Whole beans more expensive than ground coffee.

[AndreasDK]

Does anyone know why coffeebeans are cheaper pre-ground than they are whole?

Locally I have noticed that the average price of 8 - 10 USD for 400g of coffee will only get me 200 - 250g of whole beans.
Some of these are from the same manufacturer, so apparently there must be a reason for it.

[SiBurning]

Not an answer... Just rambling & wondering... I wonder if this is partly temporary. The green coffee beans I bought in June are mostly on the puny side. They probably wouldn't be used whole by most larger companies because they want a particular size bean. That forces them into competition for a smaller part of the crop, or into certain regions. Even if they're selling a blend of whole beans, they want to match the size, color, look, etc. They don't need to worry about this with ground coffee. There were some important areas affected by weather this past year, in Brazil, India, and Africa. If you're talking generic blends, rather than specific origin, they can also compensate by using robusta instead of arabica. In India, robusta production has been higher, while there was less production of arabica. Brazil's been way behind their peak production of 2008 ever since, and looks to be behind again this year. Hopefully someone more tuned in can give a definite answer. I'm curious.

The puny coffee's actually tasted fine, but it can roast a bit spotty at times.

[nff]

company's selling whole beans are usualy trying to pass their product off as higher quality/fresher. such as steve said theres a bit more selection gone into the roasting and apearance. where as pre ground they have a general flavor profile they work with and as long as they get to that profile they will use the lowest quality beans to get there. and also whole beans will keep longer (on average 2-4 weeks after roasting depending if they'v been in the open air or not.) than pre ground (about 1 hour after opening) unless theres an actual date on the package its most likely stale. but thats the price of non local roasted/pre ground coffee.

if you'v got the DIY bug in ya buy a sampeler of green coffee and dust off the old popcorn popper and play. you can do small batches of 30-50g to get the hang of it. its interesting to see what difrent coffee's taste best at which roasts and how age will affect the cups.
for example i recently did a veeeery fresh coffee in my espresso machine and the crema was amazing but it felt like i was drinking a coffee with carbonation in it. it fizzled on the tongue and was not very nice. where as the same coffee the next day had similar crema but the fizzy is gone and the flavors popped out much more. on average 3 weeks is as long as i'd let a coffee sit. in a air tight container. and if its a oily bean it'd be less than that likely 1.5weeks due to the oils going rancid.

do you know if theres any local-ish roasters near you? like say 2 day shipping or so? if so i'd pay the little bit of premium and get a 1-2 day old roast than something thats been sitting of a shelf or in a bin for god knows how long. or even worse sitting ground in a tin for god knows how long.

theres aparently a few roasters
http://ravenscoffee.com/

[Romeo Bravo]

Most people would buy ground beans therefore the quantities sold will be massively superior to whole beans. This will make whole bean "premium" and therefore more expensive. They might or might not be better BTW, it is only related to quantities on the market not quality.
A bigger market would act more like a perfect competition, while a smaller one would act more like an oligopoly (This would assume that more products = more producers). In both cases though they will try to differentiate their product so as to go into an oligopoly or even monopoly situation.
Oh what one learns by studying shaving...

[AndreasDK]

Thank you for that link, nff.

I have never heard of local roasters but it could be fun to try it.

[JPDyson]

In a word, quality.

[Wetshavemike]

Many coffee beans are roasted, then shipped. Ground coffee takes up a lot less space, and is therefore almost half the cost to ship. They can also mix in beans of lesser quality ( according to someone who works at ).

[StillShaving]

Was the coffee blend the same, or just the manufacturer? I believe the Danes have a strong coffee culture so I suspect the whole bean variety is better quality, as people who are grinding at home are looking to improve the taste in their cup. But if it was exactly the same coffee, a big price difference doesn't make economic sense other than charging what the market will bear.

For comparison, I checked the online prices for a few well known coffee brands at a well known big box store in USA. The prices for 12 oz Whole Bean versus Ground were exactly the same except for one small difference:

• eight o'clock - same
• dunkin donuts - same
• starbucks house blend - same
• starbucks french roast - same
• starbucks colombia meduim roast - whole bean was 10 cents cheaper than ground

[AndreasDK]

Was the coffee blend the same, or just the manufacturer? I believe the Danes have a strong coffee culture so I suspect the whole bean variety is better quality, as people who are grinding at home are looking to improve the taste in their cup. But if it was exactly the same coffee, a big price difference doesn't make economic sense other than charging what the market will bear.

Same blend.

I don`t know if we drink more coffee in Denmark than in the rest of the world. I have been drinking 1½ - 6 pots per dayy for about 15 years or so.
Most people drink about 1 - 1½ pot per day and pretty much all of it is drip coffee.

Today most people (including myself) are trying to set a limit for how much coffee we drink because of
1. We know more about the ill effects of coffee than we did 5 years ago
2. Coffee prices have gone up rapidly in the past two years here in Denmark

MoccaMaster has pretty much taken over the market due to their slightly better taste than cheap plastic drip makers and their excellent warranty.
I had a MoccaMaster in thought when I decided what to get but am happy I chose a cheap grinder and my Bialetti moka pot 6 cups.