Coffee is grown in many countries around the world, including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. These countries are among the largest producers of coffee in the world, and are responsible for a significant portion of the global coffee supply. However, coffee is also grown in other countries, such as India, Indonesia, Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras, among others.

The majority of the world’s coffee is grown in the so-called “coffee belt,” which is a region that stretches around the globe between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. This region has the ideal climate and soil conditions for growing coffee. However, coffee can also be grown in other regions with the right conditions, such as the United States, Hawaii, and parts of Asia and Europe.

How long will my coffee keep fresh?

We get asked all the time, how long will our coffee stay fresh? How long will it keep in tip-top condition? And the short answer is that in general, unopened, whole beans will keep really well for up to a year, ground coffee unopened will stay fresh for about 4-5 months. Once opened, a bag of beans is at its best for around 2-3 weeks. A bag of ground coffee will be showing signs of staleness within a week. After this, even Dreambeans coffee will start to lose the high points and top notes that make it so amazing, and even though it will still taste better than the vast majority of coffee you can buy, you won’t be getting the full Dreambeans effect.

At home, we go through a kilo of coffee beans in about a fortnight and that is absolutely fine. Coffee keeps for a long time once it’s properly packaged and stored. All our bags have one-way valves which allows gasses to leave the bag but not to enter.

After roasting, coffee naturally outgasses as it settles, releasing carbon dioxide gas at rates of up to 2000cc per kilo for a period of several days. This carbon dioxide (and a little nitrogen) pushes all the air and and all of oxygen out of the bag through the one way valve, leaving the beans harmlessly blanketed in CO2. This is a very positive development from the beans’ perspective. Without oxygen, none of the yeasts, enzymes, bacteria or moulds which would cause the coffee to go off can live, so the coffee remains in perfect condition for a relatively long time.  This means that an unopened bag off coffee will stay fresh for a long time. Most coffee companies give a best by date of 1 year away. Some companies even say 2 years, but this is usually for stuff that isn’t very good to begin with.

We think 6 months is a good use-by period but an unopened bag of beans will definitely be in great shape for at least a year. Once the bag isn’t opened and it is stored in a cool, dry place, Dreambeans coffee will maintain the high notes and the distinctive flavours that make it so exquisite. Once the bag is open, I can start to tell the difference after about 10 days. It’s still better than everything else for about another week or two but once the bag has been opened for about 3 weeks to a month, it will start to taste the same as ordinary, mass market coffee like the big international brands you you can buy in the supermarket..

So if you buy say 4 x 500g bags, unopened it will definitely be perfect for 6 months and still really good for up to a year. It depends on how quickly you use it up once it’s opened. I used to put half a 1kg bag into an ceramic jar with a rubber seal lid and put the other half into the freezer until I needed it but to be honest, we use it so quickly there’s no need. See how you get through the current order. It’s probably a better idea to open one bag at a time but it’s hard to resist trying out all the new treats…

Coffee blends

Coffee blends are made up of more than one type of coffee bean. A coffee blend can have many constituents or it might be just two or three carefully chosen origins. The different coffee beans used in blends can come from any country or any region.

For most of coffee’s history it has been served as a blend and the world’s most famous and most desirable coffees were all blends. The classic Mocha Java pairing of Mocha beans from Yemen with Java from Indonesia was probably the first internationally traded blend and it was hugely popular for several centuries. Still is. Some famous blends had a dominant bean, others were more democratic and let all the constituents shine.

Almost all our coffees are blends, apart from our decaf. We are quite clear in our view that blends perform better than single origins. A good roaster will have an intuitive sense of how a single origin will interact with other types, as well as how the flavours, aromas, and textures will compliment one another. This intuition strengthens and sharpens with time and skill, and the combination of insight and experience can elevate it to a fine art.

It’s incredibly satisfying to create a coffee mix that is more than the sum of its parts. By mixing three distinct beans, each of which is a 6 or a 7 (out of 10) in its own right, a skilled blender will be able to create a blend that rates 9 out of 10. The magic lies in the blending, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

We have a more detailed page here on single origins Vs coffee blends.

Single Origin Coffee

A single origin coffee is one that comes from a particular country or a particular region or a particular farm or co-op. Single origin coffees can offer unique flavour characteristics or specific taste profiles. For many people, one of the most attractive characteristics of single origin coffee is its exclusivity. In a given region that’s known for good coffee, simple geography creates a natural limit to the number of sacks in the coffee crop each year, and that inherent scarcity can help to drive up the price of that specific coffee. Some growers and co-ops spend a lot of money on promotion to help promote the price of their coffee.

Single Estate coffees are even more exclusive still, as they are promoted as coffee from on one particular farm or plantation. These plantations range in size from simple family-owned farms with a few acres, to large plantations with hundreds of workers which are owned by large corporations.

We have a more detailed page here on single origins Vs coffee blends.

Blade Grinder

The least expensive type of coffee grinder is the blade grinder, which often looks like a little spice grinder. It operates by cutting beans with a blade, similar to how a small food processor might. A blade grinder’s disadvantage is that it produces coffee particles of variable size. Some will be big, some will be small. If you want to grind beans to a medium or coarse texture, some particles will always become fine and powdery. When the coffee particles are all different sizes, the extraction rates vary, resulting in a cup with an inconsistent flavour. Furthermore, the blade’s contact at high speed generates heat, which might harm the beans’ flavour. Blade grinders are simple, cheap and very convenient. Many people use them as a secondary grinder. Many people have an expresso machine and a burr grinder at home but use a French press and a blade grinder at work or when they are travelling or on holidays. With practice, blade grinders can make a perfectly good cup of coffee using a French press or a stovetop Moka Pot.

Don’t forget; any grinder is better than no grinder. Sometimes you’ll get a little grit in the bottom of your cup from excess “fines”  but the boost in flavour you get from using freshly ground beans is a good trade-off for a little residue in your cup.

Burr Grinder

Instead of using blades to chop the beans, a burr grinder (also known as a burr mill) crushes them between two rough discs known as burrs. Because the particle size is determined by the distance between the burrs, this approach gives a more consistent grind. There are three types of burr grinders, the old-fashioned manual grinder (which looks like a hand-cranked pepper mill), the electric flat burr grinder (more adjustable; popular for commercial usage), and the electric conical burr grinder (quieter; popular for home use). Nearly all burr grinders are more expensive than blade grinders but the fact is that in most instances, they are worth the extra cost. Being able to control the grind size will give you more options on how you make your coffee and will allow you to experiment more with different coffees and different methods.

All our coffee is ethically sourced. Greenbean Coffee Roasters has been buying coffee since 1987 and we have great relationships with a whole series of excellent coffee co-ops, brokers and growers. Although many of our constituent beans are bought as Fairtrade, the certification itself is not the most important thing for us.

All the coffee we buy is top quality and is priced at a premium. If we weren’t prepared to pay this premium, someone else would. In most cases we pay significantly more than Fairtrade prices. Growers at this level have plenty of options and choices. They are experts at the top of their game and they are not being exploited by anyone, certainly not by us.

Even though we buy coffee which is Fairtrade certified, we do not promote it as Fairtrade because we do not have the time, the energy or the headspace to deal with the paperwork involved. Everyone here at Greenbean / Dreambeans really dislikes the tracking, the tracing, the paperwork and reporting that is a necessary part of promoting coffee as Fairtrade or Fairtrade certified. It’s a lot of bureaucracy and it isn’t what we want to spend our day doing. So we don’t mention Fairtrade in our promotion. We understand that it is necessary to ensure that the coffee is properly traced. The big coffee companies have clerks to do this work. We haven’t, and we really don’t want to have to do it ourselves.

We have been working with some of the same brokers for more than 25 years. We only deal with ethical, honest and transparent intermediaries and importers. We deal with people we trust and who share the same beliefs as us. We are happy to stand over our commitment to transparency and fairness in what we do. Our growers, farmers and co-0ps produce a premium product that commands a premium price and we are happy to pay this premium.

Arabica and Robusta are both coffee plants, (Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora or Coffea Robusta). Each produces coffee beans. The flavour, aroma and texture of Arabica is better, more subtle and more sophisticated than Robusta, but Arabica is more difficult to grow, more expensive and doesn’t yield nearly as well. Robusta is hardier, with better disease resistance and gives a much bigger crop. Arabica beans have a sweeter, more complex flavour and a higher acidity than Robusta beans, which have a harsher, more bitter flavour. Robusta is much stronger and has almost double the caffeine of Arabica. Almost all specialist coffee is Arabica, almost all instant coffee is Robusta.