I've been roasting coffee for years...

[Mad Dawg]

...and I'm still learning. I've talked about my changing views on storing green coffee before, but tonight I experienced something new.

I just got in 5lbs of Ethiopian Beloya 25 from Uncle Beanz, who stores and ships his green coffee in vacuum-sealed bags. Where he can, he also works with producers who seal their coffee as soon as the moisture content is right and ship it that way, so that the beans are never exposed to jute/burlap/diesel fumes/other nasty shite during shipping.

My experience tonight was getting hit with the aromas of the green coffee when I unsealed the bag they were shipped in. Normally, I really don't get that much aroma off of green coffee, or at least not any that's noteworthy. The sole exception - until tonight - was a batch of Turquino I got a few years back that had a distinct aroma of jalapeno peppers, but that's another story. This coffee was redolent with fruit aromas (bananas, melon, blueberries) and there was an underlying sense of spice and something...rich. I think this is a natural processed coffee, so the fruitiness makes sense, but the impression of freshness and complexity was really strong.

So of course I immediately roasted up a batch for Friday. Can't wait to try it!