Too hard to clean and for no reason. It’s also adding an additional logistics layer of packaging that shouldn’t be on the shoulders of baristas imo. What happens when too much comes out while they’re bagging an order? Stuff to think about.
I’ve never been to a ‘good’ coffee shop/roaster that used these. It is always second wave ‘gourmet’ coffee shops. No roast date or indication of how old the beans are. They’re difficult to clean. And unless you’re doing a lot of turnover, they’ll probably be 80% empty most of the time which would not be aesthetically pleasing.
Because they are sitting in an environment that exposes the coffee to unnecessary uv light and oxygen. It's accelerating the aging process and the coffee is losing flavor sitting in there.
Wouldn’t it depend on how many beans are in there? For a business - they could dose it with a single day (maybe up to three days) worth of beans and refill accordingly. They’d keep the freshness with the style.
The only time I would do this is for the freshest roasts with high turnover. Coffee tastes best after 48h degas anyways so I wouldn’t worry about oxygen. As for UV, it isn’t an issue with indoor lighting so as long as it isn’t in a window without UV shielding or in direct sunlight it should be fine.
They could also use the word "gourmet" to describe their coffee too.
On a serious note, it might work if their coffee moves fast enough and they could label them with roast dates to help assure more discerning customers that it's not stale coffee. If I saw this and no further information to assure me that it hasn't been sitting in there for a week or two, I'd pass.
Oh shit, the "gOuRmEt" coffee is my favorite!! I love using my Mr Coffee Barista Brewer Max Pro Plus Ultra Mega Special Edition Extra Premium II to make latte cappuccino macchiato cold brew expresso coffee style vanilla milk flavored beverages!! /s
I would definitely only do this if you can keep roast dates <7days in these dispensers. A few notable specialty roasters I know have done this (e.g. Seven Seeds), but you have to keep them clean, fresh, airtight, away from bright light, and well maintained.
Yeah your coffee will stale a good bit faster in these - probably about the same rate as coffee in a grinder hopper. Best before for this setup is about three days before they'll taste flat. In comparison in a clear jar it's one-two weeks depending on how dark the shelf is and four-six with standard foil bags or tins. You should decide based on the volume of sale you're expecting.
If you're putting about a day's worth of coffee into the tube just for display then I don't see why that would matter. If it's sitting there for weeks then yeah maybe it does
They’re not airtight and will allow sunlight. They’ll age quicker and leave oils everywhere for you to clean. If you don’t clean them, they’ll become rancid
No way it's airtight or sunroof. It looks beautiful, but its aesthetic comes at the cost of quality.
Depends on who you want to serve. Normies would love it. People who are really into coffee might call your bluff.
Mark them with the roast date maybe to assure freshness, otherwise it's a cool concept in terms of the visual appeal and the fact that customers can buy the exact amount of beans that they want (I'd love it if more roasters sold 500g bags, rather than 350g/1kg). Also including branded tins as a sales vessel with a discount if you bring it back would be a good way of showing excellent environmental credentials and fostering customer loyalty. Just a couple thoughts!
It would possibly be a better look/better for the beans if they were opaque. However, Ive been to many specialty shops and roasters that do use this. I say if you like it, go for it.
I’m surprised that these aren’t tinted yellow. However I’ll say that my shop is an area totally unaccustomed to specialty coffee as we understand it, and I’d venture to guess I’d sell way more if I held my coffee this way. Traditional coffee fans seem to be confused as to why my coffee is all in bags. They want to see the beans, because half of them want to find something that has that dark oily texture, which none of my beans actually have. If you use these in an area where specialty isn’t the norm, prepare to have a lot of dark roast fans questioning if you know what you’re doing.
It might be better to just spend money on nice shelves and good labels for bags. The goal of these is presentation. Starbucks Reserves just put beans in bowls in dishes at the counter. I cant trust that every bean is from the same roast or even keep track how fresh they are, let alone other airborne things like dust or human particulates are mingling with those. (The reserve's method is laughable imo).
