How often do you get a poorly roasted batch of coffee when ordering from the "good" roasters (ie frequented on this site)? I think I've received three unusable batches from various roasters in the past 12 months and I'm wondering if this is unusual or par for the course.

The second to last problem was a few months ago from a roaster I had not tried before. I reached out to them and had an email conversation. They offered to send me another bean, and then I never heard from them again.

I just received an order last week from a roaster who's product I absolutely loved in the past, possibly my favorite blend, and as soon as I opened the bag I was concerned. One of the component beans looked incredibly light to me, and the batch had a grassy odor. I'm pretty sure the last few times I ordered I loved the blend from 3 days after roast @ 92C. This time I gave it 6 days rest, and it's still acidic and bitter up to 94C. I just sent them an email.

When I've run into these problems, other blends I have frozen on hand have been fine, so I'm relatively sure it's not my taste buds or my equipment. Do other people run into this on occasion, or have I won the booby prize? Any of the pro roasters out there, if you hear from people like me, do you think it could be a roast problem, or are we just nut jobs? I always do worry when and if I reach out to a roaster that it's just me.

At this point, i've had lots of coffee, and get some kind of defect in most bags I receive (I pretty much stopped buying light roasted coffees). More often then not I receive the 'light roast that trails off around 7 days post roast' thing.

It happens to me too. Two to three times a year is roughly how often I feed my compost a bag of coffee beans. I've learned that some local roasters seem to be more prone to this than others. I can understand that a roaster might sometimes miss the mark but I wish they had better QA habits. I can't control that so I've adjusted my buying habits accordingly.

Actually, never. Blue Star is a small roaster, Landgrove is small, and I haven't been to Red Bird yet in Bozeman.

If I did, I'd give them a ring and let them know. I think they all understand that competition in their market is intense. Without feedback, they don't know the full extent of the issue. The reason I buy their products is because they're great and see this information is an encouragement to do what makes me their customer.

I enjoy talking to head roasters and I have zero doubt that they'd bend over backwards to make it right.

jpender wrote:It happens to me too. Two to three times a year is roughly how often I feed my compost a bag of coffee beans. I've learned that some local roasters seem to be more prone to this than others. I can understand that a roaster might sometimes miss the mark but I wish they had better QA habits. I can't control that so I've adjusted my buying habits accordingly.

Thanks, at least I know I'm not alone and/or crazy.

brianl wrote:At this point, i've had lots of coffee, and get some kind of defect in most bags I receive (I pretty much stopped buying light roasted coffees). More often then not I receive the 'light roast that trails off around 7 days post roast' thing.

Interestingly, this last batch I received is more of comfort food blend, which is why I found it so odd to see one bean roasted so light. I wasn't sure it wasn't quakers at first, but I'm pretty sure it's simply one of the beans roast level.

It happens that's what made me start home roasting because I swear some guys hit the mark about as many times as I do with a Behmor.

NEVER!,
I don't have the grinder to tell the difference

Has happened to me once in a blue moon, I call the vendor and they always send a replacement.

The vendor is going to replace my order, but I still wish it didn't happen as much.