Friday, August 14, 2009

Alex

Alex is our dry miller. He takes our beans from the parchment stage to green for us just before the roasting process. Last week Alex gave us, we felt, the greatest compliment on our coffee. After milling the parchment he ran his hands through the green bean and scooped up several handfuls of the beans. He said "this is what good coffee is. Your coffee is a very vibrant green, all one color and very hard. This will roast exceptionally well with no broken beans or off color beans. All this makes for a very fresh, tingly, and tasty cup of coffee." Ron needed this encouragement as this season is coming in slow and he is spending a lot of time sorting through the beans as they dry. He picks out all dark or discolored beans and throws them out. We sort again the next day and remove any white or hollow beans. We are glad to report that what we call, self quality control, pays off. This is what makes our coffee just one step above. Also the coffee Alex is speaking to is last years crop. It takes that long to let the flavors partake of the richness in each bean. Lastly, but not unimportant, is the storage process. Alex says as long as we store the coffee/parchment properly and keep the humidity low and even it's better to age. That is what we try to do,and our coffee according to Alex is remarkable because of it. To be clear, storing parchment is what we do, not green. Green bean has a much shorter flavor span and needs to be roasted in a reasonable amount of time. We keep no coffee green. We take it to a roast the same day it is milled which is our commitment to bring the most flavorful Kona coffee to our customers.