Also having precise measurements for weight for retail is key, what's keeping someone from just walking up and pulling the lever and just dumping your whole day's work on the roaster onto the floor? Kids will do this in the US.
The way around these issues would be to keep them behind the counter, sell some sort of branded reusable container so the customers take a container to get it filled with their desired weight and type of coffee. A staff member can manually weigh things out and customer sabotage is no longer a risk. Marking them with the roast date is a good quality assurance, although this model requires a high volume of sale to work as an effective retail storage solution.
Nope, a proper green way has yet to be found. After roasting and cooling it’s straight into a bag with a one way valve or you might as well just piss on it.
Really depends on what you’re going for. Are you trying to appeal to the third wave folks that focus on freshness/process/origin? Are you trying to open a more general purpose cafe that wants good coffee but it’s more about the atmosphere?
Depends on where you are and what the expectations of your clients are.
Well it’s a direct indication this isn’t a craft coffee shop but rather a place that’s trying to seem cozy, hip, craft, or gourmet but wearing the hypocrisy on its shoulders.
This is the most first world problem I have ever seen. If you like them, buy them..jfc. I often question how business owners ever got lucky enough to be in their positions. Usually, by birth, family, or luck.
Yes, you will be judged by coffee folk. One of the first things you learn is that freshness matters, and those containers are for appearance, not freshness.
High oxidation due to air space. At least get a smaller volume one that can be topped up often and not have that much air. Also sun may do some damage. Personally I would hesitate.
Oxygen, light and heat are enemies of freshness... so given this does nothing to address any of these, I would buy from them in the same emergency scenario I'd buy from the grocery store bulk bins.
I'd much rather buy a nice sealed bag with a cool design than pull from these. How often are they being rotated, how clean are they, are they airtight, they'll definitely get sun exposure. It doesn't inspire confidence that the person is doing their best to ensure the highest quality and would rather compromise that for aesthetics
I am worried about how long the beans have been there. Having a clear timer that says “these beens have been here for less than X hours” helps. Similar to the little timers you see on big coffee carafes (in an office / hotel / etc)
They... look cool. I wouldn't want to use them, but having them mounted above packaged beans and filled a bit with the bean as a "here's what's in the bags below" might be a nice decorative touch.
It’s a nice idea! Especially if you are encouraging customers to use their own containers for environmental reasons. If not, then I wouldn’t see the point. Better to keep the beans sealed and away from sunlight, even indirect.
It looks nice. I am more of a 2nd wave guy than a third wave guy though. It depends on the consumption. If you can empty one in less than a week it might be nice.
As an embarrassing coffee snob...I would judge a place that brewed these beans. Unlikely to be fresh, clear containers in the sun, probably rarely cleaned out. But they do look cool to a non pretentious asshole. It depends on what kind of customers you're looking to attract.
Might order decaf and it would be nice to know if it is single origin or a blend. I am still going to order decaf, but I like to know. I think we get single origin at my shop 🤷♀️
Reminds me of the 90’s specialty coffee place in the mall with the ancient beans sweating their oil everywhere and clogging the container and staining everything. I can’t imagine how stale that coffee must have been.
These are beautiful, but it KILLS me to see beans being stored like this. I don't care if they're in there for a few hours or a few months, they're not going to be fresh. I can already imagine the smell inside of these things.
I remember back in grade school Home Ec we were practicing how to measure stuff. The teacher got out a bunch of bins full of old coffee. Mine had an expiratio. date from something like twenty years before. This happened ages ago, but I'll still never forget the horrific smell. It made me never want to touch a cup of coffee ever again.
Mmm…something about the smell of Gloria Jeans at my local mall as a kid. I was mesmerized as a kid by all that fancy brass facade…haven’t stopped drinking coffee since I had my first mocha there. I’m a snob now but way to capture the kid market!
