I need good greens!

by **popeye** on Thu Jan 12, 2012 6:02 pm

It seems harder and harder to get exceptional greens these days. I think many roasters that used to sell green got bigger and no longer need the extra money and inconvenience. And while Tom always has plenty of greens available on sweet Maria's, the lack of a rating system over there means I'm often left looking for someone with plenty of experience on this site to post "whoa, good one here!".

Then the increase in the number off home roasters usually means a rush on those beans and they sell out in less than a week. So, let's do it again. Anyone roast some exceptional beans lately?

Tom, if you're reading this, have you given any thought to allowing feedback/ratings on your site? Maybe tying that in with home-barista users so I know that when a coffee is rated highly by Jim Schulman vs a new guy? (i.e. certain reviewers have more authority).

As it is now, i see Jim Schulman as the "Robert Mondavi of coffee". I snap up whatever he recommends.

Oh, and while I'm on this rant, I do like and use coffeereview.com. But finding those coffees green is going on an Internet scavenger hunt.

Maybe this will work: PM me about your best green coffee.

by **another_jim** on Thu Jan 12, 2012 6:59 pm

Thanks for the compliment. Tom is a respected cupper, much more so than me; but this does not mean that there won't be disagreements. While his brewing recommendations have always been good; I think his espresso recommendations have improved in the last few years. Before that, I had the impression he was more a dark roast guy for espresso; but now he's gotten much better at telling what will work at lighter roasts.

There's been an alarming trend for the best Kenyan and Ethiopian coffees to get stolen. The Nekisse theft affected a a group buy we were doing and the Coops plans; also, I've read reports of several more thefts of high end crops both in Ethiopia and Kenya. There have been quite a few good 90ish coffees from east Africa, but nothing truly mind blowing.

The big news this year has been SOs from Guatemala. They've featured prominently in the offerings of 3rd wave cafes for the last six months. The Finca Buenavista sold by Tom and the El Injerto sold by Marleton are both lovely SOs. These need to be roasted a little darker than usual, flirting with the first pops of the second; since the Bourbons are best at medium roasts. These are not exotic shots; instead they have the classic Central comfort food flavors of cherry, chocolate, and almond.

Oddly enough, I like SM's Limu Jimma Sekala more than any of the Sidamo offerings currently around, since this is close to the fruit and flower power of the best Sidamos from previous years. It is useless in anything except a light roast, and a little light bodied too boot; so it's a little tricky as an SO. But do it with a fine grind and low dose, and it's well worth the effort.

by **danetrainer** on Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:40 pm

popeye wrote:It seems harder and harder to get exceptional greens these days. I think many roasters that used to sell green got bigger and no longer need the extra money and inconvenience.

Klatch Roasting got on board with selling Greens in a big way this year, and I'm quite pleased with the 6 or so choices I have purchased. They have many direct relationship coffees, geisha's and a great variety of Centrals for you to enjoy and most were sourced with Espresso in mind.

Another source is Roastmasters, but choosing a varietal becomes more involved with suitability...these two (along with the El Injerto from Marlton) have been my fill-ins between COOP distributions this year.

by **another_jim** on Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:43 pm

Ditto on Pat's Klatch recommendation; PT's also sells some interesting greens

by **popeye** on Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:50 pm

Where do you fence green coffee? Wouldn't some guy going "psssst, you want some cheap nekisse?" be found pretty quickly?

In all seriousness, thanks for the recommendations. I've been pretty much buying from klatch and SM this past year. I never even heard of marletons until now, but it looks good.

I did catch the Guatemala finca la maravilla last year from SM and that was my all time favorite for SO espresso.

by **Arpi** on Fri Jan 13, 2012 7:00 am

Hi.

I just tried the SweetMarias Ethiopia Sidama Aleta Wondo and it is good (floral). I usually find Ethiopian coffees the best (for the buck) and depending on how they are roasted they surpass other more expensive coffees.

Cheers

by **danetrainer** on Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:39 pm

popeye wrote:I never even heard of marletons until now, but it looks good.

I did catch the Guatemala finca la maravilla last year from SM and that was my all time favorite for SO espresso.

I didn't have any previous experience with Marlton either, but, I had heard that the Injerto was outstanding this year...several months before it was shipped from origin. I had seen the Marlton name pop up before in auction results & a google search for the Injerto led me to them. I alerted Jim to cup it and he gave it the "thumbs up"...I mention all this so you have some caution on other offerings they have, as I haven't tried anything else.

by **jonny** on Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:32 pm

I would like to second Tom's recommendations. I have tried several of his espresso recommendations in the past year and I was never disappointed. Any mediocrity I found was likely due to my roasting abilities. I have also found the descriptions very helpful and pretty accurate as well in the instance when I am looking for a coffee that may not be everyone's cup of espresso but is "what I want" or for a blend component. I have even found that the descriptions improve my roasting and brewing by giving me a guideline to look for. So don't shy from these descriptions. Also, I look at prices. High prices tell me I'm either about to get ripped off or there may be a really good reason why the bean is expensive. This prompts further investigation and sometimes leads to a nice coffee. I bought Sweet Maria's Guatemala Acatenango Gesha on the premise of price and varietal, because I wanted to try it and it sounded good and I trusted Tom knew what an $18 pound should taste like. It was indeed good. A few more roasts and it may be fantastic. I don't think Tom ever sells a "bad" bean (unless stated as such) so if you are willing to buy perhaps 10 beans at a time, several espresso recommendations, and a good variety of profiles, at best you'll find a few good SOs that you might reorder, at average you have some decent blend components to experiment with, and at worst, you drink a little more drip or french press. But if you know the flavors you like and regions that generally interest you, it will be hard to get a coffee from Tom that you don't enjoy one way or another. Advice? pep-talk? grain of salt as always, I suppose.

by **another_jim** on Fri Jan 13, 2012 3:18 pm

jonny wrote: I don't think Tom ever sells a "bad" bean

Sadly, this is not quite true.

Take the crisis in Ethiopia. I have a stash of frozen green Sidamos and Yrgs from the good years that cup at around 90 to 92 points, and which I use as reference when cupping. A coffee like the Aleto Wondo is a joke compared to these frozen benchmarks, since the Sidamo region coffees have in general declined precipitously since the ECX came on line. I would not rate it even at 87 points. The only 2011 Sidamos I tasted that have hit the high mark of previous years were sold (very briefly) by Counterculture earlier this year.

Is it Tom's fault that the coffees from a region are not up to snuff? Obviously not. Should he completely stop carrying them? He actually does that when a region gets very bad. But if they go from good to so-so, he has to sell them, or go out of business. Tom can't sell great coffees that don't exist; so in poor years, Tom sells a lot of coffees that are so-so, because they are the best he can get.

To my mind, 2011 was mostly a so-so coffee year except for Guatemala and El Salvador, which had a long string of strong coffees.

by **Sherman** on Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:10 am

Arpi wrote:I just tried the SweetMarias Ethiopia Sidama Aleta Wondo and it is good (floral).

another_jim wrote:A coffee like the Aleto Wondo is a joke compared to these frozen benchmarks, since the Sidamo region coffees have in general declined precipitously since the ECX came on line.

Having roasted the Wondo twice so far, I'm with Arpi on this one. It's not the same as the Bonko that I had a few years ago, which I believe is closer to the reference coffees that another_jim mentions, but I wouldn't call it "a joke". It's a solid DP Sidamo that, all things considered, is a good representative of this year's crop.

With just over 8 lbs. left, I'll have plenty of time to test and see if my primary impressions hold up, if it was a fluke, or if my tastebuds are just plain broken.


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