Green Unroasted Whole Bean Coffee – Brazilian Santos 3 lb. Bag – By Olde Brooklyn Coffee

Soft coffee beans, they roast quick. No rich flavor here, just simple coffee. Not the best to share with good friend, but ok for casual acquaintance.

This is my go too when it comes to green coffee beans. They roast very well, the crema they provide and the flavor are all outstanding.

I got a 2 and a half pounds. They’re not real precise on the measurements.

Beans arrived in a well sealed brown paper bag. In a home roasting group I had read that Brazil was ideal in an espresso blend. I roasted these in a popcorn popper just past first crack to either the beginning of or just before first crack. Flavor was smooth smooth smooth. Caramelization galore. I didn’t end up making any drip coffee with it, but loved it as espresso after it degassed for a few days. The roasted flavors were emphasized, without needing to approach a darker oilier roast. There wasnt any of the acidity I’ve had with other home roasted espresso I’ve made, though to be fair, my espresso game isn’t where it needs to be. Definitely worth buying.

Update a few days later:
After a few days of making this my second cup of the day, I must say this coffee is getting worse and worse in its evident taste. To be fair, my first cup is an equally-price deal from an Amazon seller (who no longer sells on Amazon). That first cup of the day coffee is only mediocre, but acceptable. This coffee is simply bad if you are a person who enjoys unadulterated coffee.

It has no quality of aroma or taste, and has an aftertaste that has a disgusting period which become more and more annoying. I am using it as my second cup as a matter of discipline, so that it may inspire me to drink less caffeine in a day.

On my previous review, I said I was debating 2 or 3 stars, but settled on 1. I no longer need those other justifications to give this coffee 1 star.

It is simply bad.

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Original Review

I was debating between 2 stars and 3 stars until I re-read their description. That made me decide on 1 star because they sell these beans as “high quality”, when nothing about them classifies them as high quality…not the standard industry ratings…not the flavor. So being overpriced for their quality did make me settle on a 2-star review. But the Over-Hyping of these low-quality (per standard classification of Brazil beans) from a country with midling quality beans to begin with made me very certain that a 1-star review was mandated.

The taste of a medium roast:

If you are like me, and prefer to taste the bean without being adulderated by ANY additives whatsoever, then this is a MEH or BLEH bean. It’s not horrible. It’s not disgusting. It’s not delightful in any way at all, and it’s not satisfying. Roasted, it’s ground smell is OK, but nothing comes through in the cup. No chocolates, no florals, no fruits. Pehaps one may call this very earthy or mossy. There is a little brightness immediatly upon sipping, but it fades away into the earthy-dominant taste. The lingering flavor is disappointing, bordering on unsettling. That ~unsettling portion (tinny) for me begins about 30 seconds after a sip, and lasts for another 20 seconds, afterwhich it reminds me of an “OK” cup for Keurig Pod coffee. A few minutes later, the tinny feeling on the tip of my tongue remains. It is coffee. Fast-ffod coffee is honestly a little better. Perhaps I will use this to make cappiacinos or Lattes, hoping to gain satisfation in that manner.

Someone else may find this coffee better than I did. I typically like chocolate and plum/fig in mine with some earthiness, and I’m not a big fan of bright or acidy.

If you like to add a lot of sugar or flavorings, then you would probably be satisfied with this bean. That’s not me.

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The size and quality issue::

I added a couple photos to illustrate the size, one of which mimics the cupped-in-hand photo from the seller:
* their picture is not misleading about size, but is VERY MISLEADING about color. Note that my hands are Men’s medium, and my skin tone is very light.
* the picture I took of roasted vs green beside a penny helps illustrate the size. You can see that most of the beans are smaller than Lincoln’s head, but the other Brazil beans I have on hand easily aboscure the head. They indeed cover the entire body when moved downward on the penny. This may not seem like a big difference, but to my eye it was very profound.
* You can also see one roasted been that is quite lighter, and the largest of them all (not completely illustrated in this particular picture).
*
* THis is a CRITICAL point: The smaller then bean, the less time at which it must be roasted, and the more delicate they are to over-roasting (just like with baking). A 1-mm variation in a batch of large beans results in some roast variation, but a 1-mm variation in a batch of tiny beans results in a lot of variation…in addition to the “delicate” aspect, which is that smaller beans are more easily over-roasted. (or in coffee roasting terms: “baked”)

I have been home roasting coffee for 24 years, and have purchased beans from at least 8 vendors from every region in the world. Lately, I have been searching for low-cost, decent quality beans. I have had some luck on Amazon toward this goal, but this purchase was a major disappointment.

FIRSTLY, let’s start with the reviews from others, who point out that these beans are small. That is an understatement. These beans are extraordinarily tiny. I have never encountered beans like this. They are half the volume of a peaberry. Perhaps I am spoiled.

Does that mean low quality? By industry definition: Generally Yes, within a lot. But, that only really means they are low quality for that lot.

Let’s address the issue of peaberry: Peaberry is a name generally given to beans that are small by natures (like most African beans), more rounded than oval, and are classified separately from non-peaberries. Those peaberries can be very high quality, BUT the really small one of those are lower quality than the larger ones, as a rule.

Now, these beans are said to be from Brazil, and Brazilian beans are naturally “large” beans. Referring to the Grading and Class document from International Coffee Society, and by my measurements of theses beans, and given they are Brazilian, these would pass through a 14/16 sieve, and classify as the lowest Brazilian, a.k.a. “Swedish Preparation”. You can’t really compare to other countries as the growing conditions are different. Brazil simply isn’t the greatest place for growing beans.

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Sum-Up

So, these are the lowest-end of quality from a country whose beans are middle-of-the-road.

Also, the bad is NOT resealable. So, if you don’t have a collection of old sealable bags from any other seller (as I do), then you will want to seal these in another manner.

Again, the annoying part is that they are OVERPRICED and OVER-HYPED by the seller