BellaJava Senior Member Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 432 Location: Jacksonville, FL Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Livia 90 Auto Grinder: Mazzer Mini Vac Pot: Silex, Cory, Hellem, Cona,... Drip: Chemex Roaster: Alp, FR+, HWG
Posted Mon Jul 1, 2002, 10:18am Subject: Best source of beans?
Currently I'm buying my green beans from Sweet Marias and have been very pleased with the product. Just wanted to get some opinions as to other places to find quality greens. I've had some bad experiences in the past, mostly poor quality beans but often I've gotten a high percentage of foreign material in the bags (twigs, rocks, BUGS, etc). Since switching to SM I've gotten consistently clean, quality beans.
The owners of all these sites are very knowledgeable and nice people, who've helped many become proficient home roasters. None carries as many beans as SM, but they all carry the highest quality, and they all have some varieties that SM doesn't carry.
Their prices are about the same as SM.
There are other good sources, but I haven't dealt with them.
In addition, I've been very fortunate to find a local roaster who will sell me any green they have for 50% of the roasted price (pound for pound - so if they do Kenya AA for $12.95 Cdn, they will sell the green for $6.50 a lb cdn, or about $4USD).
BellaJava Senior Member Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 432 Location: Jacksonville, FL Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Livia 90 Auto Grinder: Mazzer Mini Vac Pot: Silex, Cory, Hellem, Cona,... Drip: Chemex Roaster: Alp, FR+, HWG
Posted Mon Jul 1, 2002, 7:39pm Subject: Re: Best source of beans?
Thanks to all... I'll check into some of the other sources. It's kinda hard to stray from SM, since I've been roasting just about every other source has had some problem, ie. quality or customer service or shipping.
My Alp is the version "1.0" and it's notorious for being inconsistent, but it's the best (IMHO) on the market. Can't wait for the HotTop! As it is, I roast every other day now, even with the larger capacity of my Alp as compared to my starter, the hot air popper.
Sweet Marias and coffeewholesalers.com are the only two that I've tried so far and I'm more than happy with both of them. Thanks, Roxie, for the coffeemaria recommendation. I've seen auctions by chaola on Ebay but haven't bought anything. Now I'll be confident of the quality.
Posted Thu Jul 11, 2002, 2:27pm Subject: Re: Best source of beans?
I have ordered about 90 pounds so far from Southern Heritage (http://www.heritage-coffee.com/GreenCoffeeOfferings.htm). They have a 30 pound minimum order (in 5 pound increments). Much of their coffee is under $2 a pound.
I may be trading quality for quantity - would be interested in anyone's comparison of Heritage with the other vendors mentioned so far. The only other place I have ordered much from is the ever-high-quality Sweet Marias.
Fred
"Give a man fresh-roasted coffee and he'll drink like a king for a day. Teach a man to roast and he will drink like a king for a lifetime."
jim_schulman Senior Member Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 3,772 Location: Chicago Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Thu Jul 11, 2002, 2:36pm Subject: Re: Best source of beans?
FredLanger Said:
I have ordered about 90 pounds so far from Southern Heritage (http://www.heritage-coffee.com/GreenCoffeeOfferings.htm). They have a 30 pound minimum order (in 5 pound increments). Much of their coffee is under $2 a pound.
I may be trading quality for quantity - would be interested in anyone's comparison of Heritage with the other vendors mentioned so far. The only other place I have ordered much from is the ever-high-quality Sweet Marias.
Posted Thu Jul 11, 2002, 3:13pm Subject: Re: Best source of beans?
FredLanger Said:
I have ordered about 90 pounds so far from Southern Heritage (http://www.heritage-coffee.com/GreenCoffeeOfferings.htm). They have a 30 pound minimum order (in 5 pound increments). Much of their coffee is under $2 a pound.
I may be trading quality for quantity - would be interested in anyone's comparison of Heritage with the other vendors mentioned so far. The only other place I have ordered much from is the ever-high-quality Sweet Marias.
Hi Fred,I ws going to post on this,but didn't. I'm glad you did! Last mid Oct,I ordered 30lbs,liked what I got,& ordered 70 lbs more. I recently did a full burlap bag purchase of Aspinwalls "Malabar Mellows", monsooned malabar for myself & Toronto area alties. I mentioned it in a post under "A Melange Blend" with a picture,& links to the Indian company that produces it. I was getting excellent comments from the alties I sold to. Everyone's taste is different,& rating a coffee is very arbitrary. On a scale of 1-10,the monsooned Malabar is (my rating) & I was told, about a 7. What varietals did you get?, as I could then elaborate more. I understand your thinking on this, as of more of a commercial grade(generic grade)of quality. I currently have 17 varieties.
Posted Thu Jul 11, 2002, 4:15pm Subject: Re: Best source of beans?
CraigA Said:
I recently did a full burlap bag purchase of Aspinwalls "Malabar Mellows", monsooned malabar for myself & Toronto area alties. I mentioned it in a post under "A Melange Blend"
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