OzGreens

Pleased note that Ozgreens is no longer operating.

See post below for reasons, and alternative sources of green beans for home roasters.

An open letter to Ozgreens members

This is to announce that Ozgreens is going to close down… but that that is not all bad news and home roasters will still be catered for.

Let me explain.

Some history
Ozgreens started in 2004 as a small group of friends on a Yahoo Group. The group had formed after the members became dissatisfied with the way a similar group, now the business ‘Coffeesnobs’, was working.
Ozgreens was formed with the single goal of sourcing the best quality green beans and distributing those as cheaply as possible among fellow home roasters. It has always had a philosophy of operating on a co-operative basis – where people pooled their time and resources and all benefit from that effort. As one of the original members, Gary has said: ‘I still think that is a good and helpful model for lots of things – not just coffee buying and distribution.’
The problems with that in the Ozgreens context are that our friendly and helpful contact at our wholesaler only wants to deal with one person, not a group of people. Secondly, my location (no longer in Sydney proper) makes any cooperative effort that much harder.
In the early days of Ozgreens, I would collect beans and Gary (sometimes) and I would split beans and ship them. That can’t work these days, because we live much further apart.
The other main focus of our philosophy has been transparency. That is, we have always been upfront and open about how we arrive at the prices for beans, and we have only ever charged actual shipping costs. From the start we have been a non-profit, non-commercial group – to the point where we have sometimes lost money on some beans because of miscalculations or unavoidable errors.

The problem.
So the main problem with running Ozgreens at the moment is:
The lack of practical ways to spread the work. This means that most or all of the work falls to me. Ozgreens is not and never has been a business, it has always been a voluntary group, based on the idea of people donating time and energy to source, split, pack and ship the beans. Although it is no one’s fault, the load has increasingly fallen on me. With the bean offers, the burst of activity that they generate has become unsustainable with my other commitments.
There are other, less significant problems, but that is the big one.

The solution…
So, after discussing all the options with some of the original members and a few others, the solution is pretty obvious: Close Ozgreens!
But that doesn’t mean that home roasters are forgotten, nor that I have deserted the core goal of Ozgreens:

For small home roasters…
Many of you will know that for 2-3 years I’ve run Ministry Grounds Coffee (http://ministrygrounds.net.au) This is a very small hobby business that started purely for selling roasted beans. That is still the main game, but over time, I’ve also sold small quantities of green beans. The greens have cost slightly more than Ozgreens prices for the same beans, but that merely reflects the cost to me of buying whole bags of numerous origins and not making the money back for many weeks.
The big difference for me, is that orders trickle in day to day, which is a LOT more manageable for me to handle.

So all members of Ozgreens who have need of small quantities of greens periodically are invited to check out the Ministry Grounds Store (http://store.ministrygrounds.net.au) anytime, and purchase their requirements there.
If Ozgreens had continued, it’s worth noting that the costs would have risen anyway, because in real terms, I was losing money on an increasing number of offers.
This does mean a shift from some of the philosophy of Ozgreens, but for me, it is the only sustainable and reasonable way to keep offering quality greens to home roasters.
One initiative I’m trying to get off the ground is a green bean version of a ‘Coffee of the Month’ club, where subscribers opt to receive 1Kg or 2Kg of a green origin each month for a flat rate, posted anywhere in Australia. This might well suit Ozgreens members who have bought small amounts at our bean offers.

For home roasters who want more…
If you are a home roaster who needs more – say, 10-15Kg of an origin or more at a time – then we have set up a little group that is going back to the roots of Ozgreens that will focus on splitting bags between us at cost. It is by invitation-only, and you are invited to enquire about it by emailing me at neil@knockbox.net.au

What won’t change.
Some important things will not change. I will still be sourcing the best quality beans I can through the same Sydney-based wholesaler and other sources at the best prices I can, and making them available to home roasters with small and larger needs.

Where to from here?
To avoid confusion, the Ozgreens name will be completely dropped. That means the web site (http://ozgreens.net.au) will be closed, and the forum (http://forum.ozgreens.net.au) while it will continue, it will change names to The Knockbox (http://forum.knockbox.net.au). On that note, let me encourage more of you to participate in the forum. It is a very civilised place to hang out, with a small, but very friendly group of people there.
Within the next few days to a week, the forum will undergo it’s change of domain (the old domain will redirect for a number of months),and a number of features added to make it more of a simple portal for things coffee.

The bean store (http://beans.ozgreens.net.au) will close very soon, and if you are one of the number of people who have recently registered at the Ozgreens bean store, my apologies for dropping all this on you, and killing the group off before you’ve even ordered!

I’m personally very committed to maintaining a useful and helpful presence in supporting, encouraging and facilitating the pursuit of home roasting as and how I can.

Thank you for your patience in reading this, and I look forward to maintaining contact with many of you in the future.

Regards

Neil Atwood.
Ozgreens

We’ve just done a serious upgrade to the software that drives the Ozgreens forum – in fact, we’ve changed it completely. :-)

Have a look, register if you’re new, poke around if you’re a returning member…
There’s a number of new features, some small, some bigger (like the gallery for member photos).

Enjoy.

Ok, It will really be March, but this will be nice…

Mt Gabbana Forest Limu.
An unusual estate Limu. If (like me) you are waiting for a good Yirg, the new crop will be in available in around a month. This Limu is not a replacement for a Yirg, but it does have some Yirg-type characteristics in that it displays distinct citrus/floral high notes, but with some of the body of a Limu. Detailed cupping notes to follow.

Daterra RFA Organic Reserve
We will have a smaller amount of the new Daterra Reserve also available this offer. This is a very high quality Brazil bourbon that was very popular the last time we offered it.

Details of the offer will be emailed to members later this week.

This seems a good a time as any to raise the issue of the costs of running Ozgreens. Good, because we’ve had quite a few new members recently and it’s helpful to remind everyone about the basis that Ozgreens functions on:

A happy 2008 to all Ozgreens members!

Sulawesi Kalosi Toraja – January 2008

It’s been a long while since the last really tasty Toraja – but this one makes up for it!
Sulawesi coffees tend to be like many typical Indonesian beans – low-acid, big body and a deep, earthy feel.