12 ms·

The important question is: is it good? I typically spend around $25 / pound on coffee beans, which is a fairly large amount of money. But: the beans I buy are v

by pfooti 9y ago

The important question is: is it good? I typically spend around $25 / pound on coffee beans, which is a fairly large amount of money. But: the beans I buy are very freshly roasted right near where I live and make excellent coffee (which I make by the cup, pour-over style), and I only drink a cup or two a day. I'd see my way to paying more if the beans were somehow qualitatively better - I had some $50 / lb coffee once that was totally worth it (I hate to use the word mouthfeel, but this coffee really legit had a velvety rich mouthfeel that I'd never experienced in a cup of coffee before or since, and a great aroma and flavor to go with it), and I've tried other coffees that were high up on the expense level that were totally not worth it. Most probably aren't worth it. So: how does it compare? Is the ridiculous price just because you're from california? No thanks, I'll take my ethiopian amaro gayo, tyvm.

greglindahl 9y ago
$25 is not very much when you compare it to other luxury goods, like wine or whisky or cask-aged beers. I started drinking coffee because it was a relatively inexpensive hobby.
- bbcbasic 9y ago
  Essentially thats tax minimisation
- ozi 9y ago
  People aren't consuming those on a a daily basis; not really a fair comparison.
  - hvidgaard 9y ago
    If you're from Italy, Spain, or France to name a few, you do drink a glas every day. But either way, a single good bottle of wine is at least a pound of good coffee. Few people drink that much coffee.
  - greglindahl 9y ago
    I don't know what "people" you know, but quite a few of my friends who drink both drink a lot more $ of alcohol than coffee.
CaliforniaKarl 9y ago
Unfortunately, I don't know what the metric is. I just have this snippet from the article: > A year earlier, Coffee Review, a trade publication, had given Good Land’s Caturra coffee a score of 91 out of 100, and depending on the roast, brew and time of harvest, the farm’s coffees have scored from the mid-80s to the low 90s on other quality tests. Unfortunately the article is a bit light on details like which roasteries are selling product. But I imagine some research would find the info, including current varieties and prices. As for the high price now, I think it's because of the in-development and scarce nature of the product. So, keep drinking what you're drinking (and kudos for finding your fave), but keep an ear out for future news!
- rjett 9y ago
  Cost of production from variety to variety at this farm is going to be fairly consistent. The reason coffee has traditionally been relegated to developing countries is because of labor costs. To get a good harvest with quality in mind, farmers typically have to do several passes through the fields of coffee trees to select the coffee cherries at their optimal ripeness. Altitude also factors into quality as well, since coffee that slowly ripens due to cooler temps typically translates to a better product. Farms at high altitude can have some pretty gnarly topography. Coffee farms where attention to quality is less important and raw output more important will plant trees in full sun, nice conventional rows, and then send mechanical harvesters down each row to strip pick the trees, harvesting cherries that might range from under ripe to perfectly ripe to over ripe. Yields might be higher and labor costs lower, but quality suffers and these beans are typically sold in the commodity market.
  - ianai 9y ago
    The need for labor screams subsidy. This is an area where a subsidy could increase labor pool and decrease imports/deficits.
    - chiph 9y ago
      Or simplify the H2-A (temporary agricultural worker) visa process.
CalChris 9y ago
Alrighty then. You pay $25 for freshly ground coffee roasted right near where you live. And you only drink a cup or two a day. Let's call that 1.5 cups a day. A pound will provide 48 6 oz cups which will last you 48/1.5 = 1 month. So it doesn't matter that your coffee was roasted very near where you live since on average it's two weeks old. Me, I live in Oakland and I like a local roaster McLaughlin in Emeryville. I can get beans or ground from Farmer Joes, also local. But I don't overvalue locality to the extreme. I buy McLaughlin because I like the taste and for what it's worth, I buy ground not bean.
- pfooti 9y ago
  I buy coffee by the half-pound, fwiw. Each cup uses around ... well, exactly 25g of beans. Which gives me about 9 cups per bag, which I go through in about a week. The last cup is usually the one where the coffee isn't blooming anymore when I pour hot water on it. But there are certainly people who enjoy all different kinds of coffee. I'm not one to tell them what to do.
- brians 9y ago
  He didn't say he buys it by the pound; 6 oz bags are common.
- abrowne 9y ago
  Did they say they bought a pound at a time? The coffee I but is also sold as $n per pound, but it's sold bulk, and I buy about ⅓ pound at a time, since that will last me a week or so.
- arkades 9y ago
  He didn't say he buys a pound at a time, just that it's priced $25/lb. Nor that his "cup" (colloquially) was 6 oz in size, though for some reason coffee machines do seem to define their "cups" as 5 oz, coffee prep directions are always related to 6 oz., and the American unit of measurement is 1 cup / 8 fluid oz. (I assume we're discussing America here, because everyone else measures out their coffee in grams). Using my mug - which I describe as my morning cup of coffee/tea - of 12 oz., buying a half-pound at a time, the "average" age of the coffee is now a couple of days. If the entire strength of your argument goes away on the basis of tweaking a couple of variables by reasonable degrees, you should probably reconsider the argument.
driverdan 9y ago
$25/lb is on the high end. What beans are you buying?
- pfooti 9y ago
  My local roaster / coffeeshop: http://www.andytownsf.com/ http://www.andytownsf.com/ I usually get the Amaro Gayo Ethopian beans (I tend to prefer african beans to south / central american ones, and ethiopian over the rest of africa, but that's not hard-and-fast, the $50 / lb beans were also from andytown, but central american, costa rica IIRC). Seriously and in all honestly they roast the best beans I've ever had. I've lived on both coasts, had a lot of coffee. It's not super cheap ($10 - $17 for a half-pound) but it is worth it. There may be better coffee, but I imagine it is one of those logarithmic scale things - I'd have to pay 10x for a 10% increase in taste or whatever.
- criddell 9y ago
  I can give an unsolicited recommendation for Red Bird Coffee's Red Bird or Blue Jaguar espresso blends. They are reasonably priced (~$14 / lb) and have been extraordinarily consistent for me (I usually make Americanos). When I order beans it's clear they were roasted one or two days before they were shipped.

