Sourcing good green coffee in small quantities
So. thus far in my ~2 weeks of being open, i'm really happy with the roaster, and i like his coffees a lot. he gets coffee via royal importers NY and is very much in line with my coffee philosophy - roasting exactly what the bean needs and always up for experimentation. at the moment we have a sumatra, a natural processed sidamo, a single farm colombian (mesa de los santos / bucamaranga) and a peru norte. the sidamo has been a big hit, and he gave us a kilo he'd taken a little darker to blend into our espresso, and it was really nice on the pourover bar. i haven't blended up espresso with it yet.
the problem is this - i want to know more about where the coffee comes from (i know with the colombian, the others i don't). but take the sidamo - even intelligentsia's website has their "sidama" as being sourced from the "sidamo zone," with 500m variation in altitude, which is 100% unhelpful. especially considering they say they buy directly from farms / coops. i would love to get a bag or two of some cup of excellence coffees and roast them over a couple months, but i don't know where to begin. the cup of excellence website has all lots going for like $20,000 (seems like they're auctioning the coffee off at once, and not by the bag?). i understand that both my roaster and i are small time, but buying a 69kg bag at $8-9 USD a kilo isn't totally out of the question if we can stretch it out and push the coffee over two months. buying a $20,000 lot is, of course, out of the question.
so, to you roasters out there - how do i get a single bag of green coffee with good information on where it's from and good recommendation on its quality? thanks in advance.
the problem is this - i want to know more about where the coffee comes from (i know with the colombian, the others i don't). but take the sidamo - even intelligentsia's website has their "sidama" as being sourced from the "sidamo zone," with 500m variation in altitude, which is 100% unhelpful. especially considering they say they buy directly from farms / coops. i would love to get a bag or two of some cup of excellence coffees and roast them over a couple months, but i don't know where to begin. the cup of excellence website has all lots going for like $20,000 (seems like they're auctioning the coffee off at once, and not by the bag?). i understand that both my roaster and i are small time, but buying a 69kg bag at $8-9 USD a kilo isn't totally out of the question if we can stretch it out and push the coffee over two months. buying a $20,000 lot is, of course, out of the question.
so, to you roasters out there - how do i get a single bag of green coffee with good information on where it's from and good recommendation on its quality? thanks in advance.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keaton Ritchie on
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Intelligentsia has so little information on offer about their Sidama right now because it's this years crop and the Ethipian Commodity Exchange has really been wreaking havoc with all of the work a lot of quality oriented roasters have put into traceing their coffees. (Most ethiopian coffee is now being graded and sold as lots eg: Yergacheffe Grade 2, without traceability to a mill or farm). The nature of coffee farming in Ethiopia, as I understand it, is much smaller scale than in, for example Brazil. You can't trace a coffee back to a single farmer or a large estate because much of the coffee is collected from very small scale growers, who do not produce coffee exclusively or in large quantities.
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Permalink Reply by Branden on
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I'm not sure if you're looking for different importers/ roasters, but I know that Cafe Imports has a great deal of information on most all coffee they carry. I'm not sure if they offer there coffee roasted already or if its all green.
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Permalink Reply by Jesse Bladyka on
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Royal has a fair amount of info on their website for some of their coffees. They are also very helpful if you ask, they certainly know where their coffees come from. If you're looking for something smaller, I highly suggest http://www.coffeeshrub.com/ Great folks, great coffee, small quantities.
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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on
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excellent suggestions so far, i emailed the links to the roaster and we'll see what he thinks. this is the stuff i really dig - i'm never going to be able to taste every coffee but having specific information about the coffees i do taste helps so much. seems like we have such a long way to go until the distribution chain from farms to roasters is equal to the standard of 3rd wave shop preparation.
do most of you roasters use coffeeshrub and café imports? or royal? i might give royal a call and see what they say about the coffees we have on hand as well, just so i can better prepare them and explain to the customers what they're drinking
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Permalink Reply by Ben Cram on
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Atlas in Seattle. Craig is a q grade trainer and one of the more knowledgeable coffee guys I've met. Also Zephyr, (I deal with the Seattle office.) I haven't tried shrub but I like the concept.
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It is really hard to get reliable info on Ethiopian coffees due to the ECX. (ethiopian commodity exchange) Lots of articles on this on coffeed.
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awesome, great info. and zephyr will have el injerto next year! if i was a millionaire i would buy so much damn coffee
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Almost forgot Organic Products Trading (optco) Smaller offerings but good people and they get some good coffees in.
I have also read great things about sustainable harvest but haven't ordered.
Getting a box of new samples from any of these places is like Christmas morning.
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Permalink Reply by Alun Evans on
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Hello Jared...you read my Papua Blog on Arabica from the Baliem Valley? If you are interested you could ask your roaster to contact me about coffee from this area. It is totally direct traded- sustainable and traceable...right down to the growers who picked each specific block of trees. Sadly though we are not talking huge volumes...or maybe I should not say sadly!?!
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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on
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Cafe Imports
Cafe Imports
Currently they don't have any COE coffees but they will sell as small as 25lb bags of COE's
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Permalink Reply by Joe Marrocco on
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Atlas and Cafe Imports both do AMAZING jobs. Coffee Shrub is also amazing and more geared toward small roasters that are not buying much coffee. Also, I'm sure you know this site, I hope you know this site: sweet maria's is where it is at!! You can buy as little or as much as you want. There is a massive selection. But, the key to this site, (Which is tied to Coffee Shrub) is that it is filled with tons of info. All of these companies are more than a good start. Royal and Zephyr definitely have there place in the specialty world too. Good luck!
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