Ordering from Sweet Marias from Canada

[Endo]

What is the price like shipping from Sweet Maria's in California to Montreal?

I usually buy from the Greenbeanery in Toronto to avoid customs and delays. It usually comes in 2 days. But I've been thinking of switching to SMs to get a better and fresher selection. Any beans from SM you'd recommend?

[Louis]

What is the price like shipping from Sweet Maria's in California to Montreal?

I usually buy from the Greenbeanery in Toronto to avoid customs and delays. It usually comes in 2 days. But I've been thinking of switching to SMs to get a better and fresher selection. Any beans from SM you'd recommend?

I use the USPS/Canada Post International Flat Rate Boxes:
- Medium: $36.95 (up to 12 lbs)
- Large: $43.95 (up to 18 lbs)
It is insured and there is no tariff to pay for greens (make sure you don't use UPS... you are probably already aware of the many reasons UPS found to ensure you don't ever use their service again... last time I used their service across the border I ended up paying $20 of fees for $0.14 tariff on 2x $0.50 items).

These prices seem to be way too much, but when compared to greenbeanery.ca prices ($18-35/lbs for their top tier) or even terracaf.ca,($25-40/kg) it suddenly looks like a good bargain. For example, my last order costed me $150 for 18 lbs, or $8,33/lbs, delivered. It takes about 1 week to reach Montréal, but I personally don't care at all: these are greens, not roasted beans.

Thomson Owen from SweetMaria's has a good reputation for his cupping skills and his personal involvement in finding and making deals directly with farmers is a plus to me.

In my first order I've used their "samplers", so I ended up with small quantities of each coffee: not enough to learn from my roasts and find their sweet spot. It was also the beginning of my roasting experiments... I drank all batches but some were... poor? Not as bad as buying grocery roasted coffee but I could have challenged them on their own ground.

This time I've limited myself to:
- Guatemala Acatenenango - Finca La Soledad (SO). - I've done two roasts, both being really nice. If I could always achieve this kind of results, I would completely stop buying roasted coffee.
- El Salvador Finca La Montanita Bourbon (SO)
- El Salvador Matalapa -Tablon El Naranjo (SO)
- Espresso Workshop #21 -The Satpura Fold blend- 10 lbs
- Espresso Workshop #20 - Gneiss Shot blend - 10 lbs
I've selected those mostly because, according to Tom's comments, they end up tasting good in a large range of roast levels (City [some time after 1C] to FullCity+ [few snaps into 2C]) and I wanted to try lighter roast levels.

Their classic is the Espresso Monkey blend (roasted to FC+) if you like relatively darker blends.

[peter]

I'm a distributor for greencoffeebuyingclub.com. We have a member in Montreal, Miroslav, whose GCBC username is smico. He has some very good Costa Rican, Nicaraguan, and Mexican green coffee. Sylvain, Whale, can vouch for the coffee as he helped us cup them.

[slo]

I certainly encourage anyone that lives in Montreal to get the 3 Coffees that Miroslav is distributing.
I pick the coffee directly at his place, in Boucherville, so there is no shipping cost for me. The quality of the coffee is far above the average from Greenbeanerie.
The coffee is sourced from a large Montreal based coffee importer. This makes the cost model very favorable.
Miroslav is a great guy and a passionate coffee geek.
I cannot believe that I had not mention Miroslav here before. Everyone in Canada should give Miroslav's coffee a try, but for those in and around Montreal, you are missing out on a great offering if you do not.

[chas]

I'm a distributor for greencoffeebuyingclub.com. We have a member in Montreal, Miroslav, whose GCBC username is smico. He has some very good Costa Rican, Nicaraguan, and Mexican green coffee. Sylvain, Whale, can vouch for the coffee as he helped us cup them.

Oh, you're THAT Peter. Now I make the connection. I just got a shipment from you a few days ago. I'll probably roast the first batch of Flores, Bjawa Ngura this weekend.

[Endo]

Excellent! A local source for quality green beans. I'll definitely give Miroslav a call. I was just in Boucherville about 1/2 hour ago playing hockey. If only I knew.

Hey Peter, where did you get your Compak K-10? I'm shopping for one now that the Pharos taste turned out so well.

[slo]

Sylvain, Whale, can vouch for the coffee as he helped us cup them.

As a side note, I am called SLO here, unlike just about every other coffee sites as for some reason I was permitted "Whale".

[peter]

Sylvain, Whale, can vouch for the coffee as he helped us cup them.

As a side note, I am called SLO here, unlike just about every other coffee sites as for some reason I was permitted "Whale".

Hehehe... as soon as I logged in and saw this thread, I remembered that. Whoops. Now, we have to figure what S L O stands for.