Bean To Cup Process
Making the “The Perfect Coffee for Any Occasion” our coffee comes from very carefully selected plantations from across the world where only the highest quality beans are produced.
1Coffee Plant Cultivation
- The coffee nursery tends the young coffee plants until they reach maturity a 5 year process.
- The coffee tree then joins a coffee plantation.
The quality and flavour of the coffee depends on many variables such as: the soil, the altitude, the temperature, the amount of sunshine, the inclination of the slope, the water quantity and the care given to the tree.
2Growth Cycle
The coffee tree flowers and the blossom lasts for about two weeks. The coffee cherries are formed and ripen around eight months after the emergence of the flower, they change colour from green to red and then should be harvested.
3Harvesting
There are 3 main methods of harvesting:
Stripping Method
consists in stripping the coffee cherries off the tree all at once regardless of the fact that some cherries may still be green.
Handpicking
this method involves selecting only the red cherries the green ones are left on the tree until they reach a mature stage. This process ensures the highest quality coffee as a result harvesting takes much longer and can last up to 2 months.
Mechanical Stripping Method
this method is used in large plantations to save on costs and time.
Rombouts aims to buy the very best coffee beans and therefore prefers to select coffee from plantations that adopt the ‘Hand Picking’ method.
4Processing The Coffee
The coffee cherries need to have the fruit or pulp removed leaving the seed or bean which is then dried. There are two main methods to extract the coffee beans from the cherries.
The Dry Method
the cherries are laid in the sun to dry for up to three weeks or are dried by machines. The cherries are then sent to the mill for hulling sorting and grading.
The Wet Method
the cherries are put in water to soften the shell. Once the shell is soft, the cherries are squeezed in a depulper and then soaked in fermentation tanks for up to 30 hours. Finally the beans must be dried to a water content of about 10% before they are stable. The beans still have a skin or parchment around them which helps preserve their quality this is rubbed off before grading and shipping.
Rombouts tends to buy from plantations using the wet method as this is deemed to produce much higher quality coffee.
5Selection, Grading, Transportation, Tasting & Storage
Selection
In the best plantations, the green coffee beans are carefully sorted by hand so that only the best beans are selected. Rombouts prefers to buy coffee from these plantations.
Transportation
Rombouts only buys coffee in joust bags as this ensures a better quality. On arrival at the Rombouts factory the beans will be tasted for the second time.
Grading
Buyers judge the quality of the green beans first on the basis of their appearance and then by tasting.
Storage
The coffee beans are then stored the green beans can be kept for several months without deteriorating. Before any production, the beans are tasted a third time.
