After reading Terry's note, I realize I really dont know what coffee costs
out there in the world. What does a cup cost at local places in your area?
What does Starbucks cost? I just really dont pay attention...
And what are local prices for roasted coffee? I know we have a decent
roaster in Columbus that uses green coffee thats sorta low-end specialty
...nothing from the top end of the spectrum (not saying theres anything
wrong with this, because there are very good pooled or non-regional coffees
if you look hard enough -the Colombian Medellin we have is excellent
...Kenya Peberry, etc. ). But the prices are I believe $10 and up to around
$14, maybe $15 for Yemen. Its a lot in this coffee market, but it would be
so much if more money was making it back to the farmers!
Tom
<Snip>
"Great coffee comes from tiny roasters"
Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting - Tom & Maria
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There's a coffee shop in Washington, DC that does it's own roasting and sells green beans to interested customers. They carry top end specialty beans, pretty much a subset of what you carry. They sell green beans at a 20% discount from the roasted price. They charge about $9.99 a lb. roasted for most of their beans. Rarer beans like Kenya Kiunyu (my favorite Kenya) or Yemen go for $12.99. I've found them to be about the best deal around in terms of quality and price. In the DC area in general, I would say that specialty coffee ranges from $10-$15. It's been awhile since I've been to Starbuck's (guess why), but they were selling things like Sidamo, Kenya AA and Mocha Java for $7.99. Russ Tom & Maria wrote: <Snip> homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
Here in Austin there is a coffee retailer that roasts their own near
my work. Sometimes I smell them roasting when I go to lunch nearby. ;o)
I used to buy from them before I discovered homeroasting. I always
knew I was saving money roasting my own, but I never realized the
prices were that much higher:
$9 for Guatemalan, Tanzanian, Sumatran, PNG, Nicaraguan, Mexican etc.
$10 for Ethiopian, Mocha Java, "Special Blend" (whatever that is)
$11 for Kenya AA
$26 for Kona
$45 for JBM (ouch!) (Got 1 lb free from the "Coffee Club" a few years
ago ;o) )
One of the things I like about Sweet Maria's is the full descriptions
of each coffee, while the local roaster only labels them with the
country of origin. And when I was looking for a new vacpot locally,
they had no idea what I was talking about, yet when I went in to the
shop, there was an old Sunbeam vacpot decorating a shelf of coffee
"memorabilia."
The one time I have my shipment sent to work, I'm at home sick...
My Puerto Rican is sitting in my office waiting for me ;o(
Guess I'll have to go to work tomorrow... In the meantime I've
got St Helena to soothe my cold... ;o)
<Snip>
--
Dave Clark Austin, Texashttp://www.jump.net/~davec N 30d 27.526m
mailto:davec W 97d 48.826m
42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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Tom & Maria wrote: <Snip> I usually don't buy "coffee" when I'm getting a cuppa. A double-shot capp at the local (good) espresso place runs me $3 minus change. From *$ it's $3 plus change. A double shot (no milk) is about half that. =Spencer homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
Russ, which coffee shop are you referring to? I'm over in Maryland and I'm unaware of this place, unless you mean Quartermaine's which quoted me a price about double that ($15/lb) over the phone for green Colombian and Sumatran and a few others. I was pretty amazed at those prices and suspect that there was something wrong with what they were telling me. Still, even at $8/lb, it would be cheaper to buy from Sweet Maria's. George <Snip> homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
The particular shop I'm talking about, Sirius Coffee, is on Conneticut Avenue right at the Van Ness/UDC Metro stop. There's a guy that works there, Amadis, and the owner, Andrew, who are supportive of home roasters. They've let me help on roasts. I've brought some that I've roasted in and we've cupped and compared to their roasts. I've learned a lot from these guys. I buy the overwhelming bulk of my bean from Sweet Maria's, but these guys always seem to have one or two beans that Sweet Maria's doesn't have. Plus, I'm buying to stay engaged, since I've learned a lot about roasting from them. I'm in Virginia, and there's a shop in Alexandria called Misha's that apparently has a national reputation. I've had friends from St. Louis ask me about it. The few times I've been in there, it's been real busy and I haven't found anybody with the bandwidth to talk, so I don't know if they sell green bean. The two shops have very different roasting styles. Russ gperry wrote: <Snip> homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
<Snip> Mishas is great. Prior to getting my HWP, I went there for beans in the winter during my 2 years in Arlington/Alexandria. My only dig against them is they allow smoking in the section where the beans are roasted and the green beans are stored. The cost average was $9-$11/ pound. The Caravan Blend is my pick. mas homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
<Snip> I heard about Mishas on "The Best Of" coffee shops on the foodtv channel. They profiled a couple of shops plus two roasters. Was an interesting show - and I do not like the series! Have now seen the coffee show two or three times. Gloriahttp://natures-emporium.com/Jewelry, jade, quartz, decor items, bookends homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
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Roasted beans here are priced comparably to what other posters have reported, although you can buy Millstone at the supermarket on sale sometimes for $7-$8. I thought it was of acceptable quality until I started roasting my own. There is only one local roaster. They are very small -- they sell at a few local produce markets, and come to think of it I haven't seen their product lately so they may have died out. There is one coffee place (of many, for this small town) that makes decent espresso -- a double cap costs $2.65. Unfortunately, the local taste runs toward the drive-up-window-type of "cappucino"; that is, a 12 oz drink with one poorly pulled shot and some kind of goopy syrup. So...I join you all in thanking Tom and Maria for making excellent coffee available at a reasonable price AND for the detailed info on origins, cupping reviews and other information. BTW, while surfing I found another site (forgot the name) that sells green beans -- maybe 20 varieties with no information other than country of origin, at about the same price as good roasted coffee, i.e., too much. Free e-mail! you A service of www.WallaWallaGuide.com homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |