Price Comparison Chart
Coffee from around the world, delivered to your door is…
Make sure you get what you pay for!
Pound of Coffee’s coffee price comparison chart helps ensure you are getting the best coffee for the best price. We already know we offer some of the best coffees in the world, but many companies try to offer “competitive pricing” but by offering less coffee for that price.
This is why you see a variety of sizes in the coffee aisle. There is no standard size, only a standard “what they think you will pay price”. Therefore, we have created this simple little coffee prices chart to make it even easier to visualize the relationship between price and quantity.
The most typical weight for coffee is by the pound (16 oz). Most good organically grown coffees run about $12-$15 for a pound of coffee. So when you see a nice Organic Colombian coffee for about $11 you grab it off the shelf, not even paying attention to the tiny 12oz marking at the bottom. You just bought 25% less coffee!
Coffee is often sold in packages less than one pound. If you see a 12oz package at your local shop, this is what 16oz would cost. Now that we are on the same page, compare our prices!
Now the only question left is, “Is their coffee as good as ours, hmmmm – NOT!”
| If price of 12oz is… | 16oz would cost! |
| $6.50 | $8.67 |
| $6.75 | $9.00 |
| $7.00 | $9.33 |
| $7.25 | $9.67 |
| $7.50 | $10.00 |
| $7.75 | $10.33 |
| $8.00 | $10.67 |
| $8.25 | $11.00 |
| $8.50 | $11.33 |
| $8.75 | $11.67 |
| $9.00 | $12.00 |
| $9.25 | $12.33 |
| $9.50 | $12.67 |
| $9.75 | $13.00 |
| $10.00 | $13.33 |
| $10.25 | $13.67 |
| $10.50 | $14.00 |
| $10.75 | $14.33 |
| $11.00 | $14.67 |
| $11.25 | $15.00 |
| $11.50 | $15.33 |
| $11.75 | $15.67 |
| $12.00 | $16.00 |
| $12.25 | $16.33 |
| $12.50 | $16.67 |
| $12.75 | $17.00 |
| $13.00 | $17.33 |
| $13.25 | $17.67 |
| $13.50 | $18.00 |
| $13.75 | $18.33 |
| $14.00 | $18.67 |
Have any questions? Feel free to call us to ask about any of our coffees or even coffees you would like to see added. Our toll free number is 1-866-879-4266 or email us using our contact form.
Happy brewing... Express Coffee dot com
Grading Coffee Beans
Coffee – The Bean Grader’s Art
Ever wonder why one bean makes it to your local specialty shop and another doesn’t?
Long before you sip a delicious cup of dark ambrosia, coffee graders make hot and tiring journeys, face insects and hostile governments and endure weeks of frustration and danger to bring you that favorite brew.
Ok, maybe it’s not quite as adventurous as that, but graders do lead interesting lives.
Coffee is graded long before it makes it to the loading dock. The task is carried out by someone called a ‘Green Coffee seller’. No, that job has nothing to do with any environmental movement. It’s simply a reflection of the fact that beans are ‘green’ or fresh, before they’re made brown by roasting.
Beans are carefully examined for a number of traits.
They need to be fairly uniform in size and similarly shaped. This is important to help ensure an even roast. Smaller beans roast differently than larger ones. When the size of the bean differs the roasting time can’t be adjusted properly, since some will pop and brown before others.
Graders look for similarity of color, as well. Uneven coloring suggests that beans have dried at different rates. It also indicates that beans may have been mixed from different cultivars, again leading to inconsistency in roasting and flavor.
Beans have to be separated by geographic region grown and by cultivar in order to achieve the appropriate final result. They need to be harvested, processed and dried separately for the final product to be a fine brew.
Beans are best when they’re processed soon after harvesting. Coffee beans undergo a kind of fermenting process that will initiate after harvesting. The process isn’t like fermenting wine – turning sugars into alchohol, but it nevertheless produces unwanted compounds. Drying prevents this from beginning.
