beans at a good price

nc6000

I ordered a selection of beans from Hasbean and should receive them hopefully tomorrow or Monday.

What's the best way to store the beans? We'll probably get through a bag a week so might have some beans sitting around for 5 or 6 weeks. Is just popping them into a kitchen press until they are used OK?

donnacha

a dark dry place is best - some people freeze unopened bags, but if you'll be using them in 5 or 6 weeks you'll be fine.

nc6000

So I got my order from Hasbean, not very impressed with the beans so far. I've tried two types of beans(Kicker and Costa Rica Finca de Licho) both in my Moka Pot and my French Press. I'm finding the coffee leaves a very bitter aftertaste.

Anyone else find this? I can't see that I'm doing anything wrong.

Curry Addict

I got a nice big order from hasbean last wednesday including 2 bags of kicker and 4 bags of Costa Rica Finca de Licho. i went through a bag of each so far and they were exceptionally good(coffee heaven) with a very sweet aftertaste.

Gran Hermano

nc6000 wrote: »

So I got my order from Hasbean, not very impressed with the beans so far. I've tried two types of beans(Kicker and Costa Rica Finca de Licho) both in my Moka Pot and my French Press. I'm finding the coffee leaves a very bitter aftertaste.

Anyone else find this? I can't see that I'm doing anything wrong.

Sound like the ratio of coffee to water is off and you're either over or under extracting.

Try and get your hands on a weighing scales and have a look at these

http://www.hasbean.co.uk/pages/French-Press-Brew-Guide.html


http://www.squaremileblog.com/2008/11/12/videocast-2-french-press-technique/

nc6000

Thanks for the replies and links. I think I was putting too much ground coffee into the Moka Pot. I reduced the amount and the result wasn't as bitter as before.

PPC

A good video on how to make stovetop coffee here as well http://www.squaremileblog.com/2009/01/21/videocast-4-stove-topmoka-pot/
More can be found at http://brewmethods.com/

Hobite

I am so happy to find a COFFEE thread.

I usually buy beans at Tesco, Lavazza Rossa espresso in beans 1 KG (~ 13-14 euros).

Thank you for recomendation to buy coffee beans at M&S. I will try them too.

jingojonson

Do any of you know where I can source green beans in ireland? (apart from discount coffee.ie)
I want ot home roast and postage is a killer if ordering abroad.

donnacha

I don't know of any options for getting green beens locally in Ireland. If you there were local options then the beans would be more expensive as they would be factoring in the additional shipping costs of getting the beans to Ireland themselves.

The postage from hasbean.co.uk is pretty reasonable considering the weight you are getting shipped - god knows what the irish postal service would charge for similar weight shipments.

mandarin

Hasbean's postage shouldn't be a killer if you are buying in bulk. The starter pack of 5 x 2kg green beans for £88 is an extra £17 in postage. Buy four samples (ie, 40 kg) and the deal works out at £352 plus postage is £40. Weirdly, it says that postage is just £16 when you buy five or more packets (ie 50kg upwards) but I assume that is some software bug. Anyway, point holds that the more you buy, the less an issue the postage is.
Of course, you're completely screwed if you buy a bucketload of greens that aren't to your taste:eek:

Sinfonia

mandarin wrote: »

Nick's is 4.50 for a 225g bag, according to this thread

Just got a 250g bag for 4.50 in the Ranelagh shop, first cup was delicious!
That said, I'm moving from illy, so any fresh bean probably would have made a big improvement.

mandarin

Seeing as offerings in the region of €22 per kg are being considered...Badger and Dodo's monthly subscription works out at €22.50 (€18 per kg plus €4.50 in postage). That's a nice discount on the usual rates and there's always a very good range of coffees (different coffee sent out every month).

http://www.badgeranddodo.ie/site/products/47/monthly-subscriptions-a-different-1kg-each-month

trap4

I'm after jumping into the world of whole bean coffee (bought a grinder last week) and have to say I'm kind of stunned at the price of the stuff. In fact I'm kind of sorry now I didn't buy a Nespresso instead.

I know, it's my own fault I didn't do my sums, but I was expecting it to be a lot cheaper to grind my own coffee and brew it in a French press. Instead I'm finding that it's working out more expensive than cost of Nespresso pods (and I avoided going the Nespresso route because I saw so much bitching about the cost!).

Am I just not looking in the right place?

http://www.discountcoffee.ie/ is the cheapest I could find by the way - what blends would people recommend there?

Curry Addict

trap4 wrote: »

I'm after jumping into the world of whole bean coffee (bought a grinder last week) and have to say I'm kind of stunned at the price of the stuff. In fact I'm kind of sorry now I didn't buy a Nespresso instead.

I know, it's my own fault I didn't do my sums, but I was expecting it to be a lot cheaper to grind my own coffee and brew it in a French press. Instead I'm finding that it's working out more expensive than cost of Nespresso pods (and I avoided going the Nespresso route because I saw so much bitching about the cost!).

Am I just not looking in the right place?

http://www.discountcoffee.ie/ is the cheapest I could find by the way - what blends would people recommend there?

this sounds odd. I cant imagine how it could be more expensive than nespresso!

Sinfonia

trap4 wrote: »

I'm after jumping into the world of whole bean coffee (bought a grinder last week) and have to say I'm kind of stunned at the price of the stuff. In fact I'm kind of sorry now I didn't buy a Nespresso instead.

I know, it's my own fault I didn't do my sums, but I was expecting it to be a lot cheaper to grind my own coffee and brew it in a French press. Instead I'm finding that it's working out more expensive than cost of Nespresso pods (and I avoided going the Nespresso route because I saw so much bitching about the cost!).

Am I just not looking in the right place?

http://www.discountcoffee.ie/ is the cheapest I could find by the way - what blends would people recommend there?

