wideasleep1 Senior Member Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 1,057 Location: Sausalito,Ca Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: VBMDoubleDomo Grinder: Mahlkoenig K30 Vario Vac Pot: nope Drip: Bodum Press Roaster: IR1 and 2,SC/TO,Behmor
Posted Mon Jun 22, 2009, 9:27pm Subject: Re: Green paint/dye found on green beans
nennafir Said:
I commend the OP for being so circumspect about who they bought it from. I'd probably be announcing their name to everyone, but I think the approach of the OP is much more responsible.
OP told us enough to discover for ourselves. ;) I have, and will continue to frequent this supplier, and I DO hope they accept returns on what a customer may feel to be unacceptable contamination, so I'm interested in the disposition of OP's request. I believe he will have no problems. :)
SL28ave Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 796 Location: Rockville, MD Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso Drip: Technivorm
Posted Mon Jun 22, 2009, 9:27pm Subject: Re: Green paint/dye found on green beans
A blue, green and white painting of Mount Kenya on bulk sisal Kenyan bags sometimes gets on some beans. I don't know what the "paint" is made out of. Jeengak, roughly what percentage of the beans are marked by it? One of the many problems with permeable packaging.
SL28ave Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 796 Location: Rockville, MD Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso Drip: Technivorm
Posted Mon Jun 22, 2009, 9:45pm Subject: Re: Green paint/dye found on green beans
Taken from the Kenya page of Sweet Maria's:
"Colored Kenya Coffee??? Sometimes you will see a bright color on an Auction Lot Kenya coffee seed. Kenya coffees are milled and assigned lot numbers during the auction process, before the winning bidder is known. Then they us chalk and a stencil to mark the bags with the winner's information. So you are seeing a little colored chalk, not ink, that made it through the weave of the bag onto the coffee. Roast 'em or remove 'em - they do not affect the cup, and are not harmful to health in any way. -Tom" http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.africa.kenya.php
Color in some foods might well be "natural" but I let my peeks do the walking in the snack food aisle at the local tienda and FD&C #5 and #6 Yellow and FD&C #40 Red seem to be the dominant coloring ingredients in orange ones I looked at. They are probably safe as roasted cockroaches but you know.....
On the first run at picking through the 5Lbs was around 46 grams and a second run came out with another 23 grams so a total of 69grams. Third-world countries and paint just screams "LEAD!" to me. A few $ aint worth putting my health a risk. With that in mind, the beans will be worm food when i get around to it.
Iv been in contact with the vendor and had asked him about returning them for a refund or exchange. His reply was that they dont take returns on beans thats been out of their control but he will refund me on the beans. Which is a good sign that they dont resell returned beans. Its been a couple of days and I have yet to see a credit on my card.
SL28ave Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 796 Location: Rockville, MD Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso Drip: Technivorm
Posted Thu Jun 25, 2009, 3:17pm Subject: Re: Green paint/dye found on green beans
jeengak Said:
On the first run at picking through the 5Lbs was around 46 grams and a second run came out with another 23 grams so a total of 69grams. Third-world countries and paint just screams "LEAD!" to me. A few $ aint worth putting my health a risk. With that in mind, the beans will be worm food when i get around to it.
Thanks for doing that!!! I think that's 3% by weight. Probably more than 100 beans. I've never seen nor heard of such a high concentration. I hope to look more into this some day (I'm like a kid who wants to be an astronaut, and Kenyan coffee is space). For now I won't touch the lead concern with a ten foot pole. In general, I put a lot of trust in Tom Owens, though he was probably speaking of a much lesser concentration of marked beans.
This should NOT deter anyone from continuing to drink Kenyan coffee. It'd be your big loss.
wideasleep1 Senior Member Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 1,057 Location: Sausalito,Ca Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: VBMDoubleDomo Grinder: Mahlkoenig K30 Vario Vac Pot: nope Drip: Bodum Press Roaster: IR1 and 2,SC/TO,Behmor
Posted Sat Jun 27, 2009, 12:09pm Subject: Re: Green paint/dye found on green beans
Breeze Said:
Color in some foods might well be "natural" but I let my peeks do the walking in the snack food aisle at the local tienda and FD&C #5 and #6 Yellow and FD&C #40 Red seem to be the dominant coloring ingredients in orange ones I looked at. They are probably safe as roasted cockroaches but you know.....
After that bit of research, I was very surprised...cheese isn't orange! That sharp chedder in my fridge isn't truly orange. We associate the color orange with cheese, yet it's annatto, not cheese, that is orange. I need another triple just to wrap my head around this new reality! :P
jeengak Senior Member Joined: 18 Jun 2009 Posts: 6 Expertise: Just starting
Posted Sat Jun 27, 2009, 5:08pm Subject: Re: Green paint/dye found on green beans
Just to let everyone know, I'v just received a full refund on the painted/dyed beans. Took a few days but it finally came through. All in all it was pretty painless dealing with the vendor. Will I buy from this vendor again in the near future? Very likely....Hes got "Thumbs up" from me when he said they dont take returns to resell, which is a sign of quality to me. Ill probably have to put a foot note with my orders next time and request "No Dye"
If it's the vendor I think it is, he's got thumbs up from me too. The level of customer service I've received is well above my expectations - well above my hopes, even.
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