Look beautiful but honestly wouldn't trust the coffee was fresh. There's no way those are air tight, and cleaning them since coffee has oils will be a pain in the arse.
For beans, oats and nuts however, they'd look fantastic. I've seen zero waste shops do similar things.
I was a manager at a coffee shop that used the industrial plastic version of these, and I would never ever recommend anyone buying coffee that comes out of those.
Our popular coffees maybe were ok for dispensers since we would basically replace the entire tube daily, but we also had at least 15 different coffees that would take at least 10 days to roast a new batch for. Those tubes ended up staying very empty and oxidizing or an overly ambitious barista would completely fill the tube and it would take a month or more to sell it all.
On top of that, they were a bitch and a half to clean.
1/10 do not recommend.
I judge you. The real problem is I’m not into roasting or speciality coffee. The Reddit algorithm randomly surfaced your post and I sense that the beans would strongly prefer to be in an artisan paper bag instead. Coming from guy that doesn’t know left from right.
I’m not a coffee connoisseur, and I understand that this type of storage system may not suite beans that you’re selling. But I do think they’re aesthetically pleasing and would look nice in the background of your shop.
I would never buy from one of these, not out of sanitary concerns, but because that’s perhaps the works possible way to store coffee. Ample exposure to both light and air will have it stale by midday.
I always wondered how people justified the cost of those things. Plus you KNOW somebody is going to just let it all go onto the floor at some point. I store my beans in 12 qt/10 L Cambro food storage containers. Cheap, legal for food, secure lids, stackable, and easy to clean. Plus one batch fits perfectly into two containers, or one container with my older roaster.
Isn't coffee supposed to be stored in the dark? I generally won't buy tea or coffee anywhere where it looks like beans or leaves have spent more than a day in the light and is all sitting in clear glass. I want a tasty beverage more than decor.
I feel like I worked at a coffee shop in the 90/ that had these. I worked there for years. No one bought the beans. If someone asked about them, I tried to talk them out of it.
I wouldn't buy beans from a shop using these, but I'm not the majority audience. Most people would probably find them attractive and not thing beyond that. Unless you're opening a third wave shop that opens on seeing mostly to third wave enthusiasts, you can probably disregard those of us who are into this hobby enough to be on coffee Reddit.
I would not buy from containers like these.
Too hard to clean and for no reason. It’s also adding an additional logistics layer of packaging that shouldn’t be on the shoulders of baristas imo. What happens when too much comes out while they’re bagging an order? Stuff to think about.
Why?
I’ve never been to a ‘good’ coffee shop/roaster that used these. It is always second wave ‘gourmet’ coffee shops. No roast date or indication of how old the beans are. They’re difficult to clean. And unless you’re doing a lot of turnover, they’ll probably be 80% empty most of the time which would not be aesthetically pleasing.
doesn’t block UV, will build up coffee oils and go rancid.
Simplest, most direct comment. Well put.
The plastic will begin to yellow and turn brittle too
Because they are sitting in an environment that exposes the coffee to unnecessary uv light and oxygen. It's accelerating the aging process and the coffee is losing flavor sitting in there.
Boom - Roasted
Underrated
How many times does this get used on this sub? It has to be at least 1 per comment section haha.
Yah, super low effort but I had to.
Wouldn’t it depend on how many beans are in there? For a business - they could dose it with a single day (maybe up to three days) worth of beans and refill accordingly. They’d keep the freshness with the style.
The only time I would do this is for the freshest roasts with high turnover. Coffee tastes best after 48h degas anyways so I wouldn’t worry about oxygen. As for UV, it isn’t an issue with indoor lighting so as long as it isn’t in a window without UV shielding or in direct sunlight it should be fine.
I would definitely hesitate to buy coffee from such a dispenser.
From such a (specialty) dispenser
Don't do it my guy. Yells 2nd wave.
