I copied this from SM web page.....Dorothy
 
The best storage conditions for raw coffee probably exist down in your  
basement, or another part of the house that is not subject to large shifts in  
temperature and humidity. If you do not plan to use your Sweet Maria's coffee  
within a month, pour the coffee from its ziplock bag into an ordinary kraft  
paper bag and label it. If you have cotton cloth or burlap bags, use them.  Coffee 
needs to breathe so moisture cannot condense around it, so don't lock it  up 
in an airtight vault, tomb or cedar chest. Direct sunlight is not good  either.

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
Conrad:  Should you leave the ziplocs a bit open or are they not really that
airtight?  
From: homeroast-admin
[mailto:homeroast-admin] On Behalf Of
ConradArms
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 9:40 AM
To: homeroast
Subject: +Storing Green Coffee Beans
I copied this from SM web page.....Dorothy
The best storage conditions for raw coffee probably exist down in your
basement, or another part of the house that is not subject to large shifts
in temperature and humidity. If you do not plan to use your Sweet Maria's
coffee within a month, pour the coffee from its ziplock bag into an ordinary
kraft paper bag and label it. If you have cotton cloth or burlap bags, use
them. Coffee needs to breathe so moisture cannot condense around it, so
don't lock it up in an airtight vault, tomb or cedar chest. Direct sunlight
is not good either.

I really don't know.....I take my beans out of the plastic bags when they  
arrive and put them in paper bags..................

Aaron posted an excellent four week study on storage.  I know it's not
the same, but should be similar.  I wonder if anyone has a long long
history of plastic bag storage of greens (Anyone?)
I try to use up whats in the plastic pretty quick, or move them,
because moisture (i.e. condensation) seems to hurt the beans.  I've
had some go bad in plastic, and I had a bag of burlaped beans sit in
the rain for 24 hours that went soft and mushy.
Cloth bags, inside, not freezing,and I think you'd be OK...
Brett
  Zassin after Roastin
On 3/10/06, National Prison Consultants
 wrote:
<Snip>
hat
<Snip>
s
<Snip>
ary
<Snip>
e
<Snip>
ht
<Snip>
--
Regards,
Brett Mason
 HomeRoast
      __]_
   _(( )_  Please don't spill the coffee!

--Apple-Mail-56-504449745
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
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	charset-ASCII;
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Any way they'll sell the cotton bags without the beans?  My Hold for  
Harvey order has already shipped.
On Mar 10, 2006, at 1:48 PM, Brett Mason wrote:
<Snip>
Sandy
www.sandyandina.com
--Apple-Mail-56-504449745
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/html;
	charsetO-8859-1
Any way they'll sell the cotton =
bags without the beans?  My Hold for Harvey order has already =
shipped.  
On Mar 10, 2006, at 1:48 PM, Brett Mason =
wrote:
Aaron posted an excellent four =
week study on storage.  I =
know it's notthe same, but should be =
similar.  I wonder if =
anyone has a long longhistory of plastic bag =
storage of greens (Anyone?)
I try to use up whats in the =
plastic pretty quick, or move them,because =
moisture (i.e. condensation) seems to hurt the beans.  I'vehad some go bad in plastic, and I had a bag of =
burlaped beans sit inthe rain for 24 hours that =
went soft and mushy.Cloth bags, inside, not =
freezing,and I think you'd be OK...
Brett  =
Zassin after Roastin
On 3/10/06, National Prison =
Consultants<John=
ultants.com> wrote: 
Conrad:  =
Should you leave the ziplocs a bit open or are they not really =
thatairtight?
From: homeroast-admin=
s.sweetmarias.com[mailto:homeroast-adm=
in] On Behalf OfConradArmsSent: Friday, March 10, 2006 9:40 AMTo: homeroast=
s.comSubject: +Storing Green Coffee =
Beans
I copied this from SM web page.....Dorothy
The best =
storage conditions for raw coffee probably exist down in yourbasement, or another part of the house that is not =
subject to large shiftsin =
temperature and humidity. If you do not plan to use your Sweet =
Maria'scoffee within a month, pour the =
coffee from its ziplock bag into an ordinarykraft paper bag and label it. If you have cotton =
cloth or burlap bags, usethem. Coffee =
needs to breathe so moisture cannot condense around it, sodon't lock it up in an airtight vault, tomb or cedar =
chest. Direct sunlightis not good =
either.
 =
Regards,Brett Mason HomeRoast      =
__]_   _(( )_  Please don't spill the =
coffee!homeroast mailing listhttp://li=sts.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroastTo change your personal list settings (digest =
options, vacations, unsvbscribes) go to http://=sweetmarias.com/maillistinfo.html#personalsettings =
  
