What is Green Coffee?
Before it is roasted, brewed, and poured into your cup, coffee is a green, dense, unroasted seed. Green coffee is the physical commodity that drives the multi-billion dollar global coffee trade.
The Raw Seed
Green coffee refers to the unroasted seeds of the Coffea plant. After the coffee cherry is harvested and processed to remove the skin and fruit mucilage, the remaining seeds are dried. In this state, they are hard, dense, and typically have a pale green to blue-green color.
Green coffee does not smell or taste like the coffee you drink. It has a grassy, somewhat agricultural aroma. It is only during the roasting process — when complex chemical reactions (the Maillard reaction) occur at high temperatures — that the beans turn brown and develop their signature aromatic oils and flavors.
Why We Trade "Green" Coffee
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01
Shelf Life
Roasted coffee loses its flavor quickly, becoming stale within weeks due to oxidation. Green coffee, if stored correctly in a cool, dry environment, can remain stable for a year (or longer) without significant quality loss.
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02
Density for Shipping
During roasting, coffee beans expand in size and lose about 15-20% of their weight (moisture loss). Green coffee is dense and heavy, making it highly efficient for ocean freight in standard 20ft containers.
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03
Roaster Control
Roasters are artisans. They prefer to buy green coffee so they can control the exact roasting curve, blending, and flavor development to suit their local market preferences.
Crucial Metric: Moisture Content
The most important physical metric for green coffee is its moisture content. The international standard (and Vietnamese TCVN standard) requires moisture to be between 10% and 12.5%.
- If too high (>12.5%): The coffee is at risk of developing mold (ochratoxin) or fermenting during shipping.
- If too low (<10%): The coffee has been over-dried. It will roast too quickly, lose its flavor vibrancy, and taste woody or flat.