If you have been interested in roasting your own coffee or even found our article on roasting coffee at home inspiring, your next question is likely focused on where to buy green coffee beans. It is no surprise that in a category as vast as coffee, hundreds of online retailers are competing for you to buy green coffee beans from them. We have researched many of these and have come up with a short list of our favorites to make your hunt easier.
1. Amazon
Of course, in today’s world, we simply cannot ignore the shopping mega-conglomerate, Amazon. With the convenience of free shipping, amazon fulfillment, easy returns, and more, Amazon is a no-brainer. Of course, you do have some downsides; you are limited in the options available, and some of the best quality beans sold on the internet by specific sellers simply aren’t represented on Amazon. Despite the shortcomings, we find Amazon to be a great place to start when you are buying your first bag of green coffee. After all, too many choices can be overwhelming so why not limit them at first?
Our top choice for Amazon’s offerings is all the green coffee beans sold by Fresh Roasted Coffee. They procure their own beans and package them in 5 and 25-pound bags. Prices for the 5-pound bag vary based on origin but fall between $30- $50.
TIP: The more info the better. The more detailed the info on your green beans, the higher the quality will be. Steer clear of coffee beans that only list the country or rough subregion.
We recommend starting with the Colombian Supremo selection- one of their cheaper coffee beans that taste amazing and are of very high quality. We recommend this particular coffee because we find South American coffees to be some of the more forgiving and easier-to-learn coffees when you first start out roasting at home. Colombian coffee is some of the most popular and I would be surprised to find out that you’ve never had any. This will make the roasting process easier because you have an idea of what the coffee is supposed to taste like once roasted, accelerating your learning curve. These beans result in full-flavored cups of coffee and taste great anywhere between a light-medium to dark roasting level.
If Colombian coffee isn’t what you’re looking for, Fresh Roasted Coffee on Amazon offers over 30 other origins and I’m sure you’re bound to find one that is to your liking.
2. Sweet Maria’s
Sweet Maria’s is family-run coffee importer located in Oakland, CA, the main shipping port for receiving coffee into the U.S. Founded in 1997 out of desperation for green coffee beans of virtually any value, Tom and Maria created Sweet Maria’s and have grown it into a great company focused on importing high-quality green coffee beans at very reasonable prices. Tom physically travels to each coffee farm to inspect the beans and the farming processes before adding the producer to the company’s vast portfolio of coffee, so that you can feel comfortable with any coffee you choose.
We love that you can filter your coffee shopping by origin, price range, certification, processing method, flavor, and profile to really help you narrow down on what you’re looking for. Once you found a coffee that catches your eye, you can look at detailed tasting and production notes including cupping notes and flavor diagrams. But if you are completely lost, check out their green coffee subscription to try a four or eight 1-pound bags of new origins every month or every two months based on your choosing. The four pack selection is currently listed at $25.85.
TIP: Altitude is your friend. Look for beans grown at high altitudes for the country they come from, or for altitude designations such as Hard bean and Strictly hard bean.
Sweet Maria’s offers regular and expedited USPS flat-rate shipping starting at $8.99 and ships in the continental U.S. and internationally. If you are local to the Oakland area, you can also pick up your orders in person. Sweet Maria’s also sells anything you need from roasters and accessories to grinders and brewers.
3. Coffee Bean Corral
We have written about Coffee Bean Corral before because we simply love their collection. While Sweet Maria’s definitely has a vast collection of South- and Central American as well as African coffee options, we find that they are limited in the Asian and Indonesian markets. Coffee Bean Corral has very extensive offerings in all of these regions including Hawaii, Vietnam, and Bali.
We love that you can filter your search by global region and then by country to really narrow down your search, and then stack on the processing method and certifications filters to really narrow down their expansive collection. Unlike Sweet Maria’s, Coffee Bean Corral offers half-pound sample packs of all of their coffees so you don’t have to commit to a large, five pound bag that you might not like. They also frequently run mix and match sample packs at great discounted prices.
TIP: Inspect your beans when you get them. They should be consistently green, uniform in size, firm, not brittle or pliable, and should have no discoloration or off smells such as smoke.
If you don’t want to do any searching yourself, Coffee Bean Corral also has a great coffee bean matrix that you can fill out and it will suggest coffees for you to try based on your preferences.
Coffee Bean Corral is located in Jackson, Mississippi, making shipping around the country cheaper and faster due to their central location. They pride themselves in great customer service and love to help you out via support if you need any help.
How much do green coffee beans cost?
Green coffee beans range in price from $6 -$9 per pound with extremes as high as $30 per pound.
When buying coffee online, it is a good practice to compare the cost of the green coffee beans to the roasted coffee beans of similar quality. For example, if a bag of roasted Colombian coffee costs $18 per pound including shipping, you should aim for as much as a 50% price cut for green coffee beans to ensure that you get a good value. What's important to remember is that 1 pound of green coffee beans will result in only 0.8-0.85 pounds of roasted coffee since you lose weight in the roasting process the 50% discount takes this into consideration and guarantees that you still get a great price.
We aim for somewhere around a 50% discount of the roasted coffee price for green coffee. Keep in mind that this margin is easier to maintain with specialty coffee that increases in price. For example, ultra premium coffee such as some Kenya AA or even Hawaiian Kona coffee can cost up to $80 per pound of roasted coffee, but the green coffee beans are readily available for around $30 per pound. That's a 62% discount! On the contrary, cheaper coffee that retails for $12 of roasted coffee may still cost $6-8 per pound of green coffee, plus shipping, reducing the discount to only 20-30%. In this case, volume is your friend, as you can get discounts and distribute the shipping cost over more product, reducing the cost per pound.
How much green coffee do I need?
When determining how much green coffee is needed to roast, it is important to pay attention to the weight restrictions on your particular roaster. In most instances, 0.5 pounds of green coffee is a good starting point per roast. It is important to remember that coffee loses 15-20% if its original weight in the roasting process due to evaporation.
Is it cheaper to buy green coffee beans?
With many online retailers offering competitive pricing for green coffee, roasting coffee at home is often far cheaper than paying for roasted coffee. On average, you can expect to get green coffee at 50% of the roasted price of coffee, resulting in large savings long-term.
If you are curiously wondering how long it will take for you to break even on the investment of a coffee roaster by roasting coffee at home, use our custom calculator here to find out!
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