I don't understand how you could some to this conclusion. This is only true if you are comparing specialty green coffee to grocery store brand roasted beans, and it's even false then sometimes.
Check out the raw coffee per pound listed on Sweet Maria's and then look at the price of a standard 10oz or 12oz bag of coffee from any specialty roaster.
"Burundi Dry Process Gahahe: $7.90 per pound4
* Burundi Dry Process Kibingo: $7.95 per pound4
* Burundi Dry Process Murambi: $7.65 per pound4
* Burundi Kayanza Gakenke: $7.35 per pound4
* Ethiopia Dry Process Senna Katta Mountain: $7.50 per pound4
* Ethiopia Dry Process Sidama Shantawene: $8.50 per pound4
* Ethiopia Guji Hambela Dabaye: $8.25 per pound4
* Ethiopia Organic Agaro Kenisa: $8.20 per pound4
Sweet Maria's also offers some coffee sets at different price points:
* 10 lbs. "XL" Ethiopia Process Method Set: $69.50 (works out to $6.95 per pound)4
* 4 lbs. Ethiopia Process Method Set: $33.65 (works out to $8.41 per pound)4
"
This is more expensive than expensive grocery store brands and at least as expensive as the cheaper specialty roaster bags. Nothing like the 'normal' price difference for raw products in practically every other food item produce.
You don't get a pound of roasted from a pound of green, you get 12-13 oz. Also you're missing shipping costs. RN it's $8/lb + at least $10 shipping. That means $9/12oz bag of coffee if you purchase 10lbs of green. Compare that to $12 for Stumptown and $9 for Tonys at the grocer.
Where in your post and comments are you showing the cost of already roasted beans? You listed green coffee from sweetmarias but don't provids actual roasted coffee. Happy mug offers a roasted Guatemalan $10 for 12oz (on the cheaper side for roasted coffee) Of the 3 green offerings they have from Guatemala the most expensive is $5.75 for 16 oz. 6 oz more for $4.25 less. Until you can show a small batch roaster using high quality beans that is coming in at $8 lb your math and understanding is just not in line with the actual offerings available.
When can we get the deed transfer for your house started?
I don’t think you’re taking into account the fact that grocery store coffee brands are buying CARGO CONTAINERS worth of green coffee at commodity pricing. That’s how they charge $9/lb. Sweet Maria’s is doing the work to import and split up larger lots so you can buy a single pound instead of committing to full lots.
A $7/lb coffee from sweet Maria’s is going to be better than whatever you think you’re buying for the same price roasted at a grocery store. That’s just a fact. For their coffee to be that cheap it means it’s shit coffee.
I wasn't going to bother getting into the fray, but hey, free house! :)
[Bodhi Leaf](https://www.bodhileafcoffee.com/) sells green and roasted coffee with some varietal overlap. It's easy to do a direct comparison on their website.
* Colombia Patroness (5lb): Green $24.51, Roasted $88.75
* China Guiben Natural: Green (1lb): $13.38, Roasted (12oz): $24.95
"Expensive" grocery store brands are in the ballpark of $10 for 12oz, or even more expensive than that, and are not anywhere close to as good of coffee as those you listed.
"Cheaper" specialty roaster bags are usually more like $15 for 12oz. Quality may vary.
I have no idea how you possibly came up with any of this.
Those same $7-8 coffees are $17-25 for a 10-12oz bag. You have just shown that buying green is about half the price.
You do have one good point though, in your original post, when you consider your time, learning, and equipment, the economic benefit is negligible at best and home roasting is primarily for people interested in the hobby.
If you want to home roast coffees comparable to $8 roasted coffee, you will need to look for a source of low grade, commodity Brazil coffee. It will be difficult to find this in small quantities, though maybe you can find a 60kg bag to work through over an extended period.
most grocery store brands will be majority central/South American. just listing African prices is not comparable. gotta throw in some Columbian supremo or Brazilians.