Many processors will float the beans in water to separate out defective beans, since different density beans will float at different levels. But finer beans result from a more time-consuming process called ‘dry processing’.
Dry processed beans have a brown ‘silverskin’, called a fox bean in Brazil. If the silverskin can be removed by simple rubbing, it’s not a defect, but evidence of this dry process. Under ripe beans, though can also have a silverskin, which can’t be removed by rubbing. Such beans will result in a coffee with a sour taste.
Drying beans is an art all by itself. Estates often boast proudly of the skill and care taken during the process. As well they might. Improper drying often shows. Economics sometimes encourages processors to use harsh mechanical drying techniques. Drying the beans too rapidly or failing to turn them frequently enough can result in beans with an uneven, mottled appearance.
Beans that have been properly dried will first spend time on a ‘patio’, to dry the skin, before they’re fed to the mechanical dryer. Truly superior beans will have spent several short stints in the dryer at around 40°C (104°F), rather than one long one. The result is an even color and just the right moisture content.
There are a few other aspects graders will look for.
Beans can have a white edge as the result of inadequate drying or being stored in too humid conditions. The result will be a bland cup and graders are on the lookout for it.
Good Arabica coffee beans, the type used in fine coffees, will have an even, bright appearance.
Lastly, they smell the beans. Good beans will have a fresh aroma, but they also try to detect what’s absent along with what’s present. Any improper processing will add a smoky or musty tinge that you don’t want in your cup.
So before you sip that fine brew, take a moment to sense the fine aroma and lift a cup in thanks to bean graders.
Free coffee online
A great place to learn about free coffee?
With the advent of the Internet, there are a lot of companies who offer freebies using their online presence. This is because they want to attract new customers and offering freebies is probably the best working solution. You can get free coffee and free coffee grinders as well. So, why pay to try new coffees when you can get it for free?
For example, Gevalia is a huge coffee company that offered free coffee to their customers and since then the company developed into one of the biggest coffee companies in the world. The reason for that is that people who received free samples from them continued buying the coffee.
There are also a lot of free coffee items you can get as well from major coffee producers around the world. The great thing is that besides coffee, you can get grinders and pots from them. You should profit from the high competition within the coffee market and search some free coffee products right away.
In the past, free coffee meant some kind of deal you had to sign with the coffee company. These days, things have changed as you only need to pay for the shipping and you get free coffee. This is a great thing and this is why you need to search for the available options on the Internet. You only have to type free coffee in the search engine box and click “enter”. You will notice thousands of results and you can start looking for free coffee opportunities.
There are a lot of free coffee opportunities online and the worst thing you could do is not profit from them. If you are looking for these opportunities all you need to know where to look for.
First of all, you should avoid all kinds of strings attached for free coffee. At worst, you will have to pay for the shipping. Also, check for different coffee companies online in order to see if they are legitimate. Last but not least, you should never pay anything until you get your coffee on the door step.
In conclusion, if free coffee seems unrealistic for you, you need to think again. There are a lot of free coffee opportunities for you on the Internet so that you do not need to pay for coffee in order to try something new.
The Short History
The place to get a “scoop” of coffee history!
Different countries may have a varying and more favorful to their own discovery, as with any history book every published. However, the considerably more consistent story, and the one most commonly written is similar to the one following. The place is Ethiopia and the time is sometime before the 10th century. The discovery was made not by a person, but rather by a herd of goats.
A goat herder was trying to gather his herd without much success. In tracking down a portion of the herd, he found them romping in a playful frenzy. While observing them, he realized they were nibbling on berries which hung from a bush that he had not seen before that day. Soon thereafter, he had a similar occurrence when his herd was not responding to his call. After reaching the conclusion that his goats were not harmed but the small berry, he decided to try the small fruit himself. He was soon feeling the same excitement he had seen in his goats and began frolicking with them. And as they say, the rest is history.
