Any coffee fans?

[GreenbergWoods]

Hey guys, im trying something a little new. I am stocking some really nice coffee varieties

For years, I have worked with suppliers in the tropical world, in Brazil, Sumatra, Java, Mexico, Columbia and Vietnam, all of which are famous for their coffees as well as local timbers. I often ask my suppliers to send me a bag of their favorite local coffee. After I started gifting these to clients, i found a huge interest. The coffees are all premium, single source beans and are freshly roasted.

Coffee arrives in 500 gram/ 1.1 pound bags, foil lined, with resealable zippers and CO2 vents to stay fresh. I have Light, medium and dark roasts.

All the coffee is currently of the Caturra variety, a low yield, high quality mutation of the famed Bourbon cultivar.

This is NOT a source of profit for me. I am selling these at about cost, its mostly just a bonus service i can provide, and this particular batch is also something of a trial run. It seems to me the kind of people who appreciate a good knife also appreciate a good cup of coffee. This particular variety normally goes for $25-$32 a pound, I have it listed at $15 for over a pound. Its a pretty sweet deal.

I am not a coffee expert, just a fan, so if anyone has more experience and buys a bag, I would love to hear your opinions on it!

You can find it here
http://greenbergwoods.com/single-source-roasted-coffee/

Mark, id love for you to send me an email so we can talk about the handle discount competition and I can also send you a bag.

[timos]

ben , do you mean to tell me i could have been getting coffee beans instead of ironwood scrap with all my orders? how have i not been gifted these beans? am i not your favorite client? BEN !! your packaging seems to be pretty nice for such a casual endeavor lol, anyways.....i love coffee

[Bensbites]

I am a home coffee roaster for personal use. I have been roasting for about 5 years now. Let me know if you ever want to talk coffee in addition to wood. There is a pretty good hone coffee roasting group on Facebook.

[Altadan]

Very generous of you, Ben.
I Would be happy to give it a grind and pass it through the espresso machine to see how it turns out. When the current supply will dwindle by the end of November, I'll be sure to check it out.
Maybe folks can post some response here on the thread

[GreenbergWoods]

ben , do you mean to tell me i could have been getting coffee beans instead of ironwood scrap with all my orders? how have i not been gifted these beans? am i not your favorite client? BEN !! your packaging seems to be pretty nice for such a casual endeavor lol, anyways.....i love coffee

Sorry Tim! This first batch was just roasted and arrived 2 days ago. Let me know if you want to get a bag! It's good stuff.

[GreenbergWoods]

Very generous of you, Ben.
I Would be happy to give it a grind and pass it through the espresso machine to see how it turns out. When the current supply will dwindle by the end of November, I'll be sure to check it out.
Maybe folks can post some response here on the thread

Sounds great. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

[GreenbergWoods]

ben , do you mean to tell me i could have been getting coffee beans instead of ironwood scrap with all my orders? how have i not been gifted these beans? am i not your favorite client? BEN !! your packaging seems to be pretty nice for such a casual endeavor lol, anyways.....i love coffee

Also, its honestly something experimental for me in a lot of ways. I have been able to stay current and relevant in the wood market, basically because I offer woods and knowledge a lot more in line with the more educated, generally slightly older and professional knife maker/ collector crowd. Mainly by focusing on super high quality woods, really extensive knowledge, and a wide variety of difficult to find woods. Rather than the lower end, tacticrap, EDC sword and what not crowd.

But, with knife making growing so quickly, I cant get complacent. And in my experience, that same crowd of slightly older, more professional makers and collectors who tend to focus on kitchen knives are also big fans of coffee. I've been bringing in coffee from Brazil and Sumatra for a few years for my own personal drinking, but I thought i would try to offer it to my full clientele. Basically trying to stay relevant in groups I sell to.

As for the quality of the packaging and quality of the coffee, part of it is that i dont like to half ass things, this is also the coffee I will personally be drinking so better make it excellent. Its also something I can hopefully add to my resume. I am hoping to go into finance, and then for an MBA. Im a chemist, so I dont really have any finical services connections, and I figure a resume of entrepreneurial start ups and expanding business is a great way to stand out.

[Ut_ron]

I have not ordered any wood from you but WOULD love to get some coffee from you.

[GreenbergWoods]

I have not ordered any wood from you but WOULD love to get some coffee from you.

Sure! You dont need to order wood. Like I said, this is currently pretty experimental. If you want to order some coffee and give your thoughts, I would love that!

[shevitz]

I would be interested but shipping is seemingly a killer. Your base price is great. I'm in NM and got $10 for estimated shipping which nearly doubles the cost. Can you check flat rate or other alternatives?

thanks,
Danny

[GreenbergWoods]

I would be interested but shipping is seemingly a killer. Your base price is great. I'm in NM and got $10 for estimated shipping which nearly doubles the cost. Can you check flat rate or other alternatives?

thanks,
Danny

Unfortunately that is the flat rate shipping. I charge one rate for a package of any size.

If you are looking to offset the cost, I also have some really sweet forged knives and premade handles for sale on the site

[LostHighway]

As someone who cares deeply about good coffee and who has, primarily, been doing his own roasting for a over a decade I wish you well but I can't see this as a viable adjunct to your wood business. I am used to paying $6.00 - $7.00 a pound for quality, single origin, green Caturra and that is in very small quantities (≤20 lbs). There is a ten to fifteen percent weight loss in the roasting process but anyone charging $25 to $32 a pound for roasted, single origin, Caturra is making an extremely hefty margin. Your price is certainly reasonable but here you bump up against cheaper shipping from larger vendors who can also offer a wider selection.
As far as roasting goes if I'm buying commercially roasted coffee I expect a "roasted on" date on the bag and if that date is more than three weeks ago, regardless of how the coffee is packaged, I'll pass.
Good luck, but I think it will be tough to turn a profit with this side venture.

[snipes]

...
As far as roasting goes if I'm buying commercially roasted coffee I expect a "roasted on" date on the bag and if that date is more than three weeks ago, regardless of how the coffee is packaged, I'll pass.
Good luck, but I think it will be tough to turn a profit with this side venture.

This was my first thought as well. I've been buying my coffee from Counter Culture for a number of years now. It's literally roasted the day before it goes out the door and about ~40% lower cost. Automated flat rate shipping is $3 for 2-3 bags from SC to GA every two weeks.

On a similar note to what's being discussed, my brother brought me a bag of coffee from a local "street roaster" a couple months ago. Pretty purple bag with some exotic name on it that was a handmade blend with no clearly marked origin(s) and roast date. I could go to her Facebook page and learn about what went into that particular blend and her roasting frequency, but the price was about $28 a pound or so if I remember correctly. I drank it, enjoyed it and thought is this whole experience an upgrade from what I'm doing now? Easy answer for me.

Best of luck with your endeavor.

[LostHighway]

Not exactly germane to Ben Greenberg's original post, but I'm curious as whether or not there might be interest in coffee and/or tea threads (presumably under What 's Cookin'?)?

[Bensbites]

Not exactly germane to Ben Greenberg's original post, but I'm curious as whether or not there might be interest in coffee and/or tea threads (presumably under What 's Cookin'?)?

As someone who roasts his own coffee and tried almost every brewing methods, I am game.

[LostHighway]

As someone who roasts his own coffee and tried almost every brewing methods, I am game.

I started a thread in What 's Cookin'? on regional commercial coffee roasters, a subject that I hope will have relatively broad interest, just to test the waters, but I threads about countries or regions of origin, brewing methods, roasting, or green bean sources would all be of interest to me.

[faverodefavero]

me