commodity coffee

[lunfardi]

someone told me that folgers, maxwell house, tasters choice, hills bros, mjb, nescafe, ect...... all buy commodity coffee for their ground roast and maybe also instant coffee that they sell. is this true and if so, is commodity coffee the average coffee beans that farmers grow or only special beans from high altitudes in tropical climates? i got in contact with the folgers coffee company and they were insinuating to me that they dont buy just any coffee beans! i guess theyre conceited! what is the quality of commodity coffee? if someone went into the coffee business and wanted to sell their beans to folgers, what would they need to do? who grows commodity coffee and how do they have the privilege to sell their coffee beans to american coffee companies?????? whats the secret? can a coffee lover please tell me. thank you.

 

[PinkRose]

someone told me that folgers, maxwell house, tasters choice, hills bros, mjb, nescafe, ect...... all buy commodity coffee for their ground roast and maybe also instant coffee that they sell. is this true and if so, is commodity coffee the average coffee beans that farmers grow or only special beans from high altitudes in tropical climates? i got in contact with the folgers coffee company and they were insinuating to me that they dont buy just any coffee beans! i guess theyre conceited! what is the quality of commodity coffee? if someone went into the coffee business and wanted to sell their beans to folgers, what would they need to do? who grows commodity coffee and how do they have the privilege to sell their coffee beans to american coffee companies?????? whats the secret? can a coffee lover please tell me. thank you.

When you got in touch with someone from Folgers, why didn't you ask him (or her) what you would need to do in order to sell your beans to Folgers?

 

[lunfardi]

so, how come starbucks told me the complete opposite then? whats the story with them? i can show you their email reply that they sent me. rsvp.

yes, they (like forgers and Nescafe..etc) don't buy just "any" coffee beans. They buy the worst and cheapest coffee beans in the world to make their instant and ground coffee. Since I am in green bean sales business in Guatemala, I can tell you this..

Micro lots and Specialty beans (85 points and up) : sells to independent specialty coffee roasters or specialty coffee bean importers. selling pricing is from $3.00 per pound to $30 per pound

SHB (strictly hard beans which means very good beans. 80 to 84 points) : also sells to specialty coffee roasters and coffee bean importers, such as Verse, BlueBottle, Intelligensia..etc $2.00 to $3.00 per pound

HB (Hard beans. 75 to 79 points) : these beans are the most common beans for most of coffee shops, roasters and importers. $1.50 to $1.99 per pound

Semi Hard beans & Extra Prime beans : these beans can not be used by themselves to make pour over, french press or even regular drip coffee. sometimes, importers/roasters mix these beans with SHB to lower the cost. $1.20 to $1.49 per pounds

Prime beans and defective beans : they are the worst and cheapest beans. Folgers and Nescafe buy these beans to make instant and ground coffee. for Folgers's Premium ground coffee, they mix these beans with SHB (perhaps 50% and 50%) to improve the taste a bit and sell them as their premium line.

So, when they say that "they do not buy any beans". I am sure that they meant the worst beans in coffee producing countries.

By the way, above information is only applicable from Guatemala where I work. I do not have these info on other countries...