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/

It's all rather pointless without knowing what the OP, personally, defines as "decent."
Each of has our own personal minimum acceptable quality.

As a reality check.

• Most people on coffee forums would not buy roasted coffee costing less than $10 per pound unless circumstances are very unusual. At this price point, it is almost impossible to get specialty grade coffee (the top 10% or so of all coffee grown); instead, you are buying commodity coffee.
• You can buy excellent green coffee at this price, the top 1% of all coffee produced. However, most home roasters also enjoy the roasting process and make a hobby of it. The value you add to the green coffee by roasting roughly equals the income from a minimum wage job. If you do not enjoy roasting, and you value your leisure time more highly than this, it is not economical.

Take a look at http://ourcoffeebarn.com/

They have plenty of green and roasted coffee in your price range (especially if you buy 5lb bags). I have never tried them, but it looks like nearly all of their offerings come from a reputable importer (Cafe Imports).

I also noticed while checking out their site that they offer discounted shipping through Spee Dee if you live in parts of the Midwest including your state. http://ourcoffeebarn.com/estore/shipping.php

aspenedelen wrote: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?

~~~You'll have to buy unroasted beans to find quality at your six to ten dollar/pound price point. As has been said in replies to you in this thread, quality specialty level coffee can be had in this price range. Understand that specialty coffee has been cupped and found to be judged 80 points and higher on an empirical cupping scale. Lower than 80 points is not specialty grade but referred to as commodity coffee as Mr. Schulman stated


Noticing in your profile you asked for help. My suggestion to you would be to read up on home roasting if you're wanting to drink good coffee for under $10/lb. As has been mentioned in this thread, you will have to make an investment in time to roast your own coffee but the rewards are well worth the effort. You'll also have to invest in roasting equipment, making or buying that equipment. Home coffee roasting is a lot of fun and is easy to do but it's not for everyone. You'll have to try and decide for yourself. Read, read, read! sweetmarias.com is a very good source for information and to buy quality specialty grade coffee delivered at the price point you are seeking



Jake
Reddick Fla.
No matter how far a jackass travels, it won't come back a horse

My wife and I go through two to three lbs. of coffee a week so I was also on the quest for decent roasted coffee at that price point.
I tried Coffeebeandirect.com, Porto Rico Importers, CCM, and Geisha Coffee Roasters. Returned the shipments from the first two places because they both were either stale or baked, wasn't sure.
CCM was mediocre at best, Geisha was the best of the lot, but still not top notch. I ordered at least four different origins from each place.
These results drove me into home roasting.
I pan roasted one batch and didn't like the scorching. Switched to a heat gun and bowl and got MUCH better results. I just cupped two different batches of Roastmasters Brazil Fazenda Santa Ines 2007 ( City+, Full City) and a batch of Sweet Maria's Sulawesi Tana Toraja Ke'pe, and all three were better than anything I bought roasted from the above places. Cheaper,too,even with the loss of weight due to roasting.
And those were "rookie roasts"! I don't even know what I'm doing,yet!
So my advice is take up home roasting. It's a great hobby, you save a little cash, and drink better coffee.
I plan on buying a roaster, probably a Hottop, after I get a little more educated and experienced at roasting.

Hope this helps. I wish I knew all this before I spent all that money trying to find quality "cheap" roasted beans.


Glenn K.