Starting with the plant

  • Coffee is a tropical plant thus has a very narrow temperature range, not too hot or too cold.
  • It grows in a range of soil types, preferring the more acidic soils that have good drainage. 
  • Regular pruning is necessary to keep a productive tree. 
  • Though it can take a little stress, too much wind could damage the leaves and flowers reducing the likeliness of fruit forming.  

Tree forming

  • The coffee tree is a shrub with  a straight trunk
  • They have dark shiny leaves that grow in pairs along branches.
  • The white flowers when open offer a strong but refreshing scent. 
  • The average life span of a coffee tree is 50-70 years.

Seed growing

  • Coffee fruits are usually red when ripe though can be orange pink or yellow on some varieties.
  • The coffee trees fruit takes 7-8 months to ripen.
  • The best time to harvest the bean is when the fruit is a cherry red.
  • When ripe it can be harvested, human hands or machines can be used to shake the trees forcing the tree to drop it's fruit

Fruit sorting

  • Once the coffee has been collected it then gets sorted between ripe and unripe fruit. 
  • Yellow fruits haven't matured enough black fruits have matured too much. 
  • Other visual defects can be sorted at this stage.

Cleaning process

  • Once ripe the outer cases must be removed this can be through a number of processes​ such as wet processing or dry processing. 
  • The cleaning process aims to remove the Silverskin, Parchment and Mucilage.
  • Dry processing: Once dry a specially designed machine is used to remove the fruits skin simultaneously. 
  • Wet processing: Normally the Mucilage is removed straight away by machine by coaxing microorganisms to eat it.  The bean still covered by the Silverskin and parchment is then dried in the sun or in a forced-air dryer.

Selection Process

  • A hard greenish bluish bean is left of varying sizes. 
  • Some beans may be broken and must be sorted to separate between the malformed, diseased-damaged seeds and residing insects. this can be done by humans or machines.
  • The seeds are separated by size, density and colour.   

Packed ready to ship

  • Once this very long process is complete they are bagged ready to be shipped.
  • They will be stored in a warehouse or shipped directly to a roastery such as Masteroast.
  • Once roasted the beans can be ground, brewed and drunk.
Not all coffees are stocked all year due to seasonal growing periods.