Green Coffee Beans

December 11, 2004 6:23 PM

I'm looking for sources of high-quality green coffee beans for roasting. Christmas is coming (yikes), and I just learned my little brother has gone gourmet. Googling turns up plenty, but I've no firsthand way of separating the wheat from the chaff.
posted by vers to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

look no futher than sweet marias. trust me.
posted by RockyChrysler at 6:59 PM on December 11, 2004

I second RockyChrysler. All of Tom's greens are excellent, and their service is beyond excellent. I've bought from them for 6 or more years now, and while I haven't loved all the coffees I've gotten from Sweet Maria's, they've all been exactly what Tom said they were. I won't buy my greens from anywhere else.

They also do gift certs if you don't want to just pick out a few kinds of greens, and they also sell roasting stuff (like good scales, coffee measures, burlap bags to store greens in) and coffee makers of various types, if you want to branch out a bit.
posted by QIbHom at 8:08 PM on December 11, 2004

Thank you both for your help - I've just placed an order for some Ethiopian Harar - and what a great resource the Sweet Maria's site is!
posted by vers at 8:30 PM on December 11, 2004

Good choice, vers! Harrar is one of my favourites. Hard to go wrong with any Harrar Tom picks.

There is an amazing amount of information there. His web design is not very spiffy, but the info is. I'll take content over flash any day.
posted by QIbHom at 8:55 PM on December 11, 2004

I'm delighted for the help you gave - I'd not have found anything as good as this on my own. Thank you, members of AskMeta!
posted by vers at 9:13 PM on December 11, 2004

It can be very painful for the family when an individual makes that lifestyle choice. I can only advise you to read your scripture and to--oh wait, gone gourmet. Nevermind.
posted by LarryC at 6:28 AM on December 12, 2004

i too believe you nailed it with the harar choice... but read tom's notes well... the harar tends to roast kinda funny, in an unevenly-colored sense... however, in my experience, this unevenness doesn't really tend to have a negative effect on the flavor... one other consideration when roasting harar: it really should be allowed to de-gas for 12-24 hours before you grind and brew it... certainly, it's fine sooner, but it really has a special character a day later.
posted by RockyChrysler at 10:09 AM on December 12, 2004

Thank you for the specific tips, Rocky - appreciated, especially since I'll even sound like I know something when I give my brother the beans!
posted by vers at 12:35 PM on December 12, 2004