), I thought humbly that I could write something, as I've bought coffee from them.
So, here comes my twopence's worth:
Smith's DO sell greens. I got their number from DR Wakefield, of which I know nothing except that they are among other things the importers of the Harrar produced ny the Oromia Coop (that's how I got DR wakefield name in the first place, having been in touch by email with the Oromia Coop. N.b. to anyone wanting to import direct from them: their minimum selling quantity is 18 tons! Given that this was my first foray into green coffee buying, a bit of a shock it was
). The Oromia Harrar is also sold by Sweet Marias, so that should give them some good kudos IMHO.
Anyway, as I said they sell greens. This might no be on their website but if you give them a ring the nice lady at the other end of the phone will kindly suggest to send you a list of available coffees, which is pretty long indeed (about 50, i'd say).
They operate a pricing policy per kilo as follow (as far as I can remember, since I can't put my hand on the list at the mo'
):
-a price for a bag of 60 kilos
-1 kilo or above
-less than 1 kilo
Now as Colin Smith from the similar named Coffee Compnay
mentions their prices are very reasonable indeed: the price for 1 kilo or more is about £3.5-£4 per kilo, less than 1 kilo about £4.5-£5.
When I called them to buy some, and given that I didn't know which to buy, the same nice lady suggested to send me SAMPLES in the form of my choice (green, roasted, ground). Now you can say what you like but sending samples to a guy who a) is obvioulsy totally new to coffee and b) is never going to be a big client (5 kilos - which is what I bought in the end - for these guys is small change) is pretty darn nice. The other option she offered was to come to their place and taste all the different coffees (also a very nice suggestion!) but since I live in Manchester and they're in Hemel Hamstead, not that convenient for me sadly).
So I bought my 5 kilos of different coffees (harrar, Yirg (obvioulsy
), Ling tong, kenya AA and sulawesi) and paid about £28 quids. A VERY GOOD PRICE.
Which leads me now to the most important question of all, namely quality.
Since my roasting technique is in its infancy as well as very artisanal indeed, I can't say anything neither definitive nor authoritative. None of the coffees so far have given me a wow factor (such as, to compare, the Harrar from Hill and Valley), but this might have more to do with my roasting than their beans. If I can foray into speculative territory I'd say the beans have some part to play in that, and as I roast more and hopefully better I will see if the end result improves or not (and shall revise my judgement
).
(One thing i should say is that the samples were all roasted light, which was a bit surprising (to me) for the Harrar in particular. If you're buying green obviously that isn't going to be a factor, and I guess that if you buy roasted you can ask what roast you like (?) )
This also leads to another caveat, which is that you don't get much in terms of info on the beans (origin, crop, etc.), neither on the website nor on the list I received. Coffe labelled 'Kenya AA' is not that much info.
So, to summarize, IMHO for a TMC member looking for a supplier I'd say: very nice people, very helpful, great prices. On the downside: not enough info, a website that's a bit rudimentary. The big Q question I don't want to pronounce myself upon, as I'm too junior to do so.
To conclude, and at the risk (yet again!) of offending our HB Mentor I'd follow the confused.com advert (that's for those of us in the UK who watch too much TV
): Give them a try! What's the risk? the price's good, so if the coffee's too you'll be very happy indeed and if not you'll have something to offer to drink to those guests you don't like!
Phew, that's it. Hope it's useful to anyone and would love to hear other opinions.
Fred.
