What are Green Coffee Beans?

If you've never heard of green coffee before, you might initially assume it's a unique bean variety. However, your favorite coffee blend at your local shop also begins as green coffee. These pale green beans are, in fact, unroasted coffee that has been fully processed. It's not until these beans enter the roaster that they are transformed into the brown aromatic blends we know and love. Although they are the same product, green coffee and roasted beans offer very different experiences for the consumer, from flavor to presentation.

A Growing Trend

Third-wave coffee is about immersing ourselves in the brewing process, beginning with our coffee's origins. The desire to understand where our coffee comes from, how it's processed, and how certain variations differ in flavor has also driven the growing demand for green coffee products. Consumers are interested in exploring green coffee's reported health benefits and varying flavors, while also expanding their knowledge on a new method of experiencing coffee. That is why we now see green coffee being sold at major coffee chains, in dietary supplement stores as capsules, and by coffee farms or roasters directly to consumers.

Harvest and Processing

As mentioned in our articles on coffee processing, harvested coffee cherries come with a fruit layer that must be removed before roasting. The exact method for removing the fruit layer can vary, with each one bringing unique taste notes to the final roast.

Regardless of what processing method is used, you'll still end up with raw green coffee beans that can still be brewed for consumption.

A Different Flavor Experience

It's important to note that the taste of green coffee is very different from the flavors you taste in your cup of roasted coffee. The experience is so distinctively different that you might not even recognize it in a blind taste test. Unlike the earthy, fruity, and acidic taste notes we find in our favorite coffee blends, green coffee has a far more vegetal flavor. There are distinct grassy notes that make the experience similar to drinking an herbal tea, rather than an espresso.

How fruity or clean your green coffee will taste also depends on its respective processing method. Beans that were processed using a natural/dry method have longer exposure to coffee cherries' fruit layer before it's removed. This means your cup of green coffee will retain more of those acidic and fruity notes. However, green coffee processed using a wet method will have less exposure to its fruit layer, meaning you'll get a less sweet but cleaner tasting finish.

Caffeine Levels

When coffee beans are roasted, their caffeine levels decrease slightly across the roast spectrum. Lighter roasts, which are exposed to less heat, retain higher levels of caffeine than darker roasts. Green coffee, which is never roasted or exposed to heat, has a slightly higher level of caffeine than lighter roasts.

However, a cup of green coffee will have less caffeine per serving than a cup of black coffee. How is that so? The answer is surface area.

When beans are roasted, their water content evaporates, allowing them to be broken down more easily in a grinder. Grinding allows for more surface area in the brewing process, which then makes it easier for water to extract caffeine from your grounds. Roasting and grinding create more bean surface area in black coffee grounds, as opposed to green coffee which forgo those two processes. As a result, a cup of black coffee will have 100g of caffeine and a cup of green coffee will have 20g per cup, or roughly a fifth of the caffeine.

Choosing the Right Green Coffee For You

While green coffee and black coffee are very different, the way someone goes about shopping for either of them is fairly similar. Other than processing methods, coffee variables like altitude and bean variety make a difference in your green coffee's flavor.

For example, Lardera's Geisha Caturra Washed has strong taste notes of citrus, red apples, and grapes that originate from both its Geisha bean variety and wet processing method with controlled fermentation. This is a different experience to Lardera's Monomamba Washed that is processed using a wet method, minus controlled fermentation. The final result is a more vibrant cup with notes of tangerine, concord grape, and black current.

The altitude your green coffee is grown at also makes a noticeable difference. Coffee grown at higher altitudes experience cooler temperatures, allowing the coffee cherries to grow at a slower rate and develop sweeter, more complex taste notes.

As with black coffee, sample a few different variations of green coffee and find one that suits your specific taste. For more information on brewing, keep an eye out for next week's article on how to brew green coffee at home.

Try Green Coffee!

Current available green coffee options include:
Geisha Caturra Washed
Monobamba Washed
Castillo Washed
Junin Natural
Junin Anaerobic