So, I've been having trouble getting a particular coffee to taste remotely good. It was freshly roasted, etc...I also noticed it has almost no aroma when grinding.

So for the heck of it I just ate a raw bean.. It tastes exactly how the brewed coffee does, well a little bit crunchier.

Could that mean it's not me and I just got a bad bag? Or is it crazy to expect a raw bean to taste similar to how the coffee should?

I always taste my beans, and I definitely can glean general information from it. Broad tastes or dominant flavors are fairly apparent, obvious gross roasting defects or bean defects are also apparent. I, however, have not developed the ability to discern much beyond general information.

They taste like saw dust or cardboard. I don't know anything about roasting, but wonder if they were bad greens??

They bloom like they were fresh roasted so I can't say they weren't..

You're chewing on raw coffee beans hoping to find out what roasted coffee should taste like?

He has to mean roasted beans from reading the context of his post. Hope so at least

Ok raw was a poor choice of words! They are roasted.

TomC wrote:You're chewing on raw coffee beans hoping to find out what roasted coffee should taste like?

haha. I have did have a natural Ethiopian fresh out of the bag that tasted of blueberry hints. Maybe it could serve as a poor mans way of measuring moisture content?

Eating a few roasted beans after a roast can give you an idea of how your coffee will taste. I've seen a video by Willem Boot in which he recommends this. Some roaster friends of mine and I do this and have noticed that it can tell you a bit about roast level and flavors.

Of course it's better to sample the coffee or cup it, but it's a nice simple way (along with grinding a small sample to smell) to get some immediate feedback on a roast.