Monday, May 28, 2007

Blue Bell Mountain Coffee

I have started this blog to share with everyone my experience with the El Milagro Coffee Farm, makers of Blue Bell Mountain Coffee. My intention is to keep things factual and not be slanderous. Would you want to do business with people who treat their customers this way? You be the judge...Oh, and yes, the errors are his (the conversation is verbatim).

Their business on eBay : http://stores.ebay.com/El-Milagro-Coffee-Farm_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZQ2d33QQftidZ2QQtZkm

What I bought from them:
Blue Bell Mountain GREEN COFFEE BEANS #10 for Roaster
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=017&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=270116143121&rd=1&rd=1

My inquiry to them (May 19, 2007):
Hi, I was about to leave neutral feedback but, I thought it best to contact you first. The transaction overall was good, but I was not impressed with the quality of the green beans, especially for the overall cost. The beans were inconsistent - quite a few black and damaged beans. I have to do a lot of sorting before roasting. Also, when roasted some beans are less roasted than others; it's like mixing a batch of light with full-city (I found this very unusual - I've never seen this before). Curiously, the roasting takes longer than any other bean I've roasted from anywhere. And then the taste, I find other South American beans better tasting - especially Costa Rican, Panamanian, and Colombian. Given all this, the total cost with shipping is about $1.50 more per pound than the above mentioned beans. I'm interested to hear what you have to say. -J

Response from El Milagro Coffee Farm (May 19, 2007):
Hi, thank you for your email, is very clear for me that you NEVER read my listing before bid, i have sold about 45,000 pounds last year with a any single negative feedbak or neutral, i guy left one days before but it was not about the quality, please read the listing and you will find many of your question, how can you explain to me that noone have left neg o me before??, the coffee is not procesed in the way other 100% of the coffee sold in the USA are, this coffee was procesed in dry, we have never wash the beans, ussual process for comertial coffee takes 24 hours to have a coffee ready to be exported, our process take 7 to 10 days, to be ready to export, i roast my self too and i don;t find any issue with the coffee, if i remove the small beans from the batch the taste will never be the same, the black bean the small ones they turn that color due the fermentation process taked by the coffee this process never happen with ussual coffee, living neutral or negative feedback will not change yor roasting skills, i do a good roast and is clear to me that many many people is getting a good job too, PLEASE close your eyer and don;t epect beauty wih our beans they are not nice but th y taste good, the only issue i can see in this batch, it have too much dust left over after roast(and is clearly described in the heded or the listing), this dust can be easy removed putting the roast coffee over a spaghetti straines and move them with a spoon(without water of course) this isse has been corrected for our new harvest who is up to come, if you are getting in to the coffee business you should learn more about what is outther before a negative judge, the Kopy Luwak(the closest proccess than ours worth $500/pound)just search for it in any yahoo search engine and you will be surpriced, did you ever see the decaf coffee when is unroasted?, the beans are black with a vey nasty look, why??, the process make it like that, we are working in a 5 year aged coffee, the coffee is turning black, other countrys have do this and the coffee is very expencive coffee, take a tour about the Luwak, this coffee is the similar to our coffee, we don;t follow he rules than other create we have a process used by our local farmers for years, concider this a new experience, we are not forced to be compared with other due we say that in our listing very clearly, the only thing i don;t like is the dust but like i say you can remove it easy, this happen due we shi te coffee to a US location that we never use before TX the humid there makes this, now we know and we correct, is goone be intersted for you if you look out for other thins happen in this world, keep your self within USA may limited you knowledge, the web is a very helpfull tool to find this information, maybe you like to try the edged coffee in 5 years?, be prapare since now due the coffee will look nasty, but we look for the perfection in the cup, brewed coffee all look the same in nice Cup!...........


Rogelio Arriaza Doratt
www.thebluebellmountaincoffee.com

My reply on eBay feedback
(May 26, 2007):
Insulted me when I questioned about his coffee. Coffee quality is not that good

From
Rogelio Arriaza Doratt...(May 27, 2007):
Hello, i really sorry to heard that you did not understand my reply the other day, we try to make you understand what we are selling but it seems like you have not know the difference between a insult and a explication, if you think that you know enough is not our problem, what we do is just make our point of view, if your contact was made to ask for a refund, that would make the things different, we will agree, but you never ask for it, learn a little bit more is not a offense or insult, you should know this, life is a daily learning, now you learn litle bit more and you call it a insult, you will go very far thinking that way, sorry for you........