Where to Find Green Coffee Beans

Once upon a time, drinking coffee meant that you roasted your own coffee at home. With the advent of cans and vacuum packing, home coffee roasting became a thing of the past. Why smoke up your entire house to make a pot of coffee when you could open a can or vacuum bag of roasted beans? Some of us are diehard do-it-yourselfers, though. In these days of back-to-basics, there’s an increasing market of home coffee roasters who want green coffee beans so that they can roast their own coffee beans to their own taste.

When I first joined the league of home coffee roasters, I stubbed my toe against a very big obstacle – where in the world do you buy green coffee beans? You won’t find them on your supermarket shelf, for sure, nor can you get them at most specialty coffee shops. Lucky for me, I had a secret weapon – a friend in the coffee roasting business. Peter was willing to share the bounty now and then by shuffling enough green beans to roast up a batch for myself in the frying pan at home, but that meant I was stuck with whatever they were blending at the coffee house. I needed to find my own source – or sources – and I did, eventually – online, where you can find just about anything.

If you’re considering roasting your own coffee, but haven’t yet found a reliable source, or want to add a few more sources, here’s a list of five places online where you can buy green coffee beans without a wholesaler’s license.

Our Coffee Barn sells about two dozen varieties of green coffee beans in 1, 5 and 10-pound quantities. The average cost is about $5, though they sometimes have Hawaiian kona peaberry for about $17. One of my favorite deals at Our Coffee Barn is the ten pound sampler of green coffee beans that includes one pound each of ten coffee house specialty coffees.

1. Kenya AA
2. Sumatra Mandheling
3. Guatemala
4. Mexico Chiapas
5. Ethiopia Yergacheffee
6. Brasil Serra Negra
7. Costa Rica Tarrazu
8. Cameroon
9. Colombia Supremo
10. Nicaragua

Burman Coffee Traders is a company started by dedicated home coffee roasters who wanted to share their passion for roasting coffee with the world. BCT sells special “bundles” of their top-selling green beans as well as individual bags in 1, 2, 5 and 50 pound lots. The bundles are a great way to sample a few different coffees, but BCT also offers one of my favorite features of any site. They regularly discount some of their favorite lots by about 25% to encourage folks to sample their favorite blends and single origin beans. Clicking on a sale priced coffee will bring up a window that describes the coffee and tells a bit about its origin.

Coffee Bean Corral sells nothing but green, unroasted coffee beans and small batch home coffee roasters. Their site offers a very cool Coffee Matrix that lets you sort their enormous selection by the flavor attributes that you like best. Prices range from $3.50 a pound.

The Fresh Coffee Beans Company has a smaller selection of green beans for sale, but they make up for it with the high quality. They also offer a great little deal – for $18, they’ll put together a variety pack of four of THEIR favorite coffees for you. It’s a great way to be surprised and try new coffees you wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

Brew Organic offers lots of organic do-it-yourself supplies, including ingredients for organic beer and certified organic green coffee beans. Like Fresh Coffee Beans, Brew Organic offers coffee sampler packs – a 5-pound pack, a 9-pound pack and a pick-your-own sample pack.