Green Coffee
Our green coffees are imported from fine coffee-growing estates all over the globe. Purchasing and maintaining green coffee quality control is an art requiring decades of coffee experience. As an agricultural product, coffee quality varies depending on exactly how it was grown, harvested, processed, shipped and stored. Tiny variations can ruin entire shipments.
Every day, our Quality Control manager and coffee buyer cup samples from around the globe looking for superior quality. Once an approved shipment arrives in our warehouse, samples are taken from random bags within each container load and tested to ensure they match the quality of the original beans.
Lab
Our Quality Control Lab is equipped with precision equipment to guarantee that our coffees are consistently excellent. The centerpiece of the room is the marble-topped cupping table. Specially equipped for the coffee cupping process, this table is used to sample dozens of coffees each week.
Other equipment includes the oxygen meter, used to check the oxygen content in any coffee package. The Agtron is used to check the exact color of roasted coffee. Coffee flavor can vary dramatically before the human eye can differentiate between roast colors. This ultra-sensitive machine helps us to ensure consistency in our coffees. Another key tool is used to analyze ground coffee, measuring the consistency and texture of the grind.
Roasting
Our small-batch Jabez Burns roasters are engineered for precision quality. Each of our single-origin coffees and blends is roasted according to a specific recipe. Our master roaster carefully monitors temperature, timing and cool-down to ensure that every roast consistently maximizes the full flavor of the specialty green beans we import.
Mr. Jabez Burns, a brilliant engineer, patented the first modern coffee roasting machine in the U.S. back in 1864. Based in New York City, he continued to develop innovative new coffee roasting solutions for quality-conscious roasters. These American-engineered roasters have long set the standard for quality within the industry.
Flavoring
The first thing you may notice when entering our flavoring room is that the door feels much heavier than it looks. As the fans vent air outside, it creates a vacuum effect in the room, sealing the door and preventing any flavor aroma from escaping into our main coffee roasting area. The entire volume of air in the room is expelled roughly every five minutes.
Within the flavoring room, we’re also very careful to prevent cross-contamination. We have a dedicated flavoring drum for every flavored coffee that we produce.
Packaging
Once unroasted green coffees are emptied from shipping bags they will be moved via conveyors to the storage bins, the roaster, grinders and finally the packaging equipment. This system minimizes handling and prevents beans from becoming damaged during the roasting process.
Our packaging equipment and materials are carefully selected with the main goal of keeping our coffees fresh until the moment they are ready to be enjoyed. We use state-of-the-art materials, one-way valves and nitrogen flushing to keep oxygen levels in our coffee packages at 2 or 3% (the air we breath is approximately 20% oxygen and 78% nitrogen). Nitrogen is an inert gas that has no effect on coffee flavor.
Café
Our in-house café serves as a testing ground for the latest product and equipment innovations. Before recommending new equipment to our customers, we install it in our own café and thoroughly test it for ease of use and reliability. We’re always on the lookout for new specialty products for coffeehouses. Our café is equipped to allow us to sample and fully evaluate the teas, syrups and other products that we import from around the world.
We believe that an important part of our role as specialty roaster is to be an information resource for our wholesale customers. Our café also offers a perfect environment for our coffee information seminars and training programs.
Offices
The nerve centre of our company, our office areas are a constant hive of activity. Our Administrative and Operational teams work closely together to ensure maximum efficiency and organization. Our office area is just a short walk from our roasting and packaging area, making communication between departments easy.
Lounge
On the mezzanine above our distribution area we’ve built a comfortable lounge area for special events. This area is dedicated to building the strong relationships that make great business partnerships.
Whether we are meeting with our suppliers, brokers or customers, we believe in long-term, mutually successful business dealings. More often than not, our business relationships quickly turn into friendships.
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