Question about a coffee bean order I just received

[peterjschmidt]

And also these beans are not single origin beans. They are blend of some sort. There are huge irregularity in size of each beans and most of the decent single origin beans would have very uniform in size after the roasting as well. Also different type of beans would have different roasting profile. Some beans will have more visible oils on the surface after the roast. So these could be two different type of blends. But they are NOT single origin beans.

They certainly could be single origin beans, and could even be single estate beans. Many single origin/estate beans have a variety of coffee varietals growing and being harvested. Most Colombians we buy are listed as single origin, but have coffees from several farmers and because of that they have several varietals of beans. Sometimes they are screened/sorted for size, but often they are not. Colombia does a better than average job of sorting and stating the size (but will still have more than one varietal of coffee) as do many Central American producers, but Africans and Indonesians can be a crap shoot when it comes to sizes in one bag of coffee.

 

[chast]

Same size beans?? not a single origin?? The bag of Yirg I just finished was all over the place on size and so was the Bali! Not true CJ. The Costa Rican I purchased is pretty close and at one point I thought about screening my beans, but why bother.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Same size beans?? not a single origin?? The bag of Yirg I just finished was all over the place on size and so was the Bali! Not true CJ. The Costa Rican I purchased is pretty close and at one point I thought about screening my beans, but why bother.

In my own experience, I always got very close in size of beans when they were single origins. I am not questioning your expertise. I always thought and bought very close in size. Because if there are huge difference in size of beans, you will have uneven result when roasted. Like small beans will burn while bigger beans will be under-roasted. I do not roast 500 pounds a day but I used to roast as much as 10-12 pounds a day to about 60 pounds a week during Christmas. I guess i learn new things everyday.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

They certainly could be single origin beans, and could even be single estate beans. Many single origin/estate beans have a variety of coffee varietals growing and being harvested. Most Colombians we buy are listed as single origin, but have coffees from several farmers and because of that they have several varietals of beans. Sometimes they are screened/sorted for size, but often they are not. Colombia does a better than average job of sorting and stating the size (but will still have more than one varietal of coffee) as do many Central American producers, but Africans and Indonesians can be a crap shoot when it comes to sizes in one bag of coffee.

I was wrong. I am sorry.

 

[chast]

I actually questioned the yirg because of the size differences. Some as small as birdshot some as large as Columbian and everything else in between. Thought about screening but that is as far as it went. Customers love the roast and that is all that matters

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I actually questioned the yirg because of the size differences. Some as small as birdshot some as large as Columbian and everything else in between. Thought about screening but that is as far as it went. Customers love the roast and that is all that matters

Yup, if customers love them, why change. I just pull out my Brazilian beans which I paid around 4 dollars a pound looked very close in size. I double checked my Sidamo which I paid 6.5 per pound was really close to the same size. That is the reason I thought single origins were very close in size. Yes, Sidamo is much smaller in size verses Guatemalan or Brazilian .

 

[peterjschmidt]

As a side note, the way different-sized beans roast can be used to your advantage when roasting a blend; if you want the coffee in the blend with the smaller beans to end up darker, you can pre-blend and they'll roast to different roast levels automatically.