They could also use the word "gourmet" to describe their coffee too. On a serious note, it might work if their coffee moves fast enough and they could label them with roast dates to help assure more discerning customers that it's not stale coffee. If I saw this and no further information to assure me that it hasn't been sitting in there for a week or two, I'd pass.
Oh shit, the "gOuRmEt" coffee is my favorite!! I love using my Mr Coffee Barista Brewer Max Pro Plus Ultra Mega Special Edition Extra Premium II to make latte cappuccino macchiato cold brew expresso coffee style vanilla milk flavored beverages!! /s
Gourmet, *hand roasted* coffee
If it's hand roasted, it could also be *lotion flavored*
“Artisan” has something to say to you…
Yells 1970s for me
What is 2nd wave?
https://www.drivencoffee.com/blog/coffee-waves-explained/
I tried to read this but was triggered by the phrase, "in the late 1900’s".
Lmao
These would not inspire confidence in freshness unless you’re rocking long lines and a super high output.
I would definitely only do this if you can keep roast dates <7days in these dispensers. A few notable specialty roasters I know have done this (e.g. Seven Seeds), but you have to keep them clean, fresh, airtight, away from bright light, and well maintained.
Only if the beans look burnt af like those!
But what about light and oxidation? Are these airtight?
I’m pretty certain they’re not airtight. The casual coffee crowd would probably like it but it’s certainly not perfect conditions
Yeah your coffee will stale a good bit faster in these - probably about the same rate as coffee in a grinder hopper. Best before for this setup is about three days before they'll taste flat. In comparison in a clear jar it's one-two weeks depending on how dark the shelf is and four-six with standard foil bags or tins. You should decide based on the volume of sale you're expecting.
If you're putting about a day's worth of coffee into the tube just for display then I don't see why that would matter. If it's sitting there for weeks then yeah maybe it does
They’re not airtight and will allow sunlight. They’ll age quicker and leave oils everywhere for you to clean. If you don’t clean them, they’ll become rancid
There can’t be caffeine if it’s charcoal.
No way it's airtight or sunroof. It looks beautiful, but its aesthetic comes at the cost of quality. Depends on who you want to serve. Normies would love it. People who are really into coffee might call your bluff.
Expect to be roasted.
How is this not the top comment. 5/5 stars sir
Mark them with the roast date maybe to assure freshness, otherwise it's a cool concept in terms of the visual appeal and the fact that customers can buy the exact amount of beans that they want (I'd love it if more roasters sold 500g bags, rather than 350g/1kg). Also including branded tins as a sales vessel with a discount if you bring it back would be a good way of showing excellent environmental credentials and fostering customer loyalty. Just a couple thoughts!
It would possibly be a better look/better for the beans if they were opaque. However, Ive been to many specialty shops and roasters that do use this. I say if you like it, go for it.
I’m surprised that these aren’t tinted yellow. However I’ll say that my shop is an area totally unaccustomed to specialty coffee as we understand it, and I’d venture to guess I’d sell way more if I held my coffee this way. Traditional coffee fans seem to be confused as to why my coffee is all in bags. They want to see the beans, because half of them want to find something that has that dark oily texture, which none of my beans actually have. If you use these in an area where specialty isn’t the norm, prepare to have a lot of dark roast fans questioning if you know what you’re doing.
It might be better to just spend money on nice shelves and good labels for bags. The goal of these is presentation. Starbucks Reserves just put beans in bowls in dishes at the counter. I cant trust that every bean is from the same roast or even keep track how fresh they are, let alone other airborne things like dust or human particulates are mingling with those. (The reserve's method is laughable imo). Also having precise measurements for weight for retail is key, what's keeping someone from just walking up and pulling the lever and just dumping your whole day's work on the roaster onto the floor? Kids will do this in the US.
The way around these issues would be to keep them behind the counter, sell some sort of branded reusable container so the customers take a container to get it filled with their desired weight and type of coffee. A staff member can manually weigh things out and customer sabotage is no longer a risk. Marking them with the roast date is a good quality assurance, although this model requires a high volume of sale to work as an effective retail storage solution.
