--------------
Backwoods Roaster
"I wish I could taste as well as I wish I could roast."

As Abraham Lincoln said "Do not trust everything you read on the internet".
 
MassWineGuy
Have you heard of Bodhi Leaf? A fellow home coffee roaster told me about them yesterday. They're a full-fledged importing company in California. They sell beans from their own Website, but their eBay listings are especially nice. Good variety. Free shipping, too:

http://stores.eba...ingcompany
 
ginny
Yes, and I like them but I think their website is difficult and they do not give spot on descriptions of the beans.

This is one of the reasons I will always go to Thom and Maria at Sweet Maria because all of the information you want is right there and easy to access.

If you click on a bean at Bodhi you can buy or not. There is no information about the bean. If you click their view details, you get zip...

Actually I take that back, on some you get information, if I cannot get information and date on all bean crops I have issue. How old is the bean?

Why not give all of the information on all of the beans you sell?

If you are the new kid on the block and not used to buying your favorite bean this is not the place for you in my opinion.

ginny

there price compatible with most good bean sources.

their site:

http://www.bodhil...com/about/
 
ciel-007
The best price I have found online for green beans (including shipping) was $3.99/lb. Armed with that information, I proceeded to ask a few local commercial roasters if they would consider matching that price. One of them, said he would supply my needs at $4.50/lb. So far, I am very pleased with the quality, and the rapport that we have developed.

The moral of the story...? If you take the time to look around, you may be surprised at just how many commercial roasters there may be within driving distance from you home. It may take a bit of time to seek them out, but it's well worth the quest. Don't forget to look for suppliers that may be hidden from sight in the back of some nondescript commercial/industrial parks.

In my experience, budget priced beans does not mean low quality beans. I have paid over $20/lb for so called "high quality" roasted beans... and the espressos I pulled from them don't hold a candle to those greens costing me a mere $4.50/lb that I roasted at home.
Ciel... seeking Heaven in my cup with ................................................................................................................. EXPOBAR Brewtus II - MAZZER Mini E - MAHLK?NIG Vario - GeneCafe - RAF-1 Extreme (Modified B-2 HOTTOP) - BellaTaiwan XJ-101
 
ginny

Quote

budget priced beans does not mean low quality beans


Quote

The best price I have found online for green beans (including shipping) was $3.99/lb. Armed with that information, I proceeded to ask a few local commercial roasters if they would consider matching that price. One of them, said he would supply my needs at $4.50/lb. So far, I am very pleased with the quality, and the rapport that we have developed.


I have not suggested that budget beans mean inferior/low quality beans. I read the question as asking where a member could find good beans at a fair price.

If a new roaster asks me that question I must send them to a place where they can read about a bean.

The moral of the story is look around locally and if you have a roaster ask to buy greens. Try them. If there is no local roaster around buy from a supplier that will tell you where the bean came from, when the crop was harvested. If they do not pass...

Once you have gotten your feet wet and tried a few beans you will have some idea of your taste and what you liked and did not...

Buy your first beans just to have some beans and to try different greens. Buy your next beans based on what you learned from the first batches...

Do not count on anyone or anything but your taste, period.

If it tastes good to you that is all that matters...

ginny
 
ciel-007
Ginny,
such choice words...
and such convincing tone...
can only mean one thing:
You will be absolutely BRILLIANT
during your upcoming interview for Living The Country Life.
Good luck to you, Ciel
Ciel... seeking Heaven in my cup with ................................................................................................................. EXPOBAR Brewtus II - MAZZER Mini E - MAHLK?NIG Vario - GeneCafe - RAF-1 Extreme (Modified B-2 HOTTOP) - BellaTaiwan XJ-101
 
Smksignals

Quote

ginny wrote:

Yes, and I like them but I think their website is difficult and they do not give spot on descriptions of the beans.

This is one of the reasons I will always go to Thom and Maria at Sweet Maria because all of the information you want is right there and easy to access.

If you click on a bean at Bodhi you can buy or not. There is no information about the bean. If you click their view details, you get zip...

