Been roasting for about a year, and have found some really impressive
single origin coffee's that sing. Tried making a few blends, but truly
prefer the character of single origin roasts, do I feel like a south
american, central, or africa today??
. Based on the fact that in my area there is zero coffee shops that sell
SO's by the cup, and barely carry SO roasted beans, ( and we wont even
get into the lack of a drinkable espresso)    I'm confused as to where
else these great beans go?
Do the big guys use these great beans and use them in canned coffee?
Are there enough specialty roasters (even though none in my area) out
there that consume these beans? Or are they reduced to Char$, or Even
worse diluted with junk to make grocery store canned coffee?
How big is the home roasting market, and does it take a significant
portion of the quality beans on the market?
Just curious...

Someone correct me if I am wrong,
There is just not all that much excellent coffee to go around.  It seems to
me that it is split a few ways. We certainly get some of it.  There are
quality local coffee roasters, ie Stumptown (none is SLC). They will get
their share.  Proabably the biggest sink is the foreign market.  Maybe Tom
can comment further on these obsevations.
I don't think much if any excellent coffee is bought to go into canned
coffee, there is just too much mediocre coffee to go around that they do not
need to spend the money to get our caliber of coffee.
Scott

Japan and Scandinavia buy a lot of specialty coffee.  One of my
favorites, Uganda is getting harder for Tom to get because the
Japanese now have a broker in Uganda scarfing up many of the good lots
before they hit the Speciality market.  Most speciality shops simply
buy from places like Royal Coffee or Altantic Speciality.  Royal and
Atlantic do a good job of screening.  Nobody that I know of expect our
host, Tom cups every lot he sells.  This is one of the big differences
with the coffee from Sweet Marias, we are getting the best of the
best!  And to answer one of your other questions, unfortunately yes,
the Big Boys do dilute the junk with good coffee and call it their
premium coffee.
Les
On 7/28/06, Scott Morrison  wrote:
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