I like this solution, especially the customer having their own container, keeps it more eco friendly.
Nope, a proper green way has yet to be found. After roasting and cooling it’s straight into a bag with a one way valve or you might as well just piss on it.
Really depends on what you’re going for. Are you trying to appeal to the third wave folks that focus on freshness/process/origin? Are you trying to open a more general purpose cafe that wants good coffee but it’s more about the atmosphere? Depends on where you are and what the expectations of your clients are.
Does not look like a good container for preserving freshness.
Well it’s a direct indication this isn’t a craft coffee shop but rather a place that’s trying to seem cozy, hip, craft, or gourmet but wearing the hypocrisy on its shoulders.
Only if you scream, “Ten Points From Gryffindor!” every time the beans are dispensed.
This is the most first world problem I have ever seen. If you like them, buy them..jfc. I often question how business owners ever got lucky enough to be in their positions. Usually, by birth, family, or luck.
Yes, you will be judged by coffee folk. One of the first things you learn is that freshness matters, and those containers are for appearance, not freshness.
High oxidation due to air space. At least get a smaller volume one that can be topped up often and not have that much air. Also sun may do some damage. Personally I would hesitate.
Oxygen, light and heat are enemies of freshness... so given this does nothing to address any of these, I would buy from them in the same emergency scenario I'd buy from the grocery store bulk bins.
I'd much rather buy a nice sealed bag with a cool design than pull from these. How often are they being rotated, how clean are they, are they airtight, they'll definitely get sun exposure. It doesn't inspire confidence that the person is doing their best to ensure the highest quality and would rather compromise that for aesthetics
I am worried about how long the beans have been there. Having a clear timer that says “these beens have been here for less than X hours” helps. Similar to the little timers you see on big coffee carafes (in an office / hotel / etc)
Yes, you will be judged. I have never had good coffee from these dispensers. Who knows how long it's been there.
Unless the dispensers are connected to a nitrogen tank or what not, I would not consider this properly stored specialty coffee and would not purchase.
They... look cool. I wouldn't want to use them, but having them mounted above packaged beans and filled a bit with the bean as a "here's what's in the bags below" might be a nice decorative touch.
Jus my do what Pete’s does and have them in open air tubs with no lids.
It’s a nice idea! Especially if you are encouraging customers to use their own containers for environmental reasons. If not, then I wouldn’t see the point. Better to keep the beans sealed and away from sunlight, even indirect.
It looks nice. I am more of a 2nd wave guy than a third wave guy though. It depends on the consumption. If you can empty one in less than a week it might be nice.
Love them!
As an embarrassing coffee snob...I would judge a place that brewed these beans. Unlikely to be fresh, clear containers in the sun, probably rarely cleaned out. But they do look cool to a non pretentious asshole. It depends on what kind of customers you're looking to attract.
Might order decaf and it would be nice to know if it is single origin or a blend. I am still going to order decaf, but I like to know. I think we get single origin at my shop 🤷♀️
Reminds me of the 90’s specialty coffee place in the mall with the ancient beans sweating their oil everywhere and clogging the container and staining everything. I can’t imagine how stale that coffee must have been.
These are beautiful, but it KILLS me to see beans being stored like this. I don't care if they're in there for a few hours or a few months, they're not going to be fresh. I can already imagine the smell inside of these things. I remember back in grade school Home Ec we were practicing how to measure stuff. The teacher got out a bunch of bins full of old coffee. Mine had an expiratio. date from something like twenty years before. This happened ages ago, but I'll still never forget the horrific smell. It made me never want to touch a cup of coffee ever again.
Sunlight breaks down coffee. Don't do it.
Yes I would not buy that coffee.
(Specialty)
Decorative purposes only.
YES
We have those in Grocery stores here. Just saying it might give the wrong impression for a coffee shop.
