# Why are these green beans so cheap?



## Beans (Dec 8, 2015)

Can someone kindly explain to me as to why these green beans are so cheap? I usually see 1 kilo going for around £8... how come these are under 4 quid!?? Are they of really bad quality and taste and thus not worth getting or something?

http://www.918coffee.com/collections/green-beans/products/african-coffees?variant=1036564805


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

I have bought from 918, i think at that price is going to be a low scoring bean, possibly 2014 harvest also.

If you are new to roasting, i would suggest picking up a kg to play with, chances are your first few roasts will suck anyway, mine did, why waste £10/kg beans?


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Just ordered some of these for my Mothers partner who is Eritrean, so Ethiopian beans are just what he likes, quality isn't a top priority


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## Beans (Dec 8, 2015)

Ok. Good advice froggystyle.

2014 harvest? I was under the impression that green beans can last for decades and so doesn't really matter when it was harvested as it doesn't affect the quality and taste???


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Beans said:


> Ok. Good advice froggystyle.
> 
> 2014 harvest? I was under the impression that green beans can last for decades and so doesn't really matter when it was harvested as it doesn't affect the quality and taste???


Well it's a G5 or GHrade 5 coffee, the lowest grade you can get and might be damaged crop, old beans, or simply a real low grade coffee. Or it could be a coffee they have had around for a while and simply want to clear out. At that price I don't think it's going to be great TBH.

Green beans unfortunately don't last for decades, with Penta packing they can last 5-6 years and even improve during their storage (apparently), but for normal burlap, ummm 2 years is quite old considering current crop would be early 5 months old already. Grainpro packed might stand up better if well stored and might be OK at 2 years.


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Dave, Do you have any more info you could link to on grading?


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

froggystyle said:


> Dave, Do you have any more info you could link to on grading?


It's just what I've picked up over the years and it's unfortunately not as straightforward as it should be. Each country has different grading criteria and sometimes it's used to avoid taxes. e.g. Ethiopian coffees are dry processed, so don't really get graded higher than 2, so an Ethiopian might be a 2-3 or 4-5 in reality they get graded 2 and 4, but may well be qualities deserving of a 1 or 3 grading, they usually can't get 1 because of the processing method (e.g not washed or semi washed) and 3s are graded 4 to reduce tax as it's normal over here to buy grade 2 or 4, if they got it graded 3, it wouldn't really get them any more money and might look a bit odd.

Then you have prep methods like triple picked and EP (European prep, or sometimes especial prep), new crop isn't always a sight of quality, as it often needs a little extra time before roasting (months). Coffees in many countries have 2 crops and 1 is always better than the other. Also crops vary from year to year depending on conditions, one of the biggies in say Brazil can be rainfall. Now a crop may make the grading criteria for a good coffee in terms of brokens, huller nipped insect damaged, sours, blacks peaberrys, etc..but this doesn't mean that the crop was a good one in terms of flavour. That said, I have had coffee that I didn't expect much from (because it's a new farm or something, but has been fantastic, when this happens you can be sure the price is much higher next time. Equally I used to complain about coffees that had high prices and grading on the speciality lists, that were quite frankly shite. This happens sometimes if the tested part of the crop is good, but somehow so bad stuff got delivered or mixed in.

Also washed and semi washed coffees tend to get higher gradings, but are not necessarily better, it's just the processing method used tends to weed out the defects better I personally like semi washed, pulped naturals and naturals as I find they taste better even though they can be difficult to roast.

Lastly it's great to have a very consistent screen size and not to small for type on any coffee. Here is some information below, the coffeeguide site is very good, but hard work to go through and there are quite a few others on the web, plus in country sites.

http://www.thecoffeeguide.org/

http://coffeetime.wikidot.com/coffee-crop-years

http://coffeetime.wikidot.com/standard-coffee-sack-weights-green-coffee


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

At grade 5 expect a lot of sorting. 918 don't do any kind of sorting. If you looks at the beans they sell from their roastery you can see tasting notes for some varieties; the greens they sell are the same as the ones they roast.

Quality varies, as DaveC said, free of defects does not necessarily mean a good quality coffee, and equally one that's full of defects might deliver a good cup if you discard ones that are off(insect damage for example). I got 10kg of Brazilian yellow bourbon and had to chuck just over 1kg away which falls in line with what they expected as they told me it was about "90% clean". I've ordered another variety from them which is 98% clean and had to chuck a couple of beans from a 250g batch so the information I was given seems accurate.

The coffees I've had are from estates, so you would expect some of the best quality. I imagine one of the reasons they're cheaper is because they don't sort the beans prior to selling. They might also have limited storage space for their roastery and wish to order in large quantities for discounts and sell a lot of it on for a small profit.


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## @3aan (Mar 2, 2013)

I sell green beans for around 7 euro 1kg


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## Beans (Dec 8, 2015)

DavecUK I really appreciate the breakdown!

I only joined yesterday but I'm already learning so much!

Thanks a bunch!


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

My observation is that it's a surprise it has taken til December 2015 for someone to choose the forum name 'beans'!!


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## Beans (Dec 8, 2015)

Was gonna actually register as BeansTyke, but then thought I'd type just beans for the sake of it and was suprised when it came up as available!

Is it a busy forum this... or is it just a dozen or few regulars that post most of the time?


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

There are a collection of core members, some who post from time to time, and then a lot of lurkers.

You only need to look at the 'members who have read this thread' at the bottom of the page to see how many people visit a thread.


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

There are thousands of members

probably a few hundred 'active' ones


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