From there much experimenting took place from crushing the leaves and berries together along with animal fat to create a snack to soaking them in water to drink the magical powers of this mysterious berry. Eventually, estimated between the 13th and 16th centuries, a combination of the two became the method of how we drink coffee today – grinding the dried berries and soaking the grinds into hot water to create a drinkable empowerment.
This created many bans and in some instances, the shutting down of coffeehouses…
During this time, the knowledge of these dried berries spread as traders and travelers carried it with them. This is where things get a bit fuzzy as far as where many of the terms come from. One account is taken from travels reaching the ancient city of al-Makkha where the term “mocha” came from, of the Arabic word for wine, “qah-wah” which some say was later evolved into the word “coffee”. Stories of Muslim holy men drinking coffee to stay awake for midnight prayers amidst a prayerful intoxication.
But then, many of the history details come back to the Ottoman Empire conquering Yemen as it expanded into Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. With them coffee was spread throughout. However, as the Ottoman Empire attempted to take Vienna, they were unsuccessful. The retreating troops left behind bags or coffee beans they carried with them for endless energy. Hence, a Viennese coffeehouse was born.
Again, as the coffee spread over parts of Europe recollections appear to vary quite a bit. The most noteworthy account though, are numerous bans that were placed on the wonder. It was believed at several points throughout its history to be the fruit of corruption. Leaders would believe that people gathering and discussing politics in the wee hours could only develop strategies to overthrow and inevitably revolution would erupt. This created many bans and in some instances, the shutting down of coffee houses, and disbursement of street gatherings.
Coffee has since become a household item, no longer reserved for aristocrats and revolutionaries. So drink away and dance with your goats and know you hold in your cup a drink with as much controversy as it does history.
Be a part of history, drink coffee!
The roasting process
The best place to learn about coffee roasting!
There is a very in-depth science to coffee harvesting and roasting. For that explanation of the chemical process we will refer you to CoffeeResearch.org. For our purposes we will briefly cover the roasting process.
When coffee beans are harvested they are green in color. You do have the ability to buy beans at this point if you own a home roaster. Decent home coffee roasters run about $500 and you can even add in your own flavoring. For us, we rely on the pros to roast beans to perfection as the process is an art form.
As the green beans are dried they begin to gain a yellow color and smell like popcorn. The next step is to bring on the heat. At approximately 400 degrees the coffee bean grows and becomes a light brown color at which point it cracks – this is usually referred to as the “first crack”.
From here the coffee beans are brought to a medium brown color by increasing heat to approximately 435 degrees. At this point the beans release carbon dioxide, become lighter and are almost ready. One more increase in heat, approximately 450 degrees, and the coffee beans become a nice medium-dark brown and once again, crack – usually referred to as, you guessed it, the “second crack”.
This is what you would normally see as the mildly oily, rich brown coffee beans which are ready to buy. So why are there so many coffee beans to choose from and why should you be picky? This is where the art form comes in – choosing the exact time when to complete the roast reflects directly on the acidity, aroma and taste left in the beans. When to add certain flavors to the roasting coffee beans also play an important role in the final product.
It has become somewhat of an American tradition to roast the beans too much. This displays as a dark black bean and a strong bitter taste, what most folks just refer to as “coffee”. The over roasting is usually done to mask the bitter taste of poorly harvested beans of a lesser quality than the imports. This is why you see so many Colombian, Ethiopian, Jamaican, and Kenyan high quality coffees boasting their rich, bold taste and aroma.
There is always an exception to the rule. For American coffee, it is the rich flavor of Hawaiian Kona. In that example, we are not saying all American coffees are over roasted, nor to say you can’t get poorly harvested bean crops from Colombia. It is just to state that there is a selection out there and as usual, you get what you pay for.
We have to close with saying that here, at Pound of Coffee dot com, you can rely on the fact that we only sell beans of the highest quality from roasters they have been in the business for years and have a reputation they can boast about.
Happy roasting...