Green/Raw coffee beans near Bellevue? (Seattle, Starbuck: home, buying, living)

[odie91]

Looking to buy some green coffee beans. Anyone know of a place in Bellevue that sells?

If not, I suppose I could go to Pike Market, but would rather not.

Thanks!

[hamellr]

There use to be a little hole in the wall coffee shop on 8th near the Thai Grill that sold unroasted coffee beans and raw teas. I've not been in the area for years so I do not know if it still exists, and unfortunately Google is not bringing up it's name.

[Ira500]

Kuma Coffee Roasters in Bellevue sells green beans, but only on Wednesday nights from 7-10 PM. I think they're at 13600 NE 16th St. Mark Burany is the owner/roaster.
I roast my own and mostly buy green beans by mail. Sweet Maria's is a good place, as are 2 Cups of Joe, and the Green Coffee Buying Club. I'm still roasting my coffee at home and have been for ten years. It's pretty addictive.

[PollyGlott]

Originally Posted by Ira500

Kuma Coffee Roasters in Bellevue sells green beans, but only on Wednesday nights from 7-10 PM. I think they're at 13600 NE 16th St. Mark Burany is the owner/roaster.
I roast my own and mostly buy green beans by mail. Sweet Maria's is a good place, as are 2 Cups of Joe, and the Green Coffee Buying Club. I'm still roasting my coffee at home and have been for ten years. It's pretty addictive.

Sorry for sounding ignorant, but I've never heard of people roasting their own. What are the advantages, and how do you do it???

[rabagley]

Originally Posted by PollyGlott

Sorry for sounding ignorant, but I've never heard of people roasting their own. What are the advantages, and how do you do it???

It's as fresh roasted as it's possible to be.

1) Buy or make a roaster. You'll get more reliable results from a well designed roaster, but people have been quite happy with the results from modified air pop popcorn poppers.

2) Roast your beans. Bean selection, temperature, time and your roaster are your variables. There are a lot of recommended recipes online, but you'll still have to experiment to get your drink just the way you like it.

If your roaster has an exhaust filter this next part won't matter so much, but if I don't run the exhaust vent in the kitchen while roasting, my place smells like something caught on fire.

3) Let the beans offgas. If you grind right away, you'll end up with a more acidic flavor that some attribute to trapped CO2. Wait 8 hours and that's gone. I like to roast the next day's beans while making today's coffee, but others like to roast the night before and grind the next morning.

Ideally, you'll grind and use the beans between 8 and 48 hours after roasting. You begin to get significant flavor shifts after 48 hours.

4) Congratulations, your taste buds are now attuned to a different and wonderful tasting drink, and the brown stuff that other people call coffee is not very interesting to you any more.

[PollyGlott]

Thanks for the explanation! I must have been living under a rock...
Sounds good, and something for me to try when I move up to the beautiful PNW!

[Ira500]

I roast my coffee outside on a covered deck; my wife exiled me outside to do my coffee roasting. I use an automatic bread machine and a heat gun and I get great results. I roast just under a pound at a time.
The big advantage for me is that it's fun. When it does it's cracking and smoking thing I'm just in heaven. It's also a lot cheaper than buying those top notch beans. I pay around five dollars a pound for green coffee beans, the same beans that Starbucks charges twelve for( and mine aren't overroasted).

[odie91]

I travel Mon-Fri so that won't work. Would rather not mail order either, unless I get addicted to it and start ordering in bulk.

Are the green beans at Seattle Coffee Works in Pike Market pretty good? Seem like my only option now...

Originally Posted by Ira500

Kuma Coffee Roasters in Bellevue sells green beans, but only on Wednesday nights from 7-10 PM. I think they're at 13600 NE 16th St. Mark Burany is the owner/roaster.
I roast my own and mostly buy green beans by mail. Sweet Maria's is a good place, as are 2 Cups of Joe, and the Green Coffee Buying Club. I'm still roasting my coffee at home and have been for ten years. It's pretty addictive.

[rabagley]

Originally Posted by odie91

I travel Mon-Fri so that won't work. Would rather not mail order either, unless I get addicted to it and start ordering in bulk.

Are the green beans at Seattle Coffee Works in Pike Market pretty good? Seem like my only option now...

One detail that may help: green beans can be stored in a cool & dry corner of a pantry or cellar and last for months without going bad or changing flavor. I mail order about 3-4 months worth at a time from Sweet Maria's.

[Seattle Coffee Works]

Having started out as home roasters ourselves, we love supporting other home roasters. We sell [URL="http://www.seattlecoffeeworks.com/unroasted-green-coffee/cat_4.html"]green beans that you can order online[/URL] in 2 pound increments for a fixed price of $6 (we ship by priority mail). Contact us at [EMAIL="service@seattlecoffeeworks.com"]service@seattlecoffeeworks.com[/EMAIL] if you have any specific questions.