Many of us take coffee for granted. It’s something we often grab on the go and drink without thinking where it came from. The coffee you drink, whether or not it’s fair trade, has traveled a long journey to reach you. And many people have worked hard to bring it to you. Here is that path in summary.

	Harvesting ~ It takes roughly five years for a coffee tree to mature enough to produce coffee cherries. Individual coffee cherries are hand-picked at their peak of ripeness, typically when the cherry is red.
	Depulping* ~ The very same day, the fruit of the red cherry is stripped away from the inner pair of beans. The beans are soaked overnight in water to gently ferment them and are later rinsed again to remove the sweet “honey” coating.
	Drying and Milling* ~ The coffee beans are spread on concrete patios to dry in the sun or heated slowly in large drying ovens. They must be turned frequently to ensure even moisture content. At about 12% humidity, the beans are stable and can be stored for several months. After drying, the beans still have a golden papery skin, or ‘parchment’ covering. This covering is milled off prior to export, showing the raw green coffee bean within.
	Sorting ~ Some sorting by colour and density can be done by machine, but the proven method of sorting out defective beans is by hand. This is a very important step, because a key element of good coffee is the absence of defective beans. After the beans are sorted, they are packaged in 100 lb. coffee sacks and are ready for export.
	Roasting ~ Beans are shipped and stored in a warehouse until they are ready to roast. We carefully develop a roast profile for each origin to ensure that the unique characteristics of the bean emerge. And most importantly we roast once a week to ensure that our coffee is always fresh. Once roasted, it is ready to grind and enjoy your way.

* These steps describe the washed process, used for most Arabica coffees. The unwashed (also called dry or natural) process dries the beans before depulping. This imparts an earthy flavour. Only two of our coffees are not washed: Sumatran is semi-washed (partial drying before depulping), and the Brazilian is natural.