Do decent roasted or unroasted coffee and espresso beans exist at the pricepoint btw $6 to $10 per lb? I drink what I would consider a lot of coffee (10+ cups a day) and go through a lb of coffee per week. Any ideas and thoughts?

Green Coffee Buying Club ?

aspenedelen wrote:Do decent roasted or unroasted coffee and espresso beans exist at the pricepoint btw $6 to $10 per lb?

I certainly sympathize with your thought, especially with times being what they are. IMHO, the answers are yes, and occasionally-but-not-reliably. I'm talking about roasted beans here since home roasting is another topic entirely.

I bought a bag of beans from PapaNicholas, a local roaster that markets through supermarkets almost entirely. Yes, I bought it at the supermarket (A gasp of horror ripples through the crowd...)

The beans were a new premium line that had just shown up, and were selling for about .65/oz so I got them on a whim. They made very nice espresso. Did I buy them again? Of course not, since the same batch was sitting there on the shelf for weeks afterward, aging away, so the same experience was no longer to be had.

It's not easy to source good espresso beans, and ship immediately after roast. The going price on the net is about $1.00 oz. If you have a local roaster with a walk in trade who does a good job for less they are a treasure. There are local outfits that do not know how to buy beans and count on the "fresh roasted" aspect to carry them, and they aren't worth the dime.

For good brewing coffee cheap, I recommend Porto Rico Importing in NY. You can do better than the specialty beans on sale at the supermarket, and get the price down to $.60/oz or so. For espresso, comparable to Klatch and their peers, I don't know of anyone who can compete on mailorder with them for less.

Roasted: it entirely depends on your definition of "decent." If you'd be willing to give some examples that would help.
Green: yes.


and fwiw - espresso beans are in fact coffee beans

earlgrey_44 wrote:It's not easy to source good espresso beans, and ship immediately after roast.

malachi wrote:and fwiw - espresso beans are in fact coffee beans

Oh, alright...

"It's not easy to source good beans for espresso, roast them well, ship them immediately after roast, and make a profit."

Howzat? Better?

I found that some wholefoods freshly roast their beans, and have tried a couple of blends that were 'acceptable' and cost less then $10/lb. By acceptable I mean better then stale beans, but probably only 50-60% as good as what we can get from an artisan roaster.

earlgrey_44 wrote:Oh, alright...

"It's not easy to source good beans for espresso, roast them well, ship them immediately after roast, and make a profit."

Howzat? Better?

Actually... I wasn't referring to your post but rather to the title of this topic.

Hmmm. May I suggest moving your price point up just a little, to say $13.00 per pound to get fresh roasted artisan blends delivered to your house? If you can afford another $0.43 per day, you can go to Klatch Roasting and get a 5 lb bag of House Blend Espresso at $10.95 per lb plus about $10 shipping. This strikes me as a ridiculously good deal for great coffee. Other roasters may have similar pricing, but I have had really good experience with Klatch and think they are value priced for what they offer.

There are plenty of threads on the forum about freezing and using coffee, as this is still a 5 week supply at your burn rate. By the way, many of us use at least that much coffee per week.

Enjoy your experience, James

One of the Costco warehouses in my area has a big roaster in the store. They roast frequently and sell for around $7/lb if I remember right. The beans are mediocre at best, but its fresh.

Your best bet is to start roasting your own. Invest $300 in a Behmor, or even $120 for a Freshroast and you can get top quality greens for $5-6/lb. You can roast to your exact liking and save money. You can save even more money by rigging up your own roaster from home appliances you can pick up cheap at your local thrift store. Popcorn poppers, rotisserie ovens, convection ovens, bread machines can be modified to roast coffee.

This is exactly how I get into roasting. I loved good coffee, but I was too cheap (or too poor) to afford the good stuff.

I haven't tried them yet but these guys seem to have some very reasonable prices for what looks to be decent quality green & roasted coffees. http://www.genxcoffee.com/