Green coffee? If you see this hub of mine, you must be wondering what is green coffee or green coffee beans. Well you shall find the answer to that soon, but first let me tell you what this hub is about. Basically, if you are a coffee fan, and you are into green coffee or looking to buy some fair trade green coffee, this is the hub to be! I will create a series of hubs on green coffee, and there will also be other hubs that will talk about how you can buy some green coffee roasters or green coffee maker and start roasting and making your own green coffees at home! Maybe you prefer to have some organic green coffee or wholesale green coffee beans. No matter what, if you want to buy green coffee bean, you have come to the right place!

Now first of all, let us solve the most difficult question I have posed here, what exactly is green coffee? I know coffee is dark and black in colour but green coffee? Maybe it is coffee grown on Mars and hence like the martians, the coffee became green in colour and hence got termed as green coffee. But wait a minute, who said martians were green in the first place?

Ok now let me give you a clue then. Lately, people have been talking about global warming and the three Rs, which are reduce, reuse and recycle. Does that ring a bell about something being green? Yes that is right, the green movement which is to save planet earth! Do not ask me how drinking green coffee can actually save planet earth though! So let me answer that question now. Actually, the term "green coffee bean" refers to coffee beans that have not been roasted. Hence green coffee is actually coffee that is roasted not by the coffee company but by you at home, by buying green coffee beans and then roasting them and making your coffee all at the comfort of your home!

Coffee is actually a small red fruit. To get that freshly brewed cup of coffee there are many steps and processes to get from the fruit to the tasty brown coffee bean that we all know as coffee. The coffee fruit is first wet processed to remove the outer skin, pulp and inner parchment skin (the pulp is usually fermented away). Then the inner seed, or coffee bean is dried. This is actually the green coffee that is shipped and stored all around the world.

It is claimed that coffee lovers find that the taste of their green coffee is actually enhanced if they roast their own beans. I would also want to tell you that the process of roasting your own green coffee beans at home is neither complicated nor time-consuming! It isn't difficult to roast green coffee beans and you will find that this extra step makes drinking coffee more enjoyable and pleasurable!

Now a true coffee connoisseur would know that it is important to select good green coffee beans to enjoy good green coffee. When selecting green coffee beans, these are the few things you should look out for.

First you have to check the appearance of the green coffee beans. The green coffee beans should be of nearly equal size (example 17/18, 15/16, 13/14 etc) be similarly shaped and have a similar color. If the coffee beans have similar sizes, this means that coffee beans were roasted evenly, and thus the appearance and taste of the green coffee would be good. Uneven coloring may mean that there were drying problems, while uneven shapes may indicate a mixing of cultivars (the coffee plants). If every green coffee bean is similar in shape, size and colour, this means that good quality control was exerted and also that the coffee producer made sure that the green coffee beans were good and inspected them before they were packed.

Before purchasing green coffee beans, it would be wise to read up some books about coffee and roasting and also doing some research about where the green coffee beans come from. I have provided a full list of useful books above and I would recommend reading books by Kenneth Davids.

Different environments produce different tasting coffee, hence there may be some tastes or some green coffee you would prefer over others. Why the difference in taste? Coffee plants derive their taste from the soil as well as the growing conditions of the geographical region. Hence roasted green coffee beans from Africa would certainly taste differently compared to roasted green coffee beans grown in Brazil.

Read up from books on the various tastes that are available, choose some green coffee beans that you think you would like and then search for those green coffee beans that were grown in the region that you prefer online. There are actually many reputable sellers online that sell good quality green coffee beans. If I were you I would buy from amazon because they have got some good quality green coffee beans and I have included some links in my hub for your buying pleasure. I am sure you will be satisfied buying from them as I have done so.

I have also listed on the list the many many different varieties of green coffee beans found all over the world! To be a true coffee connoisseur, one must have tried all the different varieties of coffee the world has to offer! Seriously, it seemed impossible for me to include ALL coffee varieties in this hub of mine. I would urge you to explore the coffee universe slowly. Anyway, this is not the last of my hubs on coffees. Feel free to check out my other hubs, which include how to roast your own green coffee beans at home using a green coffeemaker or using green coffee roasters. I also have another hub on organic green coffee so do check them out as well!