Posted on 03/07/2010 7:16:48 PM PST by Moe Tzadik
GUATEMALA CITY — Some 450,000 pounds of organic coffee sit in a warehouse here, stacked neatly in 132-pound bags. It's some of the world's best coffee, but Gerardo De Leon can't sell it.
"This is very high quality and it's organic. But ... the roasters don't want to pay extra these days," says the manager of FEDECOCAGUA, Guatemala's largest growers' cooperative, which represents 20,000 farmers.
De Leon is asking $2 per pound for the unroasted coffee, about 50 cents more than the going price. But he says he'll soon have to sell it as conventionally grown coffee, which sells for less.
That's why many Mesoamerican farmers here are starting to give up on organic coffee: The premium price that it used to fetch is disappearing.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Mrs O was a neighbor who was an expert with Coffee. What could be better!
Try finding a small roaster not too far away from you, and see if they would agree to have an additional bag of something good, added into their load. Maybe split the difference between what shipping would cost you, and what the lower per pound rate the roaster should be getting (if they are buying say, a thousand lbs. of various, at a time)?
Here's an offering sheet out of an outfit with a warehouse in Oakland http://www.royalcoffee.com/offering.asp No, they don't list prices. It's not the way it's done.
We used to source *some* of our stuff from them...since their green prices were, if not better in most cases, always favorably comparable to others. But then again, for a bit better stuff, one has to pay more. Many times, more than "a bit" more.
Seattle is also a coffee port. New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, all are coffee ports.
Figure on losing 15-20% weight after roasting, too. those are not only bean dollars going up the stack, but shipping dollars, too.
Thanks!
The unit I have is called the Hottop. You can find more information at www.hottopusa.com
The roaster is more like the higher end sample roasters you will find like Probat. It has a drum, and a cooling tray that has a rotating arm. Air is pulled down through the beans and the arm agitates them until cool. Room temperature can be had in less than three minutes. They are expensive units, but well worth the money. They are very user-serviceable, and Hottop stands by their equipment.
The roaster is very flexible as far as profiles go. I generally ramp up to first crack within about five minutes, then slow the process down to two degrees a minute until the second crack. You don’t want to let the unit stay at one particular temperature, as that is when you start “baking” the beans.
As to staling, I stand by my statement. There is a peak time when the beans are at their optimum flavor. Past five days, I don’t know any bean that will be at that point any longer. Past that point, the beans are stale, in my opinion. Regardless, grocery coffee IS stale. Most of what you find on the shelves is at least a month old - most times many months.
Cupping coffee is different than enjoying coffee. Most cuppers do pull samples within the first few hours of roasting. While it can help a taster gain an idea of the bean’s profile, a suitable rest is necessary for the coffee to reach it’s full potential.
But the unit you have looks like a good one.
I was guessing about the sweep, since larger commercial machines have uh, more noticable agitators.
You realize you're talking to someone who has roasted many thousands of lbs. of coffee, don't you?
The coffee I roast in a popcorn popper tastes best from about 5-10 days after roasting it. After two days its ok to drink but before that it has a nasty edge to it.
Had some organic coffee once, as a gift. Great stuff, but for me not worth the extra price.
Lighter roasts allow more nuanced flavors to emerge, akin to tasting fine wines. The whole roasting process is complex: if you're not familiar with "first crack" and "second crack" and "city roast" vs. "full city roast", then the palette has a long way to go.
Visit Sweet Marias for an intro to connoisseur coffee.
Light roast just isn't my thing. I find the complexity and variety of dark coffees very appealing. Coffee is a lot like beer in that regard: the darker and stronger, the better. :D
I myself am 100% organic.
I won't eat anything that isn't raised with chemical fertilizers and pesticides!
I was speaking only of myself. I am 100% organic as are you, unless you’ve got some replacement parts.
It was a joke.
Consuming carcinogens is what keeps one healthy!
We are SUCH contrarians. I won’t buy ‘organic’ or ‘green’ if I can help it.
I hate the whole green movement, including changing the definition of organic. When I took chemistry, "organic" meant something that has CARBON in it, since carbon is the build-block of LIFE. So crude oil is organic, but water is not.
On a side note, isn't ironic that the lefties like organic food but hate carbon.
Because the Left has completely abandoned logic for power.
Science is naturally beyond them. True science that is.
Everything is just a tool to power - racism, homosexuality, ecology. It is all fake.
Leftists are wholly insincere.
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