Actually I take that back, on some you get information, if I cannot get information and date on all bean crops I have issue. How old is the bean?

Why not give all of the information on all of the beans you sell?

If you are the new kid on the block and not used to buying your favorite bean this is not the place for you in my opinion.

ginny

there price compatible with most good bean sources.

their site:

http://www.bodhil...com/about/


Ive won a couple of Bodhi Leafs auctions and have been semi impressed... I got some El Salvador and Colombian that has roasted and tasted well. When I email them on the bean age or self life they said quote "If you store them properly -- they are good for 3-6 months." Ok.

I recently won some Brazilian Bob-O-Link and am not to impressed. Lots of different been sizes. Small, reg size, peabearry's. Seems like more defects than my other auctions. And they roast horribly. Scorched, blotchy, uneven, light, dark ect...

I am pretty new to roasting. I use a SC/TO and my roasts have been coming out very nice accept for these Bob-O-Link beans. If someone experienced wants a pound or 2 let me know. I am curious as to what you think? Or you can let me know if I am crazy... PM your details and Ill get,em out.

Thanks.
Edited by Smksignals on 04/14/2013 3:15 PM
 
ginny
Bob-o-link is usually a blend of different beans...hence the different size etc of the beans. I often wonder what some beans are "up for auction."

It is clear a way to get ride of what is not selling or older beans.

I buy from many different place but if a seller cannot tell me when the bean was harvested they can keep them...

My money goes to the seller big or small who will graciously give me/or one who posts the information about any beans they sell.

It is a buyer beware when you buy a batch that you have no real information about.

Quote

When I email them on the bean age or self life they said quote "If you store them properly -- they are good for 3-6 months." Ok.


while the above is quite true it still tells you NOTHING about the real age of that bean and as far as I am concerned that is bad business and I would not deal with them unless the beans I buy have information attached.

That's just me and how I buy beans. If you look around the net for suppliers to home roasters for greens there are hundreds now and unless you have some frame of reference from another roaster or about a particular bean it can be a crap shoot.

Let's put out a call to members again for their favorite places to buy either a pound or two or in bulk.

thanks for you post,

ginny


rockon
 
snwcmpr
I get Bob-O-Link from Red Harvest (A Member Here) in Greenville, SC. I am very happy with it. I don't bid, I get fresh, maybe the auction was old stock.
And I buy from my local roaster, I think he gets most from Inter American & Brasc.
I also get beans from SM, of course.

Ken in NC
--------------
Backwoods Roaster
"I wish I could taste as well as I wish I could roast."

As Abraham Lincoln said "Do not trust everything you read on the internet".
 
JimH
The green bean supplier you choose should be influenced by the way you buy and consume your coffee. Do you buy 20 pounds of the same coffee and want to maximize the quality of that one bean? Do you want to drink a different coffee every day and never buy more than 2 pounds of the same one? Do you want to experiment with different roasts, or would you rather someone gave you a suggested roast and a description of what to expect? Do you want to buy the same coffees every year, or buy whatever is tasting good this year?
Answering those questions will tell you who best fits your needs.

Sweet Maria's is great with descriptions and suggested roasts. If I were buying 10 pounds purely on the description given, SM is the place to buy. Also, they buy whatever is good this year, and frequently in quantities small enough to sell out quickly.

Burman usually has slightly lower prices and carries the same beans year after year, but the descriptions are a little spotty. Another positive is that Gary Burman seems to choose pretty well, just like SM. You will rarely get a bean that is truly disappointing.

If you want auction lot coffees, Roastmasters is the place. They go out to get some great coffees, but they price them accordingly. Their descriptions also seem to be very accurate, a major plus in my book when I'm paying $15 a pound.

I recently tried Bodhi Leaf, and I was pleased with the experience. The lack of description is a little off-putting, but they really seem more about selling in quantity than at the retail level. I decided to buy a single pound of 13 different coffees, and only reorder in larger quantities on the ones I liked. Out of the 13, 2 were great values, 3 were very good, 5 were average, 2 were bland and disappointing, and 1 was defective. The 2 that were great values were only about $4.50 a pound, so I'll be happy to order in larger quantities.

