How to Read a Coffee Bag
by Stuart MacCleod

(from Ground Control Issue #20)

You decide to break the piggy bank and buy a year's supply of green beans; two weeks later a 152lb. bag of coffee arrives at your door. How do you know what is inside the jute sack? The writing on the coffee bag is the first step in finding out.

The processing mill is responsible for labeling the bag. The only requirement for the bag is line #1. These numbers show the country's code, the mill's number, and the lot (or crop) number. The now defunct International Coffee Organization assigned the country code; 15 is Indonesia. Certain countries require that their coffee coffee bags be stamped with their countries' name - Brazil puts "Product of Brazil" for example, on their bags. If the coffee is produced by one state or farm, many times they will put their own names on the bag as well.

Buyers of 250 bags or more ( a container) determine what they would like on their bags. Lets's take a closer look at the example: Gayoland is both the producing farm and mill. They sell their own coffee, and want you to know that this is an organic coffee, so they have labeled "Certified Organic" first. Semi washed means that the cherry was washed to remove the mucilage, but not fermented in water.  

Sumatra Arabica Gayoland is the farm, and then line 5 is the harvest date. Line 8 shows the organic certifying agency - SKAL. The buyer's contract number is next, and their shipment date. I believe that line 11 shows that this is bag 30 out of 275.

The back of the bag is the mill's information. This is a good example of a well-marked coffee bag. Many coffee bags have their numbers lightly stenciled, which makes for difficult identification. Other farms, such as Zimbabwe's La Lucie, hand paint their bags, making them very distinctive. But don't be fooled by a beautiful bag - as your mother says, it is what is inside that counts!

© Copyright The Coffee Project.
    Please ask for permission before reproducing this article elsewhere.