For a 250g bag, I usually pay between €5 and €10.
The site you've linked to is giving prices there for 4kg of coffee (..!), which would probably last me more than 5 months, so not that expensive really. You'd be better off buying smaller amounts, if for nothing else then the sake of freshness.

Big difference in the cup between fresh ground beans and Nespresso btw.

trap4

Curry Addict wrote: »

this sounds odd. I cant imagine how it could be more expensive than nespresso!

Okay, my quick, back of the envelope calculations --

On average it looks like coffee is coming in at €20 per kilo right now (rounding a little for ease of calculation).

Hasbean recommend 75g per litre of water. My cup is 1/3 litre = 25g per cup.

25g = 1/40th of a kilo = €20.00 divided by 40 = 50c per cup.

At 50c per cup it's coming in more expensive than Nespresso. Right?

Curry Addict

trap4 wrote: »

Okay, my quick, back of the envelope calculations --

On average it looks like coffee is coming in at €20 per kilo right now (rounding a little for ease of calculation).

Hasbean recommend 75g per litre of water. My cup is 1/3 litre = 25g per cup.

25g = 1/40th of a kilo = €20.00 divided by 40 = 50c per cup.

At 50c per cup it's coming in more expensive than Nespresso. Right?

333ml is a very large cup a nespresso lungo is 120ml so you need nearly 3 nespresso pods to get that amount at approx 1.14 euro!

adrian522

I would think 15g beans for 250ml of coffee would be a better measurement.

PPC

60g/litre is the optimum for a proper cup of brewed coffee.
So thats 20g per 333ml of water, and If you're making espresso its 19g for 30ml of espresso.

So thats about 40c/drink which isn't too bad for freshly brewed coffee, its probably on par with the cost of Nespresso but the extra flavour is worth it.

For reference most mugs are just over 300ml, a cup is 240ml and a cappuccino cup is 180ml.

kiwipower

trap4 wrote: »

Okay, my quick, back of the envelope calculations --

On average it looks like coffee is coming in at €20 per kilo right now (rounding a little for ease of calculation).

Hasbean recommend 75g per litre of water. My cup is 1/3 litre = 25g per cup.

25g = 1/40th of a kilo = €20.00 divided by 40 = 50c per cup.

At 50c per cup it's coming in more expensive than Nespresso. Right?

Did you calculate in the extra cost of buying the Nespresso Machine and the life expectancy of the machine?
Also Nespresso coffee limits you to just the Nespresso pods so you cannot experiment with all the different beans etc out there.
Besides fresh home ground coffee just tastes better!

kiwipower

Have been getting my beans from http://www.cafelounge.ie/cafe-shop/coffees/ recently while working in Carrick on Shannon. Roasted in the cafe

I love their Indian beans lovely strong full flavour coffee. The Indonesian beans are not bad either for a variety. €8 for 250g of beans whole or ground to your preference.

Just rechecked their website. Had thought they offered delivery as well, but that section of the website does not seem to work properly. Though I would think if you contacted them they could probably arrange a delivery else where.

Nice team, explained the science behind the flat white very well.

kiwipower

Gran Hermano wrote: »

http://www.squaremileblog.com/2008/11/12/videocast-2-french-press-technique/

Excellent link thank you!
I just learnt loads watching it!
I have so been using my mocha pot wrong!

Cold water fine ground beans on stove to long!
Once I get my busted grinder working again I will have to experiment with the Mocha again!

Thanks again

Gran Hermano

kiwipower, check www.brewmethods.com for other guides on the moka and pretty much most brewing techniques.

BoardsMember

I bought my first ever bag of beans on Saturday in Rathgar, in the Gourmet Shop. They have about 6 different types of beans. I'm pretty sure they are 500g bags, all in the €6 price bracket. From reading here, that would seem to be a pretty good price, or they are pretty inferior to what is being talked about in the minimum €15 per kilo price bracket. Cant for the life of me remember what the brand is, I think it was something like Hogans or Horgans or something like that, bags had a little "sniff it" tab on the top.

BoardsMember

Brand is Taylor's. Italian roast. But it's a 227g bag for 6 euro. So 15-17 euro is still good value. Am interested in the marks and spencer stuff someone posted about earlier

donnacha

BoardsMember wrote: »

Brand is Taylor's. Italian roast. But it's a 227g bag for 6 euro. So 15-17 euro is still good value. Am interested in the marks and spencer stuff someone posted about earlier

does the bag have a roasting date on it?

caol ila

donnacha wrote: »

does the bag have a roasting date on it?

I suspect it's Taylor's of Harrogate coffee. They usually display the best before date not the roast date.

BoardsMember

I'll check the roasting date tonight. Yes, it is Taylor's of Harrogate alright.

Coffee tasted good but I am a complete noob at this and dont really know what I am at. I'm also reluctant to have coffee in the evening as the caffeine would keep me up, and don't have time in the morning for brewing...so I have spend loads of time reading up on the best methods for French Press/Cafetiere brewing, and am dying to get my hands dirty!

mandarin

The earlier suggestion that Nespresso may be cheaper than buying coffee beans is way off.
Brown Thomas is selling a pack of 10 Nespresso capsules for €4.20, or 42c each. Each capsule contains 5 to 6 grams of coffee. In other words, one kilo of coffee is equivalent to approximately 180 Nespresso pods, which would cost over €75.
Yes, over €75 per kilo.
Granted, one will use more than 5 to 6 grams of coffee if making in a French press, etc, although a 180ml cup will still only use roughly 10 grams of coffee.
A single shot of espresso (if you have an espresso machine) typically contains 7-8g.
In short, a price of €75 per kg of Nespresso is nuts.