Production
Throughout every stage of production our green coffee is constantly tested for quality and taste to ensure high processing standards.
Thai coffee is harvested once a year for approximately 2 to 4 months between October and March, depending on its specific origin. During these months, the Akha hill tribes begin by handpicking the ripe red cherries from the arabica trees and stowing them in baskets for delivery to the farm at the end of each day.
The farm begins processing in their state-of-the-art facility, starting by separating the coffee cherries by weight. The cherries are then put into a large water basin where the lighter beans floating to the top are then filtered through water channels and the ripe cherries sink to the bottom and will be subsequently collected ready for processing. The ripe, red cherries are then put through the de-pulping machine to remove the outside layers known as the exocarp and the mesocarp. Once removed, the skin is put back into the ecosystem and used as a natural compost to nourish the soil of the arabica trees.
The green cofffee now with skin removed still has a honey-like layer (known as parenchyma) so they are fresh water washed by hand to remove the majority of this coating from the parchment. From here the beans are passed through rotating drums to separate them into different sizes, then taken to fermentation tanks where they remain for twelve to twenty-four hours until all the slick layer of mucilage has been removed. The washed coffee beans are then laid to dry outside in the sun to remove the moisture content from the parchment coffee by the rigorous drying process. Now at 11 to 12 percent moisture content the green beans are ready to be warehoused in jute bags until they are readied for export.
At this stage of processing a machine is used to remove the parchment layer (endocarp) from wet processed coffee.
Once ready for export the green beans are milled and more precisely sorted by size and weight. This is then followed by the de-stoner machine to separate the good beans from any beans that are broken or have defects such as dust or stones. The green coffee is then filtered through the color sorter machine which removes all of the black beans, and finally put through the metal detector to remove any foreign matter. Once this is completed the beans are again filtered for defects, but this time by hand to ensure no defected beans pass through production.
This processing technique meets the international standards of GMP Codex certified by Bureau Veritas, with defects of only Black: 0.1%, Broken: 1.5%max, FM: 0.1%max, Moisture: 12.5%max, 90%min over Screen 13.
The transition is now complete, the once coffee cherries have been successfully processed to green coffee.
Green coffee is then placed in 60kg jute bags with inner lining (to protect against contamination), loaded into containers at the farm in northern Thailand and placed on a truck for transportation to our warehouse in central Bangkok. When the container reaches Bangkok the bags are then marked for export before one final quality control check by our team to ensure the beans are packed correctly and will be in pristine condition when they reach our warehouse in Germany. The container is then loaded, sealed, and sent to Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri, one hour from Bangkok, for shipping to Hamburg.
For more information on shipping, please visit the Transportation page.