Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on March 24, 2009 at 10:30am

I am a new (1 year) commerical roaster. My training included a wonderful roasting course with Mané Alves of http://www.coffeelab.com/
All that I have heard and read points to green coffee going "baggy" after about a year in storage at optimal conditions. The taste "baggy" is one that I did not get to experience durning our short cupping lessons which were targeting our roast of the day. If you have the chance do some cupping with the intent of tasting this with some old product.
Joe

Permalink Reply by Joachim Oster on March 25, 2009 at 10:40pm

We Kona coffee farmers had an interesting meeting with Jean-Nicolas Wintgens, the semi-god of coffee knowledge in 2008. He said that in his years at Nestlé they stored green coffee for up to three years without any loss of quality! This was very welcomed news to us farmers, because we were always suspicious that the local processors/buyers were pushing the 'this seasons beans' only. As this would make us farmers much more dependent to what price they offer and we can't store the harvest as parchment to the next season and wait till prices go up. So this points to a convenient ruse less educated and isolated farmers fall for, and in the world of commodity trading brings higher profits.

I had also put 3 seasons of my green beans (stored in parchment form under perfect temperature and humidity) to a cupping test and none of the cuppers was able to distinguish one from the other.

Decades ago Kona coffee was preferred as having been stored for 2 years and called 'Aged Kona', similar to aged Java beans. I can't imagine that somebody would prefer 'baggy', or 'moldy' or 'stale' coffee even then, because cuppings were done then too and the proper storage was difficult to achieve.

So let's put this as unfounded rumors to rest!

The other issue reg. split bags and high costs of premium coffees: You should be able to get great green beans from farms direct for a better price, and fresher. Be careful not to buy too much of expensive green beans at one time, because you will tie up your working capital! Liquidity is king in any business.

You can get easily from a Kona coffee farm 10 pounds of green in one shipment. Perfectly legal. Be careful that there is some certification in place! Order a pound for cupping and getting the right roast you like figured out. Once you gain trust with a farm you can call and order small amounts of green whenever needed. Our farm does this pretty successfully with a few roasters. Sadly some roasters and cafes talked about the pressure from their regular coffee brokers to buy ALL coffees from them, so they have to be secretive.

But I don't see why farms in Columbia, Puerto rico or so wouldn't do the same. Plus their individual story would give you an edge to promote it or start conversations with customers about single estate, single origin coffees.

Good luck, Joachim

Permalink Reply by Pangi on March 26, 2009 at 11:53am

Hey Joachim,

Thanks for the reply. Interesting stuff.
I like the idea of buying directly from farmers but have no idea how I would go about initiating that. Should I just research the names of some farms and contact them directly? I'm assuming by certification you mean an importing license. Could you tell me more about that?
Thanks again!
Paul

Joachim Oster said:

We Kona coffee farmers had an interesting meeting with Jean-Nicolas Wintgens, the semi-god of coffee knowledge in 2008. He said that in his years at Nestlé they stored green coffee for up to three years without any loss of quality! This was very welcomed news to us farmers, because we were always suspicious that the local processors/buyers were pushing the 'this seasons beans' only. As this would make us farmers much more dependent to what price they offer and we can't store the harvest as parchment to the next season and wait till prices go up. So this points to a convenient ruse less educated and isolated farmers fall for, and in the world of commodity trading brings higher profits.

I had also put 3 seasons of my green beans (stored in parchment form under perfect temperature and humidity) to a cupping test and none of the cuppers was able to distinguish one from the other.

Decades ago Kona coffee was preferred as having been stored for 2 years and called 'Aged Kona', similar to aged Java beans. I can't imagine that somebody would prefer 'baggy', or 'moldy' or 'stale' coffee even then, because cuppings were done then too and the proper storage was difficult to achieve.

So let's put this as unfounded rumors to rest!

The other issue reg. split bags and high costs of premium coffees: You should be able to get great green beans from farms direct for a better price, and fresher. Be careful not to buy too much of expensive green beans at one time, because you will tie up your working capital! Liquidity is king in any business.

You can get easily from a Kona coffee farm 10 pounds of green in one shipment. Perfectly legal. Be careful that there is some certification in place! Order a pound for cupping and getting the right roast you like figured out. Once you gain trust with a farm you can call and order small amounts of green whenever needed. Our farm does this pretty successfully with a few roasters. Sadly some roasters and cafes talked about the pressure from their regular coffee brokers to buy ALL coffees from them, so they have to be secretive.

But I don't see why farms in Columbia, Puerto rico or so wouldn't do the same. Plus their individual story would give you an edge to promote it or start conversations with customers about single estate, single origin coffees.

Good luck, Joachim