Green Coffee Beans

Or roast you own....

http://www.instructables.com/id/4-different-roasters/?ALLSTEPS

Lots of roasters on Ebay. You can also roast chiles, peanuts, vegetables, meats. The best temperature is supposed to be 500 degrees - so mesquite charcoal is probably you best heat source - a lick of smoke flavor too.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/drum-coffee-roaster

SunFan wrote:

lunateak wrote:Go to el Arbol Café, introduce yourself to Lalo, the owner, and ask questions.  He installed a new roaster a short while ago and if he's not too busy he's usually happy to talk about coffee.

His number is 376 765 3908.

I am growing coffee bushes in my yard. Is there somewhere Lakeside I can get the beans roasted???

Thanks

SunFan

You are looking for a roaster; fastfox is looking for beans...looks like a marriage made in ......   

you can roast the beans on a comal that is the way it is down in Chiapas

CheenaGringo wrote:A question: with all the different varieties of coffees available on today's market - WHY? I consider myself a bit of a coffee snob but I pay absolutely no attention to brand names. For me it is about the "depth and complexity of flavor" that our coffee maker produces with the roasted beans we choose to purchase.

Green coffee beans can be stored much longer
They are less expensive

CheenaGringo wrote:A question: with all the different varieties of coffees available on today's market - WHY?  I consider myself a bit of a coffee snob but I pay absolutely no attention to brand names.  For me it is about the "depth and complexity of flavor" that our coffee maker produces with the roasted beans we choose to purchase.

Well not in Mexico. I can't buy the European blends that I like. I used to buy, for a short time an expensive Italian brand - but not any more (the store went broke). I don't drink coffee any more, Mexican coffee is generally chalky and only has one note for flavor. Maybe it's time to spend some more time down here before spreading your nuggets of wisdom? Sheesh.

Okay, since coffee buying, tasting and roasting was my profession for 30 years and I still keep a hand in it, a few words about coffee down here.

You should be able to get green Mexican coffee from either Grano Café or Arbol for under $3 a pound U.S. if they feel like selling them to you, but then you need a good home roaster (a decent one like the Behmor is $300, a really good one triple that), and given that you can buy coffee of better quality than any of the local roasters sell from Costco (their house blend, whole bean) for 125 pesos per kilo, expertly roasted and sealed in a valve bag with months of shelf life, why would you bother?

Now if there were real variety of green coffee here in México that'd be another matter, as the best that México has to offer is just passable when compared with top coffees from Guatemala, Kenya, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and many other places. But this country like most other coffee-growing countries severely restricts the importation of competing beans. Live in the U.S.? Order your coffee and your roaster from Sweet Maria's (.com) and you really can save money on some truly fabulous coffees.

As for making the best of what does exist here, I suggest reading the article on coffee on my food blog:

http://eatinglocalatlakeside.blogspot.mx/2012/06/buying-brewing-good-coffee-at-lake.html

Feel free to PM me with any questions.

I was waiting for you to weigh in, Kevin. Thanks!

thanks coffee guy fer a very interesting post! fer medical reasons i can only drink decafe and we get a kilo+ from el arbol fer 125p freshly ground. i like it but i ain't no connaisseur. it sure smells good though.

Based upon Kevin's recommendation, we purchased the Breville You Brew coffee maker which grinds the whole beans immediately before brewing:
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This coffee maker brews at an optimum temperature and produces a fine cup of coffee.

In looking at the Lakeside Express site, I see that Costco in Mexico carries the whole bean coffee from Guatemala and Rwanda:
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For our personal tastes, we enjoy both of these in addition to the Sumatra blend which doesn't show on the Lakeside Express site.

The list does not have everything available--just most ordered items. Lakeside Express guys say if you don´t see something on their list, write it in. They will check to see if what you want is available.

Lakeside Express offers an invaluable service for those of us who don't want to go into Costco all the time, but they carry only a small subset of Costco's items and their (Lakeside's) web site is woefully inaccurate in its product listings (which may well be Costco's fault).

Anyway, the Guatemalan and Rwanda coffees shown aren't available from Lakeside Express and are also only sporadically available at Costco retail stores in Guad. On the decaf front, they do carry Cafe Garat, which is more expensive than Costco's own brand and is ground but is certainly very good quality.

You can certainly get much better coffee in the U.S., but at 135 pesos a kilo for really good Mexican coffee here we are paying less than $5 a pound for our daily brew. The good stuff N.O.B. starts at three to four times that price. Viva México!

coffeeguy wrote:Okay, since coffee buying, tasting and roasting was my profession for 30 years and I still keep a hand in it, a few words about coffee down here.

You should be able to get green Mexican coffee from either Grano Café or Arbol for under $3 a pound U.S. if they feel like selling them to you, but then you need a good home roaster (a decent one like the Behmor is $300, a really good one triple that), and given that you can buy coffee of better quality than any of the local roasters sell from Costco (their house blend, whole bean) for 125 pesos per kilo, expertly roasted and sealed in a valve bag with months of shelf life, why would you bother?

Now if there were real variety of green coffee here in México that'd be another matter, as the best that México has to offer is just passable when compared with top coffees from Guatemala, Kenya, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and many other places. But this country like most other coffee-growing countries severely restricts the importation of competing beans. Live in the U.S.? Order your coffee and your roaster from Sweet Maria's (.com) and you really can save money on some truly fabulous coffees.

As for making the best of what does exist here, I suggest reading the article on coffee on my food blog:

http://eatinglocalatlakeside.blogspot.mx/2012/06/buying-brewing-good-coffee-at-lake.html

Feel free to PM me with any questions.

Thank you for your thoughts on this. I will probably PM you with a couple of questions. Actually, I had read your great article and was having trouble locating it again, so I am glad you posted the link.

it's nice to be able to walk about 300+/- yards fer our fresh decaf to el arbol instead of going to costco.
and support a local business.

No disagreement from me Pedro about El Arbol - they're really good folks.

For Kevin:
Rwandan: http://lakesideexpress.com/costco/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_15&products_id=3006
Guatemalan: http://lakesideexpress.com/costco/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_15&products_id=1617

As previously mentioned, we also like the Sumatra:
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Technical question for Kevin: why do the typical beans roasted in Mexico appear to be so dry on the surface when compared to my above mentioned coffees with a dark oily appearance?