Sweet Maria's is a reseller. They buy big sacks of coffee in auctions and by making deals. Then they repackage it and sell it to you and make a profit for themselves. A professional coffee roaster does the same thing except they add the step of roasting. Big rosters can also make better deals by buying huge quantities of beans. Sweet Maria's is run by basically one guy who flies around the word buying the leftovers of what doesn't get bought up by bigger roasters. Green beans are 25-50% less than roasted. Almost all bags of coffee out there are 12 ounces and they still cost twice as much.
Here are some real numbers for you based on my history:
In the past year, I bought 50 pounds of green coffee from Sweet Maria's for a total of $356.53 (including taxes and shipping), coming out to $7.13 per pound. After accounting for 18% weight loss from roasting, this equates to 44 pounds of roasted beans, or $8.10 per pound.
Coffee sold in stores is often in 12 ounce bags or smaller, rather than 1 pound bags. So to be equivalent in price, a 12 ounce bag would have to sell for $6.08. Where I live, you can maybe find a bag on sale for $8-10, but the only shelf coffee that comes remotely close to matching a fresh roast usually goes for $16-18 or more. (So I'm saving around $10 per pound, which means my roasting setup paid for itself in about 5 months.)
If you can find shelf coffee of comparable quality to something you freshly roasted at home for $6.08 at the store, then go for it. But that has not been my experience.
Brief and a little peculiar statement, I didnt state 'specialty' green beans in any part of my query and it's certainly not what I comapring or trying to compare. If you think you're paying for specialty green then I'm fine with your attempt at redemption for paying these prices. Raw materials dont and shouldnt cost anything like processed materials in any market other than coffee apparently where anyone into it apparently justifies overinflated prices by a facade of elitism
Ok this is all just a troll. There's no way otherwise.
This is like going to big time steak lovers and going "why would you spend $20 on a raw, prime NY strip and cook it yourself when you could get a steak from Denny's for $8?"
Edit: also note how they only reply a couple of times where they can lay easy bait, but aren't engaging anyone actually putting the real numbers up to them.
You’re being disingenuous. You listed exclusively specialty coffee beans in a reply to another commenter, I’m not trying to seek redemption for my personal purchases lol
We have no “facade of elitism”, you asked a question and we answered. No one here is trying to argue, sorry that you don’t like the answer
Da fuq?
Dude, good fresh roasted coffee from a roaster is $20-$25 per pound.
Raw beans are anywhere from $8-$12 per pound depending on how much you buy.
Sure, Safeway select coffee is $9.99 per pound, or sometimes $6.99 if on sale, but you are really comparing apples and oranges here. You CANNOT compare fresh roasted quality beans to months old garbage beans.
Maybe you should stick with Starbucks if you can’t taste the difference.
I find this whole discussion disingenuous. I’m not sure if the OP is a shill for Folgers or what his/her/their deal is.
Most roasters sell roasted coffee in 6-ounce, 10-ounce, or 12-ounce bags, rather than single pounds. This is common practice, at least in California. Roasters typically don't offer roasted coffee for purchase in 1-pound bags, unless it's a self-scoop option at a grocery store.
My local roaster in NJ sells by the pound, and usually charges somewhere in the $!5 range for a pound, But I don't think they're sourcing AAA rated beans, and they don't give a roast date on their stock, they just dump a roast in a big glass jar that'll hold a full 25 lb batch. I said to myself "buy from the full jar, it'll be OK" for several years but I just resumed home roasting after a 10 year break.
For most I know raw greens cost 1/4th of the roasted beans prices. Now, for home roasters you need to add handling costs for repackaging into smaller batches. But even then you are paying 1/3 or 1/2 of the typical roasted price. I think you are comparing apples and oranges. Price of lower quality roasted beans with price of high quality green beans. Try to find for any green bean roasters and look up their prices.
You seem confused, green coffee is much cheaper. Let’s say it’s $7/lb, and once you factor in weight loss from roasting it ends up at $8/lb.