by pfooti 9y ago

greglindahl 9y ago

$25 is not very much when you compare it to other luxury goods, like wine or whisky or cask-aged beers. I started drinking coffee because it was a relatively inexpensive hobby.

bbcbasic 9y ago
Essentially thats tax minimisation
ozi 9y ago
People aren't consuming those on a a daily basis; not really a fair comparison.
- hvidgaard 9y ago
  If you're from Italy, Spain, or France to name a few, you do drink a glas every day. But either way, a single good bottle of wine is at least a pound of good coffee. Few people drink that much coffee.
- greglindahl 9y ago
  I don't know what "people" you know, but quite a few of my friends who drink both drink a lot more $ of alcohol than coffee.

CaliforniaKarl 9y ago

Unfortunately, I don't know what the metric is. I just have this snippet from the article: > A year earlier, Coffee Review, a trade publication, had given Good Land’s Caturra coffee a score of 91 out of 100, and depending on the roast, brew and time of harvest, the farm’s coffees have scored from the mid-80s to the low 90s on other quality tests. Unfortunately the article is a bit light on details like which roasteries are selling product. But I imagine some research would find the info, including current varieties and prices. As for the high price now, I think it's because of the in-development and scarce nature of the product. So, keep drinking what you're drinking (and kudos for finding your fave), but keep an ear out for future news!

rjett 9y ago
Cost of production from variety to variety at this farm is going to be fairly consistent. The reason coffee has traditionally been relegated to developing countries is because of labor costs. To get a good harvest with quality in mind, farmers typically have to do several passes through the fields of coffee trees to select the coffee cherries at their optimal ripeness. Altitude also factors into quality as well, since coffee that slowly ripens due to cooler temps typically translates to a better product. Farms at high altitude can have some pretty gnarly topography. Coffee farms where attention to quality is less important and raw output more important will plant trees in full sun, nice conventional rows, and then send mechanical harvesters down each row to strip pick the trees, harvesting cherries that might range from under ripe to perfectly ripe to over ripe. Yields might be higher and labor costs lower, but quality suffers and these beans are typically sold in the commodity market.
- ianai 9y ago
  The need for labor screams subsidy. This is an area where a subsidy could increase labor pool and decrease imports/deficits.
  - chiph 9y ago
    Or simplify the H2-A (temporary agricultural worker) visa process.

CalChris 9y ago

Alrighty then. You pay $25 for freshly ground coffee roasted right near where you live. And you only drink a cup or two a day. Let's call that 1.5 cups a day. A pound will provide 48 6 oz cups which will last you 48/1.5 = 1 month. So it doesn't matter that your coffee was roasted very near where you live since on average it's two weeks old. Me, I live in Oakland and I like a local roaster McLaughlin in Emeryville. I can get beans or ground from Farmer Joes, also local. But I don't overvalue locality to the extreme. I buy McLaughlin because I like the taste and for what it's worth, I buy ground not bean.

pfooti 9y ago
I buy coffee by the half-pound, fwiw. Each cup uses around ... well, exactly 25g of beans. Which gives me about 9 cups per bag, which I go through in about a week. The last cup is usually the one where the coffee isn't blooming anymore when I pour hot water on it. But there are certainly people who enjoy all different kinds of coffee. I'm not one to tell them what to do.
brians 9y ago
He didn't say he buys it by the pound; 6 oz bags are common.
abrowne 9y ago
Did they say they bought a pound at a time? The coffee I but is also sold as $n per pound, but it's sold bulk, and I buy about ⅓ pound at a time, since that will last me a week or so.
arkades 9y ago
He didn't say he buys a pound at a time, just that it's priced $25/lb. Nor that his "cup" (colloquially) was 6 oz in size, though for some reason coffee machines do seem to define their "cups" as 5 oz, coffee prep directions are always related to 6 oz., and the American unit of measurement is 1 cup / 8 fluid oz. (I assume we're discussing America here, because everyone else measures out their coffee in grams). Using my mug - which I describe as my morning cup of coffee/tea - of 12 oz., buying a half-pound at a time, the "average" age of the coffee is now a couple of days. If the entire strength of your argument goes away on the basis of tweaking a couple of variables by reasonable degrees, you should probably reconsider the argument.

driverdan 9y ago

$25/lb is on the high end. What beans are you buying?

pfooti 9y ago
My local roaster / coffeeshop: http://www.andytownsf.com/ http://www.andytownsf.com/ I usually get the Amaro Gayo Ethopian beans (I tend to prefer african beans to south / central american ones, and ethiopian over the rest of africa, but that's not hard-and-fast, the $50 / lb beans were also from andytown, but central american, costa rica IIRC). Seriously and in all honestly they roast the best beans I've ever had. I've lived on both coasts, had a lot of coffee. It's not super cheap ($10 - $17 for a half-pound) but it is worth it. There may be better coffee, but I imagine it is one of those logarithmic scale things - I'd have to pay 10x for a 10% increase in taste or whatever.
criddell 9y ago
I can give an unsolicited recommendation for Red Bird Coffee's Red Bird or Blue Jaguar espresso blends. They are reasonably priced (~$14 / lb) and have been extraordinarily consistent for me (I usually make Americanos). When I order beans it's clear they were roasted one or two days before they were shipped.