# How long can greens keep in Grainpro bags?



## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

Whilst looking for greens to home roast I came across an interesting Ethiopian washed heirloom coffee currently offered for sale at £9 a bag from a roaster.

On further investigation I find that this bean is still available on Cropster as green in large quantities at Vollers in a UK warehouse. Grainpro packing (plastic). It's an 88pt coffee but 2016/17 crop and says was last cupped in November 2017. It's on special offer. Nordic approach are the importers. The description exactly matches the roasters website from tasting notes to grower name etc... So, I'm pretty sure it is exactly the same coffee.

How long can a green coffee keep like this? Are there any rules regarding this? This coffee must be 2 years post harvest which surprises me. Is it checked regularly for mould if it was last cupped a year ago?

Now the coffee may very well be in good condition and if people buy and enjoy then there is nothing to complain about. The roaster is obviously getting a very good markup and not doing anything wrong as such, but it does seem a little dubious. The roaster is not anyone who advertises on here.

I wonder how often this happens. Does it matter? There are many old crop coffees for sale at reduced prices. How do we know that our bag is current crop? Do we care? Should we be told? It's not common afaik to see harvest dates on roasters websites. We tend to assume that it is the latest crop.

After all there are many threads on here complaining about roasted coffee not being roasted to order, not fresh enough etc... That we do seem to care about.

I might get a small bag of greens just to see how they roast and taste.


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## Batian (Oct 23, 2017)

Ask for or buy a sample. That should answer all your questions re condition.

It is getting near the end of its shelf life, but should be good for a few more months. Just think how long Old Brown Java and Yemeni coffees are stored.

re mark up and price:

How big is the bag?

£9 could be very expensive or very cheap.

This may help establish its provenance.

https://bootcoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Ethiopian_Coffee_Buying_Guide.pdf

As a very rough guide, Ethiopian coffee is harvested November/ December and imported to UK January/February/ March


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Step21 said:


> Whilst looking for greens to home roast I came across an interesting Ethiopian washed heirloom coffee currently offered for sale at £9 a bag from a roaster.
> 
> On further investigation I find that this bean is still available on Cropster as green in large quantities at Vollers in a UK warehouse. Grainpro packing (plastic). It's an 88pt coffee but 2016/17 crop and says was last cupped in November 2017. It's on special offer. Nordic approach are the importers. The description exactly matches the roasters website from tasting notes to grower name etc... So, I'm pretty sure it is exactly the same coffee.
> 
> ...


Depends how they have been stored (perhaps they have been stored in pergamiono until recently), common for dry processed coffees. It will probably be fine. You don't really want too fresh a crop, often if it's too fresh it's problematic to roast. Best thing to do is get a sample and use your experience to make a judgment. Grainpro is a good sign because they tend not to get that bagginess that coffee in Hessian seems to get and are better protected. Mould will only be a problem in poor/damp storage conditions.

I don't know if £9 a bag is expensive or not, because you don't say how much a bag weighs?

Why not put some links up?


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

£9 per 250g roasted. Didn't want to put links up as then a quick google would identify the roaster which might put people off using them. It is a washed process coffee. Pergamiono?

Just surprising to see coffee keeping that long.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Step21 said:


> £9 per 250g roasted. Didn't want to put links up as then a quick google would identify the roaster which might put people off using them. It is a washed process coffee. Pergamiono?
> 
> Just surprising to see coffee keeping that long.


Just shows how confusing posts can be, I thought you were talking about green coffee not roasted...who knew?

Heirloom is the bean varietal what's the coffee actually called and any lot number?


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## SoleBay (Aug 28, 2017)

I think the OP caused a bit of confusion, ...I gather the original point was about green that he was looking for and stumbled across the same type for sale @ £9 per 250g from a roaster. The question then is, as it is assumed it is the same one then.....is it justifiable to have coffee that old for sale at that price by a roaster and could it still be scored the same at 88 2yrs down the line.

happy to be corrected if not right!!

My thought are it could be ok if stored in right conditions but unless you are able to verify against just landed shipment 2 yrs ago then who knows??


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

SoleBay said:


> I think the OP caused a bit of confusion, ...I gather the original point was about green that he was looking for and stumbled across the same type for sale @ £9 per 250g from a roaster. The question then is, as it is assumed it is the same one then.....is it justifiable to have coffee that old for sale at that price by a roaster and could it still be scored the same at 88 2yrs down the line.
> 
> happy to be corrected if not right!!
> 
> My thought are it could be ok if stored in right conditions but unless you are able to verify against just landed shipment 2 yrs ago then who knows??


Starting to get very confusing for me.....


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

SoleBay said:


> I think the OP caused a bit of confusion, ...I gather the original point was about green that he was looking for and stumbled across the same type for sale @ £9 per 250g from a roaster. The question then is, as it is assumed it is the same one then.....is it justifiable to have coffee that old for sale at that price by a roaster and could it still be scored the same at 88 2yrs down the line.
> 
> happy to be corrected if not right!!
> 
> My thought are it could be ok if stored in right conditions but unless you are able to verify against just landed shipment 2 yrs ago then who knows??


Thats correct. I saw the roasted bean for sale and then traced the green. I was surprised to find that it is 2 years old. My understanding was that a general rule was that green coffee is good for 1 year not 2.

Apologies for any confusion


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

How did you come by this understanding?


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

DavecUK said:


> How did you come by this understanding?


Why does this matter? But for example on Sweet Maria's faq on green coffee they say that after arrival (which may take up to 6 months from the origin) then most coffees will show signs of degradation between 6 months and a year from that point.

A lot depends on how the coffee is processed, dried and stored in the origin prior to shipping. And then how it is stored on arrival. A lot of variables.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Perhaps it doesn't matter and because you can't compare last year and this year's taste I guess we will never know. If you're not happy based on the age, then best not to buy.


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## cold war kid (Mar 12, 2010)

I'd pass. You already doubt it's going to be good and there's plenty of other Ethiopian Heirloom coffees with a similar score around.

What makes you sure that the roaster has a previous crop and not the current?


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Unless you are able to categorically confirm that the beans roasted are from the same batch / same lot as the greens you have found you may be actually comparing this yers stock with last years "special offer" unfairly ?

I get a number of importers availability lists and look at cropster hub, crown jewels etc on a regular basis and there are quite a few "at sea" beans that never make it onto the sales list as already snapped up thus would never appear on this years list if that makes sense.

If the bean tastes good and you like it then that surely should be the deciding factor as there are too many other unknowns to factor in, even different warehousing techniques could have an impact, appreciating a £9 bag of beans is still £9 worth of punt

Beans change from year to year dependant on weather, length of growth, soil conditions, processing variables etc etc so even at this basic level it would be difficult to accurately say this years will be same as last it could be x% better or not so good.

Hope of help

John


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

This article on green bean storage may be of interest, a little out of date (2008), perhaps before grainpro bags or vac packing

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2701840/#__ffn_sectitle

It says that green bean seeds keep viability significantly longer when stored in their silverskins or pergamino before being dehulled. Ideally the dehulling should occur at destination rather than at origin before shipping. I don't think this idea has ever been put into practice?

It doesn't cover storage in grainpro bags but rather storage in linen at controlled temperature and humidity.


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