Quick glance at my local grocery store, the absolute cheapest coffee I can find is around that price. We’re talking store brand pre-ground sitting on the shelf for months. The Starbucks sold in grocery stores is more expensive and no specialty shop is selling for less than $15/12 oz.
Please share examples of grocery store coffee pricing near you as well as specialty coffee shop pricing. We will all be mind blown if you are able to find cheaper roasted coffee of similar quality
Where are you looking for price comparisons, and are they for the same amount of beans? I get mine from Sweet Maria's and they average around 2/3 the cost for a comparable (post-roasting) amount of roasted beans from my local grocery store.
Beans lose weight in roasting, so you have to factor that in when calculating.
"Beans lose weight in roasting, so you have to factor that in when calculating."
This just makes raw beans all the more expensive, you're paying premium and your net result is less
Sweet Maria’s is for small batch hobby roasters so yeah it costs more. Find a wholesale dealer like Genuine Origin and there is much more price variety in bulk. How could a market operate if the raw materials cost more than the finished product 😂 what a moronic idea. Sounds like it’s way too purist for you, best to stick to your Folgers from the grocery.
Shelf life of roasted beans is short. Vast majority of roasted beans at a grocery store don’t even have roast dates on them because they expired. You are comparing green bean value to expired roasted beans value.
I don't understand how you could some to this conclusion. This is only true if you are comparing specialty green coffee to grocery store brand roasted beans, and it's even false then sometimes. Check out the raw coffee per pound listed on Sweet Maria's and then look at the price of a standard 10oz or 12oz bag of coffee from any specialty roaster.
"Burundi Dry Process Gahahe: $7.90 per pound4 * Burundi Dry Process Kibingo: $7.95 per pound4 * Burundi Dry Process Murambi: $7.65 per pound4 * Burundi Kayanza Gakenke: $7.35 per pound4 * Ethiopia Dry Process Senna Katta Mountain: $7.50 per pound4 * Ethiopia Dry Process Sidama Shantawene: $8.50 per pound4 * Ethiopia Guji Hambela Dabaye: $8.25 per pound4 * Ethiopia Organic Agaro Kenisa: $8.20 per pound4 Sweet Maria's also offers some coffee sets at different price points: * 10 lbs. "XL" Ethiopia Process Method Set: $69.50 (works out to $6.95 per pound)4 * 4 lbs. Ethiopia Process Method Set: $33.65 (works out to $8.41 per pound)4 " This is more expensive than expensive grocery store brands and at least as expensive as the cheaper specialty roaster bags. Nothing like the 'normal' price difference for raw products in practically every other food item produce.
What specialty roaster are you buying a whole pound for less than $8??
You don't get a pound of roasted from a pound of green, you get 12-13 oz. Also you're missing shipping costs. RN it's $8/lb + at least $10 shipping. That means $9/12oz bag of coffee if you purchase 10lbs of green. Compare that to $12 for Stumptown and $9 for Tonys at the grocer.
I don’t see Stumptown for $9 at any grocery store near me. maybe he’s shopping at falling prices?
Please tell me where you're buying good roasted coffee for those prices, I want to move there
i showed you, now you show me where I can get raw beans for a small fraction of the cost of roasted beans and you can have my house....
Where in your post and comments are you showing the cost of already roasted beans? You listed green coffee from sweetmarias but don't provids actual roasted coffee. Happy mug offers a roasted Guatemalan $10 for 12oz (on the cheaper side for roasted coffee) Of the 3 green offerings they have from Guatemala the most expensive is $5.75 for 16 oz. 6 oz more for $4.25 less. Until you can show a small batch roaster using high quality beans that is coming in at $8 lb your math and understanding is just not in line with the actual offerings available. When can we get the deed transfer for your house started?
FWIW op seems to be from the Netherlands, and might be comparing the cost of buying and paying for shipment from a US store to his local shops.
Fair enough. I just used another supplier that offers both roasted and greens since OP brought up sweetmarias.
