Joe wrote:
....
Throw in the time factor -

For green coffee you can take your time...there is no rush. For
roasted with degassing tech, you have a few months without problems.

No you don't. Even assuming a 90 shelf life, you can't really spend 60
days traveling. Are your really going to put this on EBay as "only 60
days used on its 90 day shelf life"? And how long will it take to sell
on EBay? How long will it take for people to sample some and then
decide on a larger quantity? And will you donate to the homeless
shelter whatever doesn't sell quickly?

Perhaps this was the best you've had when it was two days from the
roaster. It certainly won't be 3 months later!


Might even get the most expensive coffee on earth (beside that coffee
the critters crap) if I could recreate the moonsooned process.

Mr Ukers says in the sailing ship delivery days cargo holds would
induce a natural sweating affect on the coffee. As a result, the
coffee will turn a rare shade of brown that brings a premium. It is
believed that this browning greatly improves the flavor and body of
coffee. In the old days Captains that brought in "extra brown" were
given a bonus. Coffee brought by sail was termed "ex-sailing ships."
After the turn of the century, there were attempts to duplicate the
browning process by steam heating coffee brought in by steamships but
it was never the same.

It is not clear this made better coffee for today's pallet. It was the
perception that this was better that raised the price. In addition, it
was actually only used then for the low quality Robusta beans, not the
high quality Arabica that make up the vast majority of today's specialty
market.

Today's Monsooned coffee is prepared with a great deal of time and care.
Here's a description from one of my favorite suppliers (check the last
offering on the page):

http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.asia.india.html

BTW, the price on both the Indian and Java Monsooned coffee is not
particularly high, and very little gets imported to the US.