=
--Apple-Mail-56-504449745--

you're the first person who i ever heard of the greens going bad, how long
did you have them sitting, is it really humid where you live, i dont think =
i
ever have had beans long enough for them to go bad.
 I've had some go bad in plastic,
--
"Good night, and Good Coffee"

Sandy,
What I did was just order more coffee :)
On 3/10/06, Sandy Andina  wrote:
<Snip>
--
Steven Hay
hay.steve -AT- gmail.com

I ordered some cloth bags today with my bean order, but I did notice
afterwards that the plastic zip-loc bags in which I got the sampler did have
very small holes in them.  Had not noticed those holes before until Woody
mentioned that his bags had holes pricked into them.  My history with
plastic bags is five weeks.  Is that long enough?  :-)
Don't answer that!  I'll wait with you to see what someone with a truly long
history of plastic bag bean storage has to say.
Gerald

I've been storing my greens in large plastic storage jars sold at Fred 
Meyers under the name 'Snaptight' - they are a perfect size to hold 5 Lbs of 
beans, have a large flap-top which clicks down on a plasic sealing ring, and 
are very easy to scoop into and out of.
Follow this link:http://209.16.139.138/images/coffeeB&W.JPGand you'll see them next to the Isomac - they are the tall, square jars 
which have now replaced all of the squat glass jars with screw-on lids you 
see further down the counter.
Seattle is a very mild climate, so I've not had to fight extremes of 
humidity and heat, but have had no mold, moisture, or off-flavor issues with 
these containers
Cheers
Jim

My coffee used to live outsinde, in a cabinet on my back patio.  All was go=
od.
I then began doing more and more roasting.
Well I left some bags on top of the cabinet, and it rained.  Water got
into a plastic bag before zipped up.  5 days later was mushy.  The
burlap bag sat in a puddle, and I lost about 1-2 lbs...  The problem
was the idiot who left the greens out.  Worse, it was me.
I fixed the problem.  Sod the 42 year old 2000 sqft SoCal house,
bought a brand new 3,600 sq ft house in Iowa, and moved my storage to
a coffee area near my kitchen.  Shouldn't rain in there for a long
time.  If it does, the problem will be totrnado damage, and I will
claim I lost 500 lb of JBM on my insurance.  (Was probably Colombia,
from a Columbian, but not grown in Columbia).
Brett
  Zassin in CR
On 3/10/06, Woody DeCasere  wrote:
<Snip>
g
<Snip>
k i
<Snip>
--
Regards,
Brett Mason
 HomeRoast
      __]_
   _(( )_  Please don't spill the coffee!

For a couple of years I've mostly used plastic and if it doesn't taste 
so hot I don't conclude that it's the plastic.  If they don't already 
have holes in them or if I am using new zip lock bags I stab them a few 
times with a fork.  Kind of reminds me of using a fork on the 
babysitter's arm when I was a little kid.  And then when I was in my 
twentys another couple hired a babysitter to watch the kids at our house 
and there she was again and it was the same house and she very much 
remembered and said so, said there will be no problems or she was gone. 
A very strict German professional with hair in a knot and straight posture.
R.
Gerald and Beth Newsom wrote:
<Snip>

I have about 50 /50 for my storage of greens.
about half is in the plastic bags it was shipped in,  the other half are 
stored in cloth bags i bought from sm's
this brings me to another question..
what about those who store them in mason jars, or those who have vac 
sealed their greens... how are those beans faring.  If there was going 
to be problems with moisture, it should show up in those two methods first.
aaron

When I receive my order I place 5 lbs in a cotton bag for use and the rest =
I
vacuum seal. I'm convinced vacuum sealing works when you want to store the
beans for longer than a month or 2. Smell a bag of fresh greens vs one that
has sat on the shelf in a cotton bag for 6 months. The 6 month old beans
will have very little of that aroma left. Open a vac bag after 6 months or =
a
year and they smell the same as the day I got them or very close. It's not
scientific but it's good enough for me. I have a few small samples vac
sealed in the freezer. Some day I'll pull them out and roast them.
Randy