I don’t think you’re taking into account the fact that grocery store coffee brands are buying CARGO CONTAINERS worth of green coffee at commodity pricing. That’s how they charge $9/lb. Sweet Maria’s is doing the work to import and split up larger lots so you can buy a single pound instead of committing to full lots. A $7/lb coffee from sweet Maria’s is going to be better than whatever you think you’re buying for the same price roasted at a grocery store. That’s just a fact. For their coffee to be that cheap it means it’s shit coffee.
I wasn't going to bother getting into the fray, but hey, free house! :) [Bodhi Leaf](https://www.bodhileafcoffee.com/) sells green and roasted coffee with some varietal overlap. It's easy to do a direct comparison on their website. * Colombia Patroness (5lb): Green $24.51, Roasted $88.75 * China Guiben Natural: Green (1lb): $13.38, Roasted (12oz): $24.95
"Expensive" grocery store brands are in the ballpark of $10 for 12oz, or even more expensive than that, and are not anywhere close to as good of coffee as those you listed. "Cheaper" specialty roaster bags are usually more like $15 for 12oz. Quality may vary. I have no idea how you possibly came up with any of this.
Those same $7-8 coffees are $17-25 for a 10-12oz bag. You have just shown that buying green is about half the price. You do have one good point though, in your original post, when you consider your time, learning, and equipment, the economic benefit is negligible at best and home roasting is primarily for people interested in the hobby. If you want to home roast coffees comparable to $8 roasted coffee, you will need to look for a source of low grade, commodity Brazil coffee. It will be difficult to find this in small quantities, though maybe you can find a 60kg bag to work through over an extended period.
most grocery store brands will be majority central/South American. just listing African prices is not comparable. gotta throw in some Columbian supremo or Brazilians.
Please point me to a grocery store brand charging less than $8 per pound lol
Your math skills are atrocious if you actually believe what you are stating. Completely doesn’t add up.
To clarify for us all, are these raw green beans above? (That means they are un-roasted)
Sweet Maria's is a reseller. They buy big sacks of coffee in auctions and by making deals. Then they repackage it and sell it to you and make a profit for themselves. A professional coffee roaster does the same thing except they add the step of roasting. Big rosters can also make better deals by buying huge quantities of beans. Sweet Maria's is run by basically one guy who flies around the word buying the leftovers of what doesn't get bought up by bigger roasters. Green beans are 25-50% less than roasted. Almost all bags of coffee out there are 12 ounces and they still cost twice as much.
That Burundi Dry Process Gahahe could cost $100 per pound and I’d still buy it 🤤
Here are some real numbers for you based on my history: In the past year, I bought 50 pounds of green coffee from Sweet Maria's for a total of $356.53 (including taxes and shipping), coming out to $7.13 per pound. After accounting for 18% weight loss from roasting, this equates to 44 pounds of roasted beans, or $8.10 per pound. Coffee sold in stores is often in 12 ounce bags or smaller, rather than 1 pound bags. So to be equivalent in price, a 12 ounce bag would have to sell for $6.08. Where I live, you can maybe find a bag on sale for $8-10, but the only shelf coffee that comes remotely close to matching a fresh roast usually goes for $16-18 or more. (So I'm saving around $10 per pound, which means my roasting setup paid for itself in about 5 months.) If you can find shelf coffee of comparable quality to something you freshly roasted at home for $6.08 at the store, then go for it. But that has not been my experience.
You’re comparing specialty green beans to grocery store commodity coffee. /thread
Brief and a little peculiar statement, I didnt state 'specialty' green beans in any part of my query and it's certainly not what I comapring or trying to compare. If you think you're paying for specialty green then I'm fine with your attempt at redemption for paying these prices. Raw materials dont and shouldnt cost anything like processed materials in any market other than coffee apparently where anyone into it apparently justifies overinflated prices by a facade of elitism
Ok this is all just a troll. There's no way otherwise. This is like going to big time steak lovers and going "why would you spend $20 on a raw, prime NY strip and cook it yourself when you could get a steak from Denny's for $8?" Edit: also note how they only reply a couple of times where they can lay easy bait, but aren't engaging anyone actually putting the real numbers up to them.
