Description
Most coffee today comes from the Caffea Arabica varieties which was commercialized in the 1500’s in Ethiopia’s Kaffa region and spread through Yemen to become the dominant species grown today for the commercial market. The plant is a high producing plant, thus the use in the large international market. In the rush to the high production market, chemical fertilizers and herbicides have been employed and now chemicals are used to ripen the crop in one day for faster consistent harvest.
Specialty plants are original plants selected and nurtured by a small group of dedicated coffee farm owners. They are carried from original stock and have never seen the inside of a modern GMO laboratory. The plants are grown in the mountains of central and southern Colombia between 4500 and 6000 foot altitudes where the weather is cool with day and nights of equal length year round. Interspersed are banana and citric trees to provide shade. Only under these conditions can the perfect coffee bean be grown. Natural fertilizers are created using the processed husks of the coffee bean so never are any artificial fertilizers or herbicides or insecticides used. Throughout the growing process the beans ripen at different times so the yields are small and processed in small batches. Only the ripe red beans are collected leaving the other beans to “ripen on the vine” like a fine grape for a fine wine.
Generally, 3 to 5 years are required before the production is sufficient to harvest, however, unlike the commercial Arabica Bean plant, specialty coffee plants will produce for decades growing in production every year. Arabica bean plants typically burn out after each year’s harvest and must be cut to the ground to resprout for the next season with entire new planting every 4 years.
The delicate non-GMO specialty coffees would die. Specialty coffees have never been subjected to harsh chemicals and were developed over decades of natural selection by growers dedicated to high quality. They grow under strict natural conditions in the rich mountain soil of Colombia just like their ancestors of 100s of years ago.
In any fermentation process (including that of beer) if the temperature becomes too high then the chemical Phenol will be produced. Commercial coffees are produced in such quantities that phenol (plastic) is produced since it is difficult to maintain lower temperatures in a large scale production facility. In the specialty coffee production, we are keenly aware of this and never allow the fermentation to stand stagnant and elevate in temperature.
No. Unlike Arabic and other commercial coffee that depends on harvesting all of the crop at one time, specialty coffee beans ripen at all times of the year and therefore require constant attention. There is no “harvest time” as with commercial coffee. This makes the processing more of a custom process and allows us to carefully watch the entire process from beginning to end in small batches.
Not at all. Commercial coffee roasting generally is over done to hide the fact that you simply do not have enough good beans to fulfill the world market demand for coffee. Imagine the amount of coffee that is consumed every day in the world. Imagine the amount of coffee that is consumed every day through the big name chain stores and corner coffee shops, restaurants, and grocery stores. It is simply impossible to meet this demand with good coffee. So commercial roasters over roast the beans to hide the many defects. Our specialty coffees are roasted in small batches and with only a medium roast. We want our unique high quality bean flavor and aroma to shine through. When you pick up a back and smell it, you will hold the bag to your heart and hug it like a newborn baby.
Many commercially packed coffee products contain PFAS chemicals to keep the product from sticking to the bag or container. Our packaging is all natural and never contributes to the taste or aroma of the beans.
No, we only sell roasted whole beans, so you have the full flavor of the product, grinding it just before you brew that morning cup of coffee. Many people who want to roast their own coffee from raw beans might under or over roast the product so we only sell perfectly roasted beans so you have the maximum perfect blend every time.
The level of caffeine is managed by the fine level of the ground beans and the amount of time the grounds are in contact with the steeping water. The finer the ground coffee and the longer the contact time, the greater the amount of caffeine you will have in your cup.
We do not use any petroleum powered machines in any of the processes. We use horses to carry the natural fertilizers to the mountains and the harvested beans are carried by the workers in “bultos” to the cafeteria processing building. We use electric motors with natural lubricants to remove the husks before soaking and fermentation. It is very important throughout the processing phases to keep the odors and vapors of other plants or machines from contaminating the delicate nature of the product.
Over the decades of harvesting and selecting the beans for the upcoming season (before GMO and laboratory modification of plants) the local growers noticed certain plants obtained special characteristics such as aroma, flavor, and growing characteristics. The growers consider that this was due to the hand of God using natural selection to create a one in a million modification that then is selected by the grower. This same process is responsible for other plants like corn and wheat which were cultured by ancient civilizations and selected over the centuries to bring the varieties that lead entire nations to success before man began modifying plants to be compatible with his chemical arsenal of herbicides and fertilizers.
