Frequently Asked Questions

These are some of our most frequently asked questions.  If you have more, please let us know.

Green Coffee Beans

Why can't I order my favourite coffee any more, why do you change what coffees you stock?

This is our most commonly asked question and has several answers.

1. We may have found a better coffee at a similar or cheaper price.
2. That coffee may just be too expensive this season.
3. We may not be able to get it.  The crop may have failed, or be scarce, and therefore not available to New Zealand importers.
4. The quality of that coffee may be poor (again due to growing conditions).
5. The coffee may have been a one-off - we are always on the look-out for special limited availability coffees at good prices.

Primarily, the availability and price of coffee is dependent on the growing conditions for that season, the political and financial situation in the exporting country and shipping.

When we are not likely to restock the coffee in the next six months (or ever), we remove it from the web site to avoid frustration.  If you can't see it, we don't have it in stock.

Do you import green coffee?

We used to, but there are several reasons we no longer do so:

1. MPI Requirements.  Any importer has to work with MPI and have facilities set up for inspection and storage of any coffees that come in.  We no longer have the level of infrastructure to support this.
2. Relationships.  To get reliable quality and price, you have to be able to build direct relationships within each growing country.  We do not have the capability or buying power to do that, and sustain those relationships.
3. Quality.  You need to be able to Q Grade any samples before orders, then Q Grade them again for comparison when they arrive.  You also need to have the relationship (and buying power) with the exporter to trust you will get the quality promised and be able to return poor quality coffees.

We work with selected, trusted importers to purchase from their selection, and work with them to get other coffees we are interested in.  Our focus, as with the Behmors, is to provide the highest quality coffee at the most reasonable price. 

How long do green coffee beans last?

This depends who you talk to - but generally up to two years provided they are stored out of the light and kept dry.

How fresh is your coffee?

Less than a year old.  All our coffee has been purchased in the last six months - and has come from the latest season (they do have to sit awhile after being processed to be roasted - which is generally only an issue for PNG coffees).  We don't stock any coffees that take longer than six months to sell.

The only exception is our Lucky Dip blend.

Behmors and Brazens

Do you service Behmors?

We can, but the problem is shipping.  We have to get the Behmor here, and then return it.

Generally speaking, Behmors are designed so that by following the instructions available on the Behmor web site, most people with a bit of electrical / mechanical knowledge can do their own repairs and upgrades.

Further, for those of you not comfortable doing this, any small appliance repair shop should be able to make the appropriate repairs.  Just point them to huge amount of resources on the Behmor web site.

Why aren't all of the Behmor spare parts available for purchase?

Basically because we have a limited amount of spare parts that we need to reserve for any warranty issues.  We still sell them when a customer requests them, if we have enough stock available.  Just send us a message and we'll let you know the availability and price.

Sometimes spare parts simply aren't available.  For example, there was a world wide shortage of drums for quite some time.

Sometimes we need to get Behmor to ship them directly because we weren't able to get them, or could only get a limited number, with our last shipment of Behmors.

The good news is very few of the parts break down.

Why don't you sell Brazens any more?

There are several reasons:

1. Coffee brewing machines are not our core business.  Our core business is green coffee beans and bench top roasters.
2. They do not have swap in-swap out spare parts like the Behmors do.
3. We were given a minimum order quantity, and was too large an investment for the period of time it would take to sell them.

Having said that, we do believe they are really good machines and use ours regularly.

Why don't you sell other roasters?

There are several reasons:

1. While the Behmor is a domestic coffee roaster (i.e. it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a commercial roaster), it does the job pretty well and, in our opinion, provides the best "bang for buck".
2. Other roasters, price wise, would be very difficult to sell against the Behmor.
3. New Zealand is a very small market, and  unless you are the direct importer, there is not enough profit to be made selling someone else's imported roaster.  On top of that, you still have to deal with any warranty issues through a middle party.

Shipping

Why can't I see the shipping prices on the web-site?

We are trying to get this working automatically - including automatically selecting the correct zone for you.  Basically we have three different systems that have to be able to talk to each other.  Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Why don't you use courier bags that are cheaper for small quantities?

There are two reasons for this:

1. We found that quite often the paper bags that we pack the coffee in got damaged.
2. They are plastic, and so we have moved away from them.
3. The edges of them can tear apart with heavy items like green coffee beans.

Sometimes we will use courier bags when shipping small items like Behmor parts that won't get damaged.  But, we only use our existing stock of courier bags - we don't buy new ones.

Sustainability

These are some of the approaches we take to ensure our business remains sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Power

We are primarily solar powered.

Packaging

We use heavy duty paper bags and boxes for packaging - with the only plastic element being the tape.  All of the paper bags are new, but we do re-use decent boxes that are sent to use from other suppliers.

The only exception is 20kg orders that are packed in re-used hermatic bags, inside the boxes.

Left Over Coffee

We always have some left over coffee (under 1kg) at the end of the sack.  If we have no further stock of that coffee, we either roast it for ourselves or we add it to our Lucky Dip blend for you to purchase.  Sweepings go into the compost (along with our personal coffee grinds).

Disposal of Coffee Sacks (both hessian and paper)

Hessian is expensive to buy, so we re-sell used coffee sacks or use them ourselves (primarily in the garden as, for example, potato bags).

Some of our coffee comes in heavy duty paper bags which are used in the garden as brown mulch and/or to suppress weeds (and given away to neighbours for the same purpose).

Disposal of Hermatic (plastic) bags

Hermatic (plastic) bags protect the coffee delivered inside sacks and bags.  This is standard practice for dry agricultural commodities, both protecting the coffee from any elements it is exposed to and keeping it as fresh as possible.

These bags are:

1. Used to package 20kg orders
2. Used as a filler in parcels where the orders don't quite fill the box
3. Used for storage gardening supplies and as rubbish bags
4. Given away to anyone who wants them
5. Put in the soft plastic recycling if there are too many to use in other ways.

Paper Waste

We do have some paper waste - primarily the backs of courier and product labels.  Other paper waste is shredded and it is all used as filler in parcels.