Getting a container to Europe
Type, Offer and Pre-Shipment Samples
The sample sequence is the quality control system of the green coffee trade. Each sample answers one question, and buyers who compress the sequence usually find out why it existed.
Three samples, three questions, in order.
Type sample
The question: is this origin or grade worth pursuing at all?
A type sample is representative of a grade or a profile rather than drawn from a specific lot. It might be last season's coffee, or a composite.
Ask for 200–350 g — enough to sample roast and cup properly. Most exporters supply the coffee free and ask you to cover courier.
Roast it to a normal sample profile, not a competition-light one, and cup it against what it would actually replace rather than against your best single origin. See cupping an Indian lot.
A type sample tells you about a house style and a grade. It does not tell you what you will receive.
Offer sample
The question: is this specific lot the one I want?
Drawn from a lot that is actually available now, and it should arrive with the full specification: grade, screen range, moisture, altitude, process, harvest, packing, bags available.
This is the point to interrogate the specification rather than only the cup. Ask whether the screen is a range or a floor, when moisture was measured, and what the defect count is and to which standard. See how to read a green coffee offer list.
Approving an offer sample does not fix quality contractually — the lot may be re-graded, blended or partly sold before shipment. That is what the third sample is for.
Pre-shipment sample (PSS)
The question: is the coffee about to sail the coffee I agreed to buy?
Drawn from the actual bags about to ship, after final grading and bagging.
You approve it. The shipment is then held to it, and your retained sealed sample is the reference if anything goes wrong on arrival. This is the mechanism that makes a quality claim possible.
Do not skip it. It costs a courier and one to two weeks. Skipping it is the most common reason a first-time buyer opens a container and finds a conversation they cannot win — because without an approved PSS there is nothing to hold the shipment against.
Retain your samples
Split and seal every sample you approve. Label it with the lot, date and contract. Store it cool, dark and airtight.
If you have to make a claim, the retained PSS is your primary evidence. If you did not retain one, the discussion becomes your memory against theirs. See claims and arbitration.
The sequence with timing
| Sample | Drawn from | Answers | Allow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | A grade, generally | Is this origin worth a look? | Courier only |
| Offer | An available lot | Is this the lot? | Courier + cupping |
| Pre-shipment | The bags about to ship | Is this what ships? | 1–2 weeks |
Then, after arrival, draw an arrival sample and cup it against the retained PSS.
Practical points
Ask for enough coffee. 100 g is not enough to sample roast and cup with replicates. Ask for 300 g and say why.
Courier realistically. Samples from India to Europe take several days and occasionally get held in customs. Declare them as commercial samples of no commercial value where that applies. Build the time into your schedule rather than discovering it.
Roast samples consistently. Comparing an offer sample roasted one way with a PSS roasted another tells you about your roasting, not the coffee.
Cup blind where you can. Knowing which is the expensive lot changes what you taste.
What to write into the contract
Shipment subject to buyer's approval of a pre-shipment sample drawn from the bags to be shipped, with sealed samples retained by both parties. Quality on arrival to be assessed against the approved PSS.
One sentence. It prevents most of what goes wrong in this trade.
Hoysala ships from India to the port of your choice, and samples travel by courier. Ask for the lots you want to see on the offer list.