I've tried others but these are the ones I always seem to go back to. There are some I haven't tried yet, usually because their websites are hard to navigate or their prices seem unreasonable. A couple I have tried and was too disappointed to ever go back, at some point quality gets so low that it isn't worth paying anything for the beans. A couple are on the list to try when I get a chance, so please don't infer that if I didn't mention it, it must be bad.
 
MassWineGuy
I just won 16 pounds of Bodhi Leaf's El Salvador Honey Bourbon beans on eBay for $2.57 a pound shipped. I'll let you know how they taste once I roast some up.
 
JimH
They had more than one lot of the El Salvador Honey Bourbon. The one I tried tasted best (for me) with a relatively long time between 300f and beginning of first crack, finishing fairly quickly between city and city+. It had some great sweetness and very rounded stone-fruit flavors. Make sure not to rush it, my fastest roast was definitely my worst.
 
MassWineGuy
I'll do what I can with the temperatures given the limitations of my Poppery. Is that what tilting the roaster is for, prolonging the roast times?
 
JimH
With an unmodified popper there are a few things you can do to slow the roast. Tilting is one, stirring is another, both of these improve movement and allow more air to get past, slowing the roast and reducing scorching. Using a smaller batch will also help. You can combine these things with use of an extension cord. Best idea is to separate the heat from the fan in the popper, giving you separate control of air volume and heat. But that would be a discussion for another day...
 
ginny
Hey Wine Guy:

would you please post this popper stuff over in the popper forum, it will get lost here or other conversations will get lost and it can be confusing for new members.

http://forum.home...rum_id=121

thanks,

ginny
 
yantacaw

Quote

JimH wrote:


Sweet Maria's is great with descriptions and suggested roasts. If I were buying 10 pounds purely on the description given, SM is the place to buy. Also, they buy whatever is good this year, and frequently in quantities small enough to sell out quickly.

Burman usually has slightly lower prices and carries the same beans year after year, but the descriptions are a little spotty. Another positive is that Gary Burman seems to choose pretty well, just like SM. You will rarely get a bean that is truly disappointing.
.


jim, these are the two i most often buy from but it seems to me that with sm and burman have been coming much closer to meeting around the same price point - especially when buying at the 5# amount from sm. this makes it harder to justify buying as much from burman although they certainly have some great newsletter specials at the right price point. like you, i have never been disappointed with burman selections and can appreciate a certain consistency on that front. while i don't always get the flavors referenced in sm reviews, i have certainly had some dazzling beans come from them. i have also bought from happy mug and had good results with their ethio and yemens. i wish that they were more upfront in their descriptions of the crop year on the beans, however.

i haven't tried bodhi leaf. could you tell me which coffees really knocked you out?
 
JimH
I find myself agreeing with you that SM and Burman seem to be converging a bit on price. Partly it's because Burman raised their prices less when the C market spiked, which I definitely appreciated. SM has gotten back to their pre-spike prices, and the price differential is more than made up for by their superior information.

I purposefully didn't include the names of the beans that I thought were really good values because they go out of stock so quickly. More than half of the beans I tried 4 months ago aren't available anymore. The two I thought were the best values were from Guatemala, the Chixot and the Hunapu, but now they are getting a little old, and the new Guats are starting to come in. If you are a big fan of Ethiopian and Yemeni coffees, you might find them a little disappointing. I thought they were good because they were sweet, smooth and balanced, not because they were blockbuster fruit-bombs. I would describe them as elegant rather than exciting.

IMO, the best method for Bodhi Leaf is to buy a pound of each coffee that you want to try, then order in quantity the ones you liked best. If you look at their prices, they have the same price per pound for one pound as they do for twenty. If you follow any of their Ebay auctions, many of the coffees sell for about $4 a pound shipped (for 16 pounds.) It is worth it to me to pay for the small sample to be able to buy more with confidence, rather than depending on a description.
 
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