Buying Coffee Beans in Bulk for a Café: How Much to Order, How Often, and How to Store Them

Written by Tiny Tiger Coffee

Written by Tiny Tiger Coffee

It's Saturday morning. The queue is out the door, and your barista reaches for a fresh bag of coffee and finds the shelf empty. Or the opposite happens: you clear out the stockroom and find a bag you forgot about, roasted three months ago.

Both problems have the same fix:

• Know how much coffee you use in a week and a month.
• Know how long your beans stay good, from the roast date.
• Order on a simple rhythm, so one lot is always open and the next is on its way.
• Store the beans well so the last bag tastes like the first.

Step 1: know how much coffee your café uses

Start with how many coffee drinks you sell on a typical day, then find your row in the table. It assumes a double shot of about 18 g for each drink, plus a little for dialling in each morning.

Many independent cafés use 15 to 30 kg a month and do best ordering every two weeks.

Step 2: know the window your beans are good in

• The first 10 days: resting. Freshly roasted coffee is still releasing carbon dioxide, so espresso shots run unevenly and taste sharp. Wait at least 10 days after the roast date.
• Day 10 to about day 60 or 70: good to use. A medium-plus roast like ours stays good for this whole stretch if it is stored well. Check your dial-in at least once a day; our guide to dialling in espresso grind size shows how.
• After that: fading. Old coffee pulls fast and tastes flat, and baristas make up for it by dosing heavier, so you use more coffee to make a worse cup. Our post on roast dates and expiry dates explains more.

Step 3: order on a simple rhythm

• Order two to four weeks of coffee at a time, and never more than you will use in about six weeks.
• Place the next order on the day you open a new lot. One lot is open, the next is on its way, and nothing sits on the shelf for months.
• Order in steps of 5 kg. Our café orders come as one 5 kg bag of whole roasted coffee beans, which we can't split into smaller bags.
• Know your delivery time. We roast after your order comes in, and café orders reach metro cities free within 3 working days and other cities in about 5 days.

Storing bulk beans so the last bag tastes like the first

A café stockroom is often next to a hot kitchen and damp in the monsoon. Coffee suffers from air, heat, light, moisture and strong smells, so:

• Keep bags sealed until you need them. The one-way valve makes a sealed bag the best container the coffee will have.
• Store them cool, dark, dry and off the floor, away from the oven, spices and cleaning chemicals, and never in the fridge.
• Use the oldest roast date first.
• Decant a day at a time into a small airtight tin, and keep only about two hours' worth of beans in the grinder hopper.

What to ask a bulk coffee supplier

When you buy in bulk, the bag you open in month six should taste like the bag you opened in month one. Your regulars come back for that cup, and they notice when it changes. So ask any supplier:

• When do you roast, and is the roast date on every bag?
• What is the minimum order, and how long does delivery take to my city?
• Where does the coffee come from, and will the same coffee be there in six months?
• Can I taste it on my own machine first?

We grow, process and roast our own coffee at Hoysala Estate in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, and we hold stock of everything we roast, so your house coffee stays the same from one order to the next. Our guide to choosing a coffee supplier for your café has the full list of questions, and what wholesale coffee costs per kilo explains what you get at each price.

Become a B2B partner

If you want to become a B2B partner of Tiny Tiger, send us your city and how many coffees you sell a day on WhatsApp, and we'll suggest an order size and schedule. Café pricing starts from ₹1,200/kg with a 5 kg minimum. To taste first, order a paid Café Sampler of two to four of our café coffees, 250 g of whole beans each, roasted just for you. Order a Café Sampler.

Common questions

Is it cheaper to buy coffee beans in bulk?

Per kilo, often yes, but only if you use the coffee between about 10 days and two months after roasting. Three months of coffee bought at once goes flat before you finish it, so the saving is real on the invoice and lost in the cup.

Should a café buy whole beans or ground coffee?

Whole beans, if you have a grinder. Ground coffee exposes far more surface to air and goes stale within days for espresso.