I want to start home roasting but I’m not sure where\what to buy as far as beans go as a Canadian buyer. I did a quick check on Amazon (which I try to avoid buying from) and found the cheapest beans are about 14 CAD per pound, but I’m not sure that it’s that good of a deal and I don’t know what quality I’m getting.
Any advice is appreciated.
Edit: found a supplier: https://terracaf.ca/
I appreciate the interest in pursuing home roasting, but it has always seemed an expensive option. Thankfully I have a couple of roasteries close by me, and they’re good - one is very good. You can get freshly roasted beans delivered relatively inexpensively, which you know will be of a decent quality. All of those factors make it a pretty big investment to jump into roasting your own beans and hoping for a better cup than a seasoned roasting house - they have the economy of scale to make their system worthwhile and turn a profit. If you don’t mind it being more expensive, then I’m sure it’ll be a rewarding experience which will further your understanding of the process and the product itself. Best of luck with it!
In my experience so far, it’s the cheaper option. Most roasteries I can find can apparently not be bothered to communicate their roast dates. I think I know of a few places where I would be able to know it, but those places will sell me beans at 20$ per pound and more if I take a smaller amount, which I have to, because I don’t use it that fast. This all means expensive coffee that will stay in the cupboard or the hopper for up to 3 months, being really good mainly the first 2 weeks. Green beans I found are half the price, and I can roast whatever I need on a weekly basis. I assume you think it’s expensive because you would need to buy a roaster, but really, I bought a metal sieve from the dollar store and got started earlier today. It helps that I like to mix dark roast with light roast, so inconsistencies in my process will lead to something similar anyway. For now, I actually tried a rather good cup and it cost me 25 CAD and 10 minutes.