Paper bags don't work well for me, so as a matter of convenience, I leave
beans in the original plastic.  I do try to follow the spirit of Tom's
suggestion by not allowing the beans to stagnate.  Roughly each month, I
"air" them by pouring back and forth into other containers, and then back
into the original bag.  I'm particularly suspicious of my burlap bags that
have a nasty chemical smell.  Suspicious, that's all.  I pay some attention
to crop dates, and when I receive a new batch, I write the crop date and th=
e
date I get the beans on the bags.  I figure that Tom is not going to be
selling me beans that have less than 9-12 months shelf life (as long as the=
y
are adequately aired and kept out of climate extremes and light), so that's
my "target" for using beans.  If I decide not to use up beans before that
time, I inspect more carefully and pay special attention to color and
smell--which brings me to my next point:
The real issue for me is whether my cupping skills are so sophisticated and
refined that I can actually tell the difference in bean degradation that
occurs over a short period of time (ex., now they are wonderful and 3 month=
s
later they're flat or funky).  Of course, I can tell gross differences when
a variety has lost fruitiness or a previously interesting cup gets to be a
generic, but I've never had a bunch of SweetMaria beans go bad.  Finally,
I'm inclined to "project" my better-than-average-but-still-modest cupping
skills onto others-----perhaps onto some folks posting in this thread. I'm
not a huge empiricist, but I'd need something more than Randy's "It's not
scientific, but it's good enough for me" in order to go through a big vac
and freeze production for my greens.  I'd prefer to rely on Tom's more
modest recommendations and put my discipline into not over ordering.
Martin (with a delivery confirmation for Monday: 26 lbs)
Heat + Beans
    all the rest is commentary

This is subjective, but I think vacuuming the green beans helps a great
deal.  When I started roasting a couple of years ago, I stocked up on some
beans, and still have the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Lot 4453, if only 150 grams.
It has held up very well, as did Kora, although Kora may have lost a bit of
her high end.  I'm down to my last 150 grams of the Yirg --but still taste
the lemon in a nice City roast.  I've stopped buying larger amounts and seek
to use the greens within the year -- but for beans I will be saving for a
time, I still vacuum them.  The others I keep in cloth bags.

On 3/10/06, David Echelbarger  wrote:
<Snip>
But you go on to indicate that you don't routinely vacuum because your
"normal" bean control is such that vacuuming doesn't add much value to the
cup.  This is kind of my point, though I don't want to make a bigger deal o=
f
it than the point deserves.  Do we mostly agree that beans used within a
year can be safely stored without vacuuming?  And perhaps agree that we'd
have to be a pretty experienced cupper in order to notice what could be a
"slight" degradation?  And at the very least, keep some unvac'd beans as a
control so we could compare after a year or two or three.  I suppose that i=
f
I had vac gear sitting around and I was determined to keep a favorite bean
for 2 yrs? 4 yrs? whatever, I'd give it a shot.  But I sure wouldn't want t=
o
indicate to a poster asking about vacuuming, generally, that I though ithe
vac helped "a great deal."
Martin
Heat + Beans
    all the rest is commentary

I've been storing green {and roasted} coffee in Mason jars for almost 12
years now without any problems whatsoever. This was recommended to me by a
Guatemalan girl whose family owns 7 coffee plantations. - Steve D
{sorry...no plastic bags}

At ~11% moisture you shouldn't have any problems unless jars are heated. -
Steve D

I personally don't think it amounts to a hill of coffee beans unless you are 
planning on storing them for a long time.  I've always kept beans in the bag 
that SM sends them in, but I usually use them within a few weeks.
I've found beans that have been forgotten and left in plastic for a year or 
more and they didn't suffer any more than beans left in burlap.  Of course, 
both suffered storing them that long.  It's really a trade off.  Beans left 
in a breathable bag will lose more moisture.  Beans left in a plastic bag 
run the risk of mold or mildew.  Neither is good for beans.
Moral of the story... buy as much as you will use in a few months and then 
buy more.
*********************
Ed Needham
"to absurdity and beyond!"
ed at homeroaster dot com
(include [FRIEND] somewhere in the subject line of any email correspondence)
*********************