How to Order Green Coffee Samples from Colombia

Three kinds of samples, three different jobs

In the green coffee trade “a sample” can mean three things. Knowing which one you are looking at avoids most disputes later.

Sample	When	What it tells you
Offer sample	Before you buy	Whether you like the lot at all: profile, score, uniformity.
Pre-shipment sample (PSS)	After the lot is milled, before it ships	Whether the coffee being exported matches the offer.
Arrival sample	When the coffee reaches your port or warehouse	Whether it travelled well.

Small buyers usually work only with offer samples. For containers and multi-tonne contracts, approving a pre-shipment sample is standard practice and worth insisting on.

What to put in your brief

The better the brief, the fewer samples you need to roast. Five lines are enough:

• How you use the coffee: espresso, filter, blends, single origin, competition.
• Profile you want: for example “clean washed, citrus and panela” or “fruit-forward natural for filter”.
• Score range and process: washed, natural, honey, anaerobic.
• Volume and timing: a few bags now, a few tonnes per quarter, a container next harvest.
• Destination: country and port, so we can check shipping and paperwork.

From that we shortlist lots that fit and send them with full specs and our cupping notes.

How to evaluate green coffee samples

Look at the green first

Before roasting, check the physical side of the lot:

• Moisture. Well-dried specialty coffee usually measures around 10–12%. Much higher risks mould and fading; much lower often means flat cups.
• Defects. The SCA specialty grade allows zero primary defects and no more than five full defects in a 350 g sample.
• Screen size and uniformity. Even beans roast evenly. Colombian export grades such as Excelso and Supremo are defined by screen size.
• Smell and colour. Fresh green is bluish-green to green and smells clean, without earthy or musty notes.

Then roast and cup

Use a light sample roast and a consistent protocol so you can compare lots fairly. The SCA cupping standard is a good baseline: 8.25 g of coffee per 150 ml of water, ground just before cupping, several cups per sample to check uniformity. Cup new samples against a coffee you already buy; it keeps scores honest.

Move fast

Sample bags are small and age faster than coffee in a GrainPro-lined sack. Roast within a week or two of arrival, and tell your supplier what you thought. Feedback like “too fermented” or “want more body” is how the next shortlist gets better.

Shipping samples from Colombia

Samples travel by express courier. On the Colombian side, small coffee shipments leave under the coffee federation’s procedure for small quantities, through registered courier companies, so the paperwork is routine.

On your side, rules depend on the country. Coffee is a food product, and some customs offices ask for extra data even for a small box. Tell us your country and port and we will confirm before we send anything.

From sample to order

1. You approve a lot from the samples.
2. We confirm quantity, packaging, delivery terms and timing in writing.
3. Payment: 50% on order, 50% after final quality control at the port.
4. We prepare the coffee. Orders of 4 to 24 kg fly by express courier and arrive in about a week. Larger orders go by sea in a consolidated container, from one pallet.
5. We write to you with the position of the shipment until it reaches your port.

Minimum orders are 12 kg for regular lots and 4 kg for competition lots, so you can start with a few bags and scale once the coffee proves itself on your bar. For containers, read our guide to FOB, shipping and payment, and check the Colombian harvest calendar to time your cupping.

Questions buyers ask