Why Don't More Roasters Offer Trial/Smaller Bags ?

gotters

There are so many roasters, so many beans etc I love trying new stuff but am simply not willing to keep paying £10 or more for full size bags of things I’m not sure about.

I love the trial packs people do, like this I saw recently from Gold Box (I ordered the 7 variety version)

https://www.goldboxroastery.com/uk/shop/coffee-tasters-discovery-box

I’m sure part of the argument is it’s not worth the effort and people will order a bigger bag but I’m not sure that holds up. I’ll personally try any company offering a sampler like this, even if it’s a bit pricier per g than they normally charge per bag.

Challenge to any roasters reading this, offer a sampler on your site and I’ll buy one ! That or people link to other places they know that do this of course.

DavecUK

gotters Is this for filter pour over or espresso, because many people take almost that much coffee to just dial the shot in properly?

gotters

DavecUK i use a clever and think you can get an idea of a coffee quite quickly, even if it’s not the perfect shot.

agree some of the coffee market are happily chucking kilos of beans aways dialling things in, but also suspect there are a lot out there that aren’t.

by only selling the bigger bags you are potentially limiting your market, the set that are burning thru beans looking for a perfect shot are already covered, you can cover more with the same product just offering a smaller amount

Sham

DavecUK Still enough to at least get 1 dialled in shot, so enough to get a feel for the bean though

LMSC

gotters

As Dave said, a sample of 50g isn’t enough. We can’t even make three shots of espressos. We need 3-4 shots to dial in properly.

Two things:

You can order a smaller bag - 250g.
People happily buy a KG because it’s cheaper. There is a risk, which is a trade off.

If you look around, you will find roasters offering trial bags, which will be mostly 200g-250g in size each.

tompoland

Its probably just me being wierd again but … I rarely need to dial in a new blend. So long as I know the roast depth then I know the dial setting. For example a dark roast is 04, a medium is 0.3 and a light is 0.2 on my grinders’ dial.

I’m not saying that each new bean/batch will produce a 1:2 ratio of weight in and weight out, but my doses are always 18g in and while one dark roast batch at the 0.4 grind setting may give me 36 grams of espresso and the next dark roast may give me 48 grams, it’s not such a stark difference that I would throw an espresso out.

Provided the roast depth is known and assuming that someone knows their standard grind setting for a particular roast depth, then I would have thought a 50 gram sample would be enough to get a taste.

@gotters idea gets my vote. Its gotter be a winner :-)

gotters

A trial bag isn’t 200-250g, that is a full bag to me (and I suspect others) - I get some of you buy in kg size and want to dial in - you’re covered already by literally every roaster out there.

My point is some don’t want/need that and a far smaller 50g sampler is a nice way to try out more varieties and get an idea for a roaster - there are an awful lot of roasters and I’d be far more tempted to try many of them if instead of spending £10 on one bag I may not like, I could spend a bit more and get 3 or samplers of 40-50g (just like the Gold Box link I posted above).

I think they are leaving money on the table, I have a whole section in my phone notes with links for roasters I want to try that will take months to get round to, and I may just pick badly and then dismiss them quickly. I’d buy a sampler from any of them in a shot.

Mark-drinks-coffee

gotters

Have you tried contacting any of the roasters on your list to see if they would be willing to sell you a 50g sample? Worst case if they can’t/ won’t is that they are at least aware there is some demand… and if enough people ask them then it would seem logical they might start thinking about meeting that demand.

simonc

I agree 200-250g is my usual size for pour over and love trying lots of different coffees. I’ve been using Indy Box over lock down to get a mixed delivery of 4 bags each month from roasters I wouldn’t normally try or even know about but some have not been great and some amazing. It would have been nicer to try 60g of say 8 , ie 3 cups of each and then order bigger of the ones I like.

DavecUK

I would have thought 100g samplers would be about right.

gotters

Not for me, 100g would be too much and be around the £5 mark (depending of course on bean/roaster etc), in my mind the idea here is to get more variety and to try things I wouldn’t normally buy.

I’d never buy 7 100g bags like the Goldbox thing above as would be over £30, didn’t hesitate though to immediately buy the smaller bags.

Sham

Also for samplers maybe they can use cheaper bags? I’m guessing multiple small bags will drive the price a bit too high compared to how much beans are in the bags (I think bags cost nearly as much as the beans or more sometimes…) For sampling I don’t really care if the bag is high quality or not as the beans will finish fast. To be honest even just shitty transparent plastic ones would be ok, just to make the samples cheaper.

little_tipple

essentially a cupping selection of their coffees would be brilliant - then even 50g may be too much, but it would be great to be able to see a whole range of a roasters output in a single cupping session, which would also help educate one’s palate more generally. I get the limitations of dialing in with smaller bags, but I think the sample idea would work well.

LMSC

If you just want to get a taste for the beans, then 18g is enough. But, I am afraid, getting the right shot suiting my taste buds would require 2-3 shots.

I always have a starting grind size for the roast type, but I am typically in the zone within 2-3 shots.

I like buying a KG to save a few pounds with a risk of beans I may not want to buy again. I don’t buy a KG to dial in. I don’t waste beans. IMO, it’s ok to buy a smaller bag - what ever it is. 100g-250g to try.

Ernie1

Yeah perhaps my dial-in skills aren’t up to scratch but even buying a familiar coffee I get enough variance between bags that it takes a shot or two to get it dialled. Not undrinkable, but definitely not dialled.

I’ve had stubborn light roasts where I’ve used half the 250g bag before I’m happy.

Also from the roaster’s point of view I wouldn’t want to be the person bagging 50g doses en masse. I’d imagine cost of labour/packaging/posting for most small/med size operations would not make sample size bags worthwhile.

I do agree though, it’s frustrating when you spend £10+, particularly on the pricey limited single origins that you end up disliking on the first shot. I love to try new coffees but I must admit there’s probably only a handful that I keep going back to over and over. Even fewer that I’ve bought many kg of.

gotters

Finding a few offering smaller bags, which I’m all for.

Received an order from Caribe Coffee who were on Dragons Den, it’s the usual tale of well sourced and cared for beans (no added CBD or such like) but do a nice smaller two pack where you can choose from their current selection.

Also placed an order with Aroma Coffee who seem to do quite a few blends and types, again offered in smaller bags.

simonc

Square Mile do free 30g bags when you buy from them.

Inspector

Coffeelink does 125gr samples, they usually cost £2.50.

Gav86

Smith Street roasters do a coffee flight each with c. 100g per bag