I was just grinding some beans and my grinder started struggling for a few seconds then finished as normal... When I checked the grounds, there was a white crystalline powder mixed in with the grounds - I couldn't tell what it was so I dumped the grounds and ran some more beans through the grinder which were fine...
I know I've had a couple of stones in my beans lately (which have pretty much done for the burrs on my el cheapo grinder), but I was wondering in your experience - how common are foreign objects in beans and should I realistically be checking them before loading them into my hopper?
I guess it's rare, but on the other hand it's also so common, that a lot of people report similar experiences. The question is whether you want to go through the pains of checking each and every batch of beans for stones or the like. I don't know anybody who does systematically.
*** "This drink of the Satan is so delicious that it would be a shame to leave it to the infidels." (Pope Clement VIII on coffee)
I really don't know how many beans there are in 250g and I've no real desire to find out - the last stone I had looked exactly like a coffee bean so I'd have to have inspected every bean individually to have found it and that's bordering on obsessive!
It's interesting that it's a common occurence.. I guess it's the nature of the product!
I have one piece of steel (looks like half the head of a nail), two 3mm diameter pebbles, 1 coffee bean sized stone. I've lost count but I'd guess I'm pushing past 150 roasts. These were all found (thankfully) during roasting - the steel piece made a "clank" into the chaff tray of my Behmor. The other two were found during cooling.
One of the pebbles (the large one was almost exactly shaped like a bean) came in a bag of Mexico Organic Chiapas from Sweet Marias. I'd expect this passed through all screening due to the similarity to other beans.
The steel and other two pebbles came from green coffee sourced from a local roaster that visits the farms they import from.
Almost forgot - I also got one small stone from a bag of Starbucks Sumatra a couple years ago - noticed it because I just happened to see it when weighing the coffee.
That's one advantage to making single cups of coffee or espresso - you do increase your chances of finding foreign objects.
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I tend to put enough beans in the hopper to grind a few double espressos - it works for me as a balance between convenience and maintaining the freshness of the beans, but it does mean that I pour beans from the bag straight into the hopper and therefore don't really inspect for foreign objects...
Thankfully I've never had anything like the head of a nail to deal with!
It's not uncommon for patio dried coffees (bits of detriorated broken bits of concrete patio), Sumatran coffees that are dried just about anywhere they can find, jungle floor, side of the road/s, etc. D.P. Dry Processed Ethiopian coffees.
I didn't catch if you were roasting yourself or not but as the others have said, stones happen (and other stuff too) Good roasters have destoners in their roasting setup to remove as much of the debris as possible. Buying from quality vendors, I have not had a stone etc yet. It may happen one day though!
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Feed the newbs, starve the trolls and above all enjoy what you drink!
I didn't catch if you were roasting yourself or not but as the others have said, stones happen (and other stuff too) Good roasters have destoners in their roasting setup to remove as much of the debris as possible. Buying from quality vendors, I have not had a stone etc yet. It may happen one day though!
I'm not roasting myself, but I do buy my beans from a reputable source... I've not found anything in my beans that didn't actually look like a bean, but I'd definitely worry if a nail (or even a finger!) turned up in my next pack!
qualin Senior Member Joined: 30 Jun 2012 Posts: 458 Location: Calgary, AB Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Izzo Alex Duetto 3 Grinder: Mazzer Mini Elect. Type A Vac Pot: Looking to buy Drip: Manual Roaster: Considering?
Posted Sun Sep 16, 2012, 11:07pm Subject: Re: Foreign objects in beans...
What is the worst that could happen anyway?
The burrs in the grinder get damaged and have to be replaced, or worst case scenario, the motor in the grinder gets jammed? (I would assume that the barista would notice the loud abnormal buzzing/humming sound coming from the grinder and would shut it off before the grinder started smoking.) Has that happened to anyone before?
I would think that roasting beans would be far more dangerous....
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