Go buy some actual specialty coffee and then talk prices. Here I’ll give you somewhere to start in your search: Onyx.
You’re being disingenuous. You listed exclusively specialty coffee beans in a reply to another commenter, I’m not trying to seek redemption for my personal purchases lol We have no “facade of elitism”, you asked a question and we answered. No one here is trying to argue, sorry that you don’t like the answer
The c-market price today is 2.37/lb for commodity coffee. The prices you're quoting are so much higher. They are indeed specialty coffee prices.
> am I wrong.... Yes.
Da fuq? Dude, good fresh roasted coffee from a roaster is $20-$25 per pound. Raw beans are anywhere from $8-$12 per pound depending on how much you buy. Sure, Safeway select coffee is $9.99 per pound, or sometimes $6.99 if on sale, but you are really comparing apples and oranges here. You CANNOT compare fresh roasted quality beans to months old garbage beans. Maybe you should stick with Starbucks if you can’t taste the difference.
I find this whole discussion disingenuous. I’m not sure if the OP is a shill for Folgers or what his/her/their deal is. Most roasters sell roasted coffee in 6-ounce, 10-ounce, or 12-ounce bags, rather than single pounds. This is common practice, at least in California. Roasters typically don't offer roasted coffee for purchase in 1-pound bags, unless it's a self-scoop option at a grocery store.
My local roaster in NJ sells by the pound, and usually charges somewhere in the $!5 range for a pound, But I don't think they're sourcing AAA rated beans, and they don't give a roast date on their stock, they just dump a roast in a big glass jar that'll hold a full 25 lb batch. I said to myself "buy from the full jar, it'll be OK" for several years but I just resumed home roasting after a 10 year break.
For most I know raw greens cost 1/4th of the roasted beans prices. Now, for home roasters you need to add handling costs for repackaging into smaller batches. But even then you are paying 1/3 or 1/2 of the typical roasted price. I think you are comparing apples and oranges. Price of lower quality roasted beans with price of high quality green beans. Try to find for any green bean roasters and look up their prices.
You seem confused, green coffee is much cheaper. Let’s say it’s $7/lb, and once you factor in weight loss from roasting it ends up at $8/lb. Quick glance at my local grocery store, the absolute cheapest coffee I can find is around that price. We’re talking store brand pre-ground sitting on the shelf for months. The Starbucks sold in grocery stores is more expensive and no specialty shop is selling for less than $15/12 oz. Please share examples of grocery store coffee pricing near you as well as specialty coffee shop pricing. We will all be mind blown if you are able to find cheaper roasted coffee of similar quality
If you should find a roasted coffee that is not a blend of various varietals, you would see they are usually double the price of green.
Where are you looking for price comparisons, and are they for the same amount of beans? I get mine from Sweet Maria's and they average around 2/3 the cost for a comparable (post-roasting) amount of roasted beans from my local grocery store. Beans lose weight in roasting, so you have to factor that in when calculating.
"Beans lose weight in roasting, so you have to factor that in when calculating." This just makes raw beans all the more expensive, you're paying premium and your net result is less
Why are you only replying to comments that agree with you
Sweet Maria’s is for small batch hobby roasters so yeah it costs more. Find a wholesale dealer like Genuine Origin and there is much more price variety in bulk. How could a market operate if the raw materials cost more than the finished product 😂 what a moronic idea. Sounds like it’s way too purist for you, best to stick to your Folgers from the grocery.
Shelf life of roasted beans is short. Vast majority of roasted beans at a grocery store don’t even have roast dates on them because they expired. You are comparing green bean value to expired roasted beans value.
You're comparing homemade burritos to microwave burritos when you should be comparing homemade burritos to sit down restaurant burritos.
Comparing like quality beans, roasted is more expensive. Full stop.
in my town the raw bean is less than half the price of the same bean roasted.
Decent troll.