Myth has it that coffee was first discovered in or around the 9th century in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) by a young goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed that his goats liked to graze upon berries which seemed to have interesting side effects! The goats jumped around seemingly full of energy and realizing that the berries must have some magical property the young goatherd took some back to the village elders. They boiled them with water and soon realized the stimulating potential of the brew. From this point on coffee plants were cultivated by man purely for their precious crop.
The Ethiopians traded with the Arabs and coffee spread eastwards. The Arabs jealously guarded the coffee plant and although they traded widely across the Islamic world all beans for export were boiled to prevent any chance of transplantation. However the Dutch managed to transplant some to Java (Indonesia) in late 1600's, and this was the catalyst for the worldwide growth of coffee cultivation. In the late 17th Century coffee came to the masses of Europe and the first coffee houses opened in Italy, Austria and England. Lloyds of London and the London Stock Exchange are just two of the key institutions whose roots can be traced back to a 17th Century coffee house.
By the 18th Century the French had introduced coffee cultivation to Martinique, and by the end of the century there were between 18 and 19 million coffee bushes firmly establishing Central America and South America as important coffee producers.
Today coffee is grown on five continents, is consumed worldwide, and is one of the most important commodities traded on the world markets.
ROASTING
Coffee arrives at our roasting facility in 60 to 70 kilo burlap bags stacked on pallets containing up to 10 bags. We unload our coffee and store it on two tiered racks as it waits to be roasted.
We test roast each batch of coffee to varying degrees of roast then decide based on the cupping profiles what level we will roast each coffee to ensure we capture the true essence of that particular coffee.
The roasting process takes between 12-18 min. Throughout the process the coffee is undergoing many chemical reactions as the moisture is driven from the bean. It is a balancing act between temperature, air flow, and time. Coffee like popcorn makes a pop which in the coffee business is called the crack. Coffee will go through 1 or two cracks depending on the degree of roast. Once the coffee has reached the desired roast level it is released from the roasting drum at temperatures between 440 and 470 degrees. One of the most crucial steps is the cooling phase. In order to control the degree of roast it is important to have a consistent cooling time, roughly 4 minutes or less. Once the coffee is properly cooled it is portioned and then weighed and packaged in mylar bags that are heat sealed in order to maintain freshness. The bags have already been fitted with a one way degassing valve that allows the coffee to breathe but not stale. The coffee is then shipped same day to ensure it arrives at in time to brew the perfect cup.
