I'm floored. I was in the supermarket looking for hot cocoa today, and I saw a can of green coffee beans.


At $10 for a 1lb can, it's not exactly a steal, as greens go. And there's not nearly enough info on the can to give me an inkling whether it'll be to my taste. But I'm very pleasantly surprised. Has home roasting gone this mainstream? This is in no way a specialty supermarket. It's Giant. (If that's unfamiliar, it's comparable to Food Lion, Safeway, Shaw's, Stop and Shop, Piggly Wiggly, Harris Teeter...)

While I'm excited to see this development, I don't think it's going to work out well for them. The two places I highlighted are the only indications on the can that the beans are unroasted, and it's nestled between roasted beans from the same company with identical packaging. Nothing in the preparation instructions hints at the need to roast the beans prior to use, and "Green" is used in a few other places on the packaging to indicate "environmentally friendly." So unless I'm underestimating your average coffee consumer around here, I suspect they'll see many returns from dissatisfied purchasers.

But if this is a trend, it's one that makes me happy. And I plan to try my hand.

erics wrote:I do believe that Giant has made a mistake. As with many other retailers, they are hopping onto the "green" bandwagon and the advertising on the can caught a buyer's eye.

I agree. I mainly did the deed half out of curiosity and half because I want to try out my SC/TO setup and haven't decided what to order from SM yet.

erics wrote:As one point of reference, green beans at Costco are 2.60/lb in 30 lb boxes right there in Arlington, VA. (Pentagon City Costco).

Ooh. Cool! I had no idea that costco had greens for sale. I let my membership there lapse years ago. That might be sufficient motivation for me to renew.

If most of the stores are having demos, highlighting the greens as different from the other coffees in the store, etc., that's very different from what I saw. At the one at Virginia Square, they have the cans of green beans tucked between two very similarly packaged roasted blends from the same company. If that's the norm, I think it's a mistake that will lead to many accidental purchases followed by dissatisfied returns.

When they start selling microwaveable green beans, we'll really know that home roasting has gone mainstream.

erics wrote:I do believe some consumers are going to be a little surprised though.

Hah. Now I'm intensely curious what sort of taste one experiences if you grind and brew green beans. I envision some blind testing much like the old Folger's commercials. "We've replaced the overpriced imported, months-old Italian pre-ground coffee at this Michelin-rated restaurant with freshly ground green beans. Let's see if the customers swear it's an exciting new revolution in molecular gastronomy or just spit it out..."