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Old greens... what to do with em...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:29 pm
by Joris
About 2 years ago I bought quite an amount of greens (3 sorts, 30kg each) because I was roasting for friends and family as well as for myself. The version 1 of my DIY roaster died on me and I hardly roasted for about a year whilst building version 2 and 3.

When I roast these coffees now they have a strange very in-your-face smell and taste to them, burlap like, so I reckon that they are too old / have been stored the wrong way.

I did a couple of roasts with some fresh greens to doublecheck if it's not a flaw in my roaster but they came out better than fine :)

So now I've got about 60kg of greens left, not suitable to roast and drink imho. Any ideas what I can do with those beans (except the obvious dumping in the bin) ?

RE: Old greens... what to do with em...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:33 pm
by bruceb
I have a bunch of beans much older than that and although they have lost a lot of character they are still pleasant enough to use. I generally mix them with fresher beans of the same type and they are fine. I wonder whether your beans were not subjected to too high humidity. I keep mine in paper bags (or jute) in a room at about 15°C and relatively low humidity.

RE: Old greens... what to do with em...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:54 pm
by anette
Roast them up and use them to wear in a new grinder, season a new roaster, compost them, use grounds for slug repellent, give them to a candle/soap/other crafts workshop, give them to someone who can use them as decoration?

PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:56 pm
by JulieJayne
What beans are we talking about? Can you send a sample, so that a prospective purchaser could check this
strange very in-your-face smell and taste to them, burlap like
flavour for themselves?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:48 am
by Joris
JulieJayne wrote:What beans are we talking about? Can you send a sample, so that a prospective purchaser could check this
Quote:
strange very in-your-face smell and taste to them, burlap like
flavour for themselves?


Its Etheopia Golocha, Sidamo and Panama Bambito. About the flavour... I do like aged coffees but this smell / taste is nothing like any aged coffee I've ever roasted / drank.

If you'd like to have some of it (roasted/unroasted) you can :) I'd like some feedback if your experience is the same or different.


Bruce wrote:I have a bunch of beans much older than that and although they have lost a lot of character they are still pleasant enough to use. I generally mix them with fresher beans of the same type and they are fine. I wonder whether your beans were not subjected to too high humidity. I keep mine in paper bags (or jute) in a room at about 15°C and relatively low humidity.


The were stored in jute bags in a wooden cabinet. About the humidity I'm not sure but temperatures might have fluctuated between 12 and 25 C.

I roasted a couple of batches again, if I grind the beans the first whiff smells quite nice but the second whiff is only that particular smell. All three coffees have it. Other coffees I roast don't have it... Well, I'll wait a couple of days (degassing) and taste them....

Anette, thanks for the suggestions... hadn't thought about the soap/candle making ...

PostPosted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:29 pm
by bruceb
Joris, could it be that they picked up an odour from something in the room? Or from the cabinet itself?
BTW, I was recently given a bar of soap decorated with roasted coffee beans. It's not to be used as soap, but more like a decoration and it gives off a sweet, coffee aroma. It's very attractive.

PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:18 pm
by Joris
Could be, from the cabinet that is. Not sure though, will have a smell later on ;)
Anyway, from now on I'll store my greens different, no jute sacks but nice metal foodgrade coated tins. Gives off no smell and keeps humidity out. Will put them in my hallway since it is usually 16 to 18C there even in summer (coolest place in the house). Cheers, Joris

PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:44 am
by MKSwing
You can offer them to Gouezeri, he's a well known bean archeologist.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:04 am
by Joris
Or hide them in some muffins for Cakey ;)

PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:14 pm
by bruceb
Or re-label them as OBJ and send them to George. Image

PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:47 pm
by GreenBean
Or you could donate them to power the Cappuccino Car.

According to the article your 30 kg should power the car for about 90 miles. :D

Seriously though, has anybody had success storing greens in a tin or other air tight containers for many months? I used large tupperware type containers when I first stored greens some years ago. It was a disaster, after about 5 months the beans had developed a musty odour. I ended up throwing about 20 kg of beans away. :cry:

Since then I have used brown paper bags and find them perfect. I use large bags that can easily hold 4 kg per bag. I have had no problems storing this way. Some of my beans are now two years old and are still very good though perhaps a little muted due to age.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:11 pm
by bruceb
I also store in paper or cloth bags without problem. Karin had some unprinted, natural linen material that she didn't need and she sewed me some bags with zippers, which is overkill, but what the heck. I've had some beans that I received in sealed cellophane type bags that weren't all that great to start with, but they don't seem to have suffered from storage. Cellophane is cellulose based and not to be confused with plastic.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:09 am
by Joris
OBJ tastes nice whereas my beans have a very unpleasant taste (oohaarr, sounds a bit rude) I think even George would notice that ;)

Green, Thanks for the link to the carpuccino, nice read :) If I remember correctly there's also a Brazilian project about producing bio-diesel from coffeebeans....

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:50 am
by GreenBean
Joris wrote:Green, Thanks for the link to the carpuccino, nice read :) If I remember correctly there's also a Brazilian project about producing bio-diesel from coffeebeans....

Could there be an opportunity here for a well known micro roaster to move onto the oil companies territory? Perhaps world domination is moving a step closer. :D

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:23 am
by CakeBoy
GreenBean wrote:
Joris wrote:Green, Thanks for the link to the carpuccino, nice read :) If I remember correctly there's also a Brazilian project about producing bio-diesel from coffeebeans....

Could there be an opportunity here for a well known micro roaster to move onto the oil companies territory? Perhaps world domination is moving a step closer. :D


That would be a rather slick move on his part .........

................ I'll get the proverbial coat :oops: :roll: