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Coffee beans: where and what to buy?

Coobeastie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:25:02 -0800

UKCoffeeFilter: I know nothing about coffee. My boyfriend is an aficionado. Help me buy him some beans for Christmas that will make him think I'm awesome. Neither of us has a lot of money sloshing around, so he tends to stick to what he knows he likes. What I'd like to do is get him a selection of wee packs of beans (he's got all the grinding kit and so on) so he can try some new types. A variety also means that if I get him something he doesn't like it's not so bad.

I know so little about coffee that I suspect I'm using all the wrong words here. He's managed to instil into me 'beans good, pre-ground bad', but that's about as much as I know. So I need to know where to buy and what to buy!

I'll need to buy the beans online, as there's nowhere in my town that sells proper coffee. Budget probably £30 overall. Thanks in advance coffee fiends!

Wet and dirty coffee beans!

mqk — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:51:59 -0800

Can I salvage these wet and dirty coffee beans? I had some tasty coffee beans stored in a tin container on top of the fridge. GF just accidentally knocked the container off. On its way down it hit an open bottle of water, and together they fell to the somewhat dirty floor. About half of them stayed in the tin container, the other half is mixed with water and some dust/dirt on the floor. Can I rinse them and then dry them on a paper towel, or will that destroy the flavour? Maybe put them in the oven at the lowest heat setting?

Coffee roaster that won't stink up the house?

middleclasstool — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:20:46 -0800

Good coffee roaster that'll cut down on the smoke? I've discovered home roasting and love the combo of quality and cost savings, but my wife hates the smoke. She's greenlighted me to invest in a home roaster, with one of two possibilities: either it makes just as much smoke as the popcorn popper does, so I have to go roast in our detached garage, or else it has to cut down on the smoke significantly so I can do it in the kitchen.

I'm prepared to do either one, honestly, especially if there's not a roaster out there that will both cut down on the smoke and do a good job roasting the beans. So if there's not a good one that eats smoke, just give me your recommendation for the best. Less than $200 US preferred.

(Roaster recommendations have been asked previously, but I'm asking again because the previous question is 3 years old.)

How should a college kid store his coffee?

mccarty.tim — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:48:24 -0800

Coffee beans behave like busses apparently. I went with preground for a year, and then I got a 5lb bag and a 1lb bag of roasted coffee beans and a grinder today for Christmas. How should I store them, accounting for my specific situation? Here's my situation, which complicates things: I'm a college student, and I am on break until the 23rd, practically a month. I'd freeze it, but I've heard letting beans thaw after their frozen ruins them, which they would do on the trip back to school, which is about 45 minutes. Keep in mind I have a tiny college freezer, so I couldn't keep much that way, even if I were to bring over the coffee in a cooler or something. Or is freezing so bad for the beans, I should skip it altogether? What should I do?

What to do with stale coffee beans?

lindsey.nicole — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:25:03 -0800

I have a couple of half-full bags of stale coffee beans that no longer make good coffee. Aside from throwing them in the trash, what can I do with old beans? It's occurred to me that old coffee beans might be compostable, but I'm an apartment-dweller and I think my vermicomposting worms would go into shock from that much caffeine. If all else fails I may just dump these in a nearby semi-wooded area, but that seems kind of tacky. And weird.

Green Coffee Beans

vers — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 18:23:01 -0800

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.

Coffee Roasters

Grod — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 13:42:03 -0800

CoffeeFilter redux as a follow up to the linked thread, who/what are the best coffee roasters? I've never been disapointed with Peet's but I'd love to find the "best" if such a thing exists. I prefer full bodied coffees with spicy/nutty/chocolate-y notes, velvety mouth feel, and smooth to mid range acidity. Think Sumatra for a single origin or a good Arabian Mocha Java. Two very different coffees--the latter is somewhat more complex while the former remains, in my opinion, far more satisfying--yet the both share the same essential characteristics. Further recomendations along these lines -- not just for beans and blends but specific coffee roasters would be great. If there are any local to me (Baltimore, MD) that would be really cool. Thanks.