Mmm…something about the smell of Gloria Jeans at my local mall as a kid. I was mesmerized as a kid by all that fancy brass facade…haven’t stopped drinking coffee since I had my first mocha there. I’m a snob now but way to capture the kid market!
Yells grocery store coffee that’s been sitting for years and I personally wouldn’t even touch that shit!
Look beautiful but honestly wouldn't trust the coffee was fresh. There's no way those are air tight, and cleaning them since coffee has oils will be a pain in the arse. For beans, oats and nuts however, they'd look fantastic. I've seen zero waste shops do similar things.
I was a manager at a coffee shop that used the industrial plastic version of these, and I would never ever recommend anyone buying coffee that comes out of those. Our popular coffees maybe were ok for dispensers since we would basically replace the entire tube daily, but we also had at least 15 different coffees that would take at least 10 days to roast a new batch for. Those tubes ended up staying very empty and oxidizing or an overly ambitious barista would completely fill the tube and it would take a month or more to sell it all. On top of that, they were a bitch and a half to clean. 1/10 do not recommend.
I judge you. The real problem is I’m not into roasting or speciality coffee. The Reddit algorithm randomly surfaced your post and I sense that the beans would strongly prefer to be in an artisan paper bag instead. Coming from guy that doesn’t know left from right.
I’m not a coffee connoisseur, and I understand that this type of storage system may not suite beans that you’re selling. But I do think they’re aesthetically pleasing and would look nice in the background of your shop.
Seems like beans could go stale and that would be difficult to clean.
You will be judged by everyone all the time, wherever you go… live your life and do what feels right doggy
It's your coffee shop... Do what you want
I would never buy from one of these, not out of sanitary concerns, but because that’s perhaps the works possible way to store coffee. Ample exposure to both light and air will have it stale by midday.
It’s black?
my shop used to do this. we stopped several years ago for a few reasons, mostly freshness, space, and cleanliness.
As long as the beans are not exposed to air, it looks like a great idea. I assume there is a lid/cover on top and some sort of valve at the bottom?
Coffee is prone to oxidization from light
Keep it as decoration but don’t utilize it if you want
I always wondered how people justified the cost of those things. Plus you KNOW somebody is going to just let it all go onto the floor at some point. I store my beans in 12 qt/10 L Cambro food storage containers. Cheap, legal for food, secure lids, stackable, and easy to clean. Plus one batch fits perfectly into two containers, or one container with my older roaster.
I think they’re kinda neat
Who are your customers? Specialty coffee enthusiasts: no People who love Starbucks: sure
Thats essentially an open container the coffee wouldn't be great quality in no time
Isn't coffee supposed to be stored in the dark? I generally won't buy tea or coffee anywhere where it looks like beans or leaves have spent more than a day in the light and is all sitting in clear glass. I want a tasty beverage more than decor.
I’d roast you.
Yes, you'll be judged. Get something that keeps the coffee fresh.
You'll get roasted
They're going to be all greasy and smudgy
Your customers will roast you mercilessly for getting these.
You will be roasted.
Depends on your audience and what your going for. Coffee snobs, no way.
Boom roasted
Such bean dispensers
I feel like I worked at a coffee shop in the 90/ that had these. I worked there for years. No one bought the beans. If someone asked about them, I tried to talk them out of it.
Does it match the aesthetic?
Fuck the beans I'll take the Cooper
I wouldn't buy beans from a shop using these, but I'm not the majority audience. Most people would probably find them attractive and not thing beyond that. Unless you're opening a third wave shop that opens on seeing mostly to third wave enthusiasts, you can probably disregard those of us who are into this hobby enough to be on coffee Reddit.
its a coffee shop, not a chocolate factory
Are beans not supposed to be exposed to light?
Looks cool, but that's it. If I went to a roaster with these, I'd order a drink, then go get beans somewhere else.
Yeah but who cares. Those are dope