One must be extremely careful in the entire operation of the coffee farm including having the workers wear boots that only are used on the coffee farm. No paints, washes or other sources of modern chemicals can be in the vicinity of the fields or processing building. None of these foreign sources of contamination can come near the product or processing facilities. You can take a bag of our products to a laboratory to test and you will not find any foreign chemicals. These strict control procedures are simply impossible to match in the large scale commercial production facilities that are needed to fill the enormous world coffee market. That is why we concentrate on educating the sophisticated concerned consumer. We have a unique product and beca
The difficulty of creating and producing our product is also why we do not fear competition. For someone to duplicate what we have done would take years and most operations do not have the time nor resources to wait for a high quality product to start producing. If anyone does realize this then they would join the elite group of small scale growers dedicated to our ethics and would also find customer bases larger than they could possibly satisfy. In brief, we do not have any competition that would force us to change our strategy or pricing. Like makers of fine wine and other high quality products, there is a discerning customer base that recognizes what we are doing and will gladly pay the price for this quality.
There are special species of bees which are used to pollinate the specialty coffees. These bees are at the same time pollinating the fruits, bananas and wild flowers in the vicinity of the coffee plants and thus contribute to the unique flavor and aroma of a given location. As a result, we also have honey that is only available in very small quantities that we use with our coffee that we drink on the farm. Most people could not imagine a farm that produces not only coffee, but bananas and citric fruits of many historically important non-GMO organic varieties, along with all the other food sources just like the people who lived here 100 years ago. All of this is necessary to maintain the strict growing conditions that bring you the perfect cup of premium specialty coffee.
The GMO varieties pushed by the large scale coffee agencies (controlled by governments working in concert with GMO companies) is to artificially fool the plant into thinking it was pollinated just as with GMO corn, wheat, soy beans or any other genetically modified plant. The result is a plant that produces a seed that cannot reproduce. This leads to large outputs of coffee beans but with a coffee product filled with chemicals from the growth cycle as well as with carcinogenic phenols that arise from the high temperatures of the large scale fermentation process.
There are many factors involved including the following: 1) the land is filled with chemicals that will take years to deplete back to normal levels, 2) the land is typically left very infertile since no real nutrients have been added and 3) it would be years before the delicate Premium Coffee varieties could grow because they are not resistant to the chemicals in the ground. In brief, it would be nearly impossible to reclaim damaged land to grow premium coffee varieties. The reason we are able to produce Premium Coffee is because we only use virgin land that has never been used for commercial operations. Seed stock is limited to a select group of growers. We grow our own seed stock assuring the continuation of these delicate varieties just as nature intended.
Most people use pasteurized milk, cream and processed white sugar to mix with their coffee. These are actually as bad for you as the commercial black coffee (mud) in which you mix it. The best health drink properties come from natural whole honey and specialty coffee. This combination provides the best balance for the body. However, we recommend drinking your coffee without additives to savor the natural flavors of pure coffee.
Women by far make up the majority of workers on our coffee farms. They have a trained eye to spot not only the best ripe red coffee beans but also note any problems with a particular plant that may potentially have adverse effects on the entire field. Each plant is like a child with different amounts of beans ripening at a given time. If beans ripen and fall to the ground, they can cause damage to the entire crop. It is important to keep a close eye on the thousands of plants that cover the mountain sides of our growing areas. Each year we are planting more specialty coffees using the hand picked seed stock. Keep ordering from us as we introduce more and more variations on these rare plants. Each farm has its own set of characteristics.
All of the vegetation on our fams is removed by hand which is a long laborious job requiring constant attention. Commercial growing operations for the large scale coffee market use herbicides to control underbrush and this enters the coffee bean and your cup of coffee. These can be the same forms of Glyphosates used in commercial large scale agriculture that are now known to be carcinogenic. We never have nor will we ever use chemicals to control any aspect of our production.
In any coffee production, it is easy and common for toxins and errant chemicals to enter the growing and production areas. As a result, commercial large scale coffee producers over roast their beans to cover the bad effects of contamination. We have laboratory testing of our products for cleanliness so you can be assured that you are purchasing only the cleanest products and nothing else. That is also why we can roast our beans to a medium amount which maintains the rich flavor and aroma of the specialty product.
The main concept is that Real Premium Specialty coffee has the flavor and consistency of drinking a fine wine. Much to many peoples’ surprise, it does not taste like any coffee they have ever tasted before. You will experience a pleasant fruit like flavor leaving your taste buds salivating for more after you finish your cup. There is never any better aftertaste nor acidy feeling normally associated with drinking coffee. Real coffee is one of the healthiest drinks you can consume, especially knowing that there are no hidden chemicals from the growing or processing of the beans.
