# Starter green bean suggestions please?



## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Planning for the arrival of my roaster and need to get some beans in. I'm planning on getting 2-4 kg of one type of bean and try and focus on that to start. I only drink espresso with milk at the moment and am leaning to lighter more brighter roasts. Was thinking of an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe to star off with. Any help/suggestions would be very helpful.

thanks Philip


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## Batian (Oct 23, 2017)

As no one more experienced has dived in to help, I will offer my thoughts.

Do you have any favourites that you buy as roasted?

Avoid aged beans like Monsoon Malabar, Yemeni and Old Brown Java.

Look for beans that are only one or two varietals.

Look for beans that are a uniform size.

Look for medium priced beans---cheap and cheerful will be like that in the cup, and expensive is costly if you goof.

You may have a bit of an advantage by choosing washed rather than natural process.

If you like African coffees try something like Samburu Estate or Kenya Blue Mountain ( both marketing names for blended beans).

I have bought coffee from Lalico for a couple of years and have been happy. He is on eBay and has a website. With the quantity you are considering, I would contact him via the website, he may be able to do a better price.

While you are there look round the site and read 'Our Story'. Its rather touching!

http://www.lalicocoffee.co.uk/en/


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## PottyMouthedBuddhist (Oct 18, 2016)

You're quite local to me @Beeroclock, if you ever want the opinion of someone local, just give me a shout. I'm not the most professional roaster on here but I have a bit of experience, so very willing to help if I can.

Ref the beans, I'd personally buy a selection and see what you get on well with. Some beans seem consistently more forgiving to me, e.g. Columbian and Brazilian, others perhaps less forgiving but produce a blinding drink when you get it right (with the downside of a lot of frustration when you don't). Generally speaking I buy a kilo of new beans and see how I get on, then place a bigger order later. Yirgacheffe is one I've never been able to get good results from.


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Hi Potty - thanks so much - yes after all the help I can get - where anouts are you? I've had mixed results so far - but the Colombian Supremo beans - have been the most disappointing - though looked fanatastic. Still learning how to drive my Quest and control - post FC crash or flick in ROR..


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## soundklinik (May 31, 2013)

Bella Barista has nice beans, good variety of 5x2kg. Definitely worth a try.

I bought many times, always good quality, but lately they seem to have the same beans forever. Used to be, they would change often and have lots of various beans from all over.

I just got 10 kg of Dominican Republic beans from "small batch roasting supply" .

They just started 5x100g testing packs for 2.50£


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## PottyMouthedBuddhist (Oct 18, 2016)

Beeroclock said:


> Hi Potty - thanks so much - yes after all the help I can get - where anouts are you? I've had mixed results so far - but the Colombian Supremo beans - have been the most disappointing - though looked fanatastic. Still learning how to drive my Quest and control - post FC crash or flick in ROR..


Sorry for the slow reply, I've only just seen this.

I'm your side of Bath, so close enough to get to you one Saturday if you fancy it. Funny, I have some Colombian Supremo now, and I haven't been that happy with the results either. Colombian Suarez on the other hand seems almost impossible to go wrong with for me. I also seem to do well with light roasted NIcaraguans, but they are very expensive at the moment.


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Hi Potty

I've progressed quite a bit since the last post - I have a new rear perforated drum installed and seem to be able to control my MET much better. I'm off to see the chap who makes the Cormorant Roaster on Tues as I think this could be just what I'm looking for. Would be good to meet up sometime - what are you roasting on?


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## cozzarr (May 19, 2018)

soundklinik said:


> Bella Barista has nice beans, good variety of 5x2kg. Definitely worth a try.
> 
> I bought many times, always good quality, but lately they seem to have the same beans forever. Used to be, they would change often and have lots of various beans from all over.
> 
> ...


I didn't notice that Bella Barista also supply green beans - that's a shame they stopped changing the beans more regularly.

Do you know of any other green bean suppliers?


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## Batian (Oct 23, 2017)

Googling 'green coffee beans UK' will get you started. Many small roasters sell off part of their stock to the home roaster.

eBay can, with care, can be useful for small/medium quantities.

For medium quantities check out forum advertiser Small Batch Roasting.

https://www.smallbatchroasting.co.uk/ Great service and prices but I have often been let down by their chosen courier, (DPD) This may be a local problem.


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## soundklinik (May 31, 2013)

cozzarr said:


> I didn't notice that Bella Barista also supply green beans - that's a shame they stopped changing the beans more regularly.
> 
> Do you know of any other green bean suppliers?


Hi, sorry not replying sooner, didn't see a reply. (BB might get different varieties again, who knows)

I don't want to imply that Bella Barista doesn't have good beans, *they do and are the most pleasant and helpful to deal with*, but I wanted to try a larger quantity of good/different beans and carefully monitor my roasting to get different results with same bean. (I have amateur, home made roasting equipment, very manual)

I use them now:

https://www.smallbatchroasting.co.uk/

They have a very large selection of beans, fast delivery (to France) and are not more expensive than others. Recently they added a taster pack 5x100g, free? for UK, unfortunately @16£ shipping to France....thanks

i just bought another 10kg https://www.smallbatchroasting.co.uk/product-page/10kg-tanzania-aa-majinja-estate

and Dominican Republic Barahona AA

I really like the Tanzanian, for my personal taste and definitely I am not doing any advertising for them because everyone's taste is different so YMMV.

Cheers


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