Gourmet Coffee Preparation
The wet coffee mill is the place where the ripe coffee cherries are classified by density, and the pulp layer removed by a wet milling machine. The resulting beans in the parchment are then placed in fermenting tanks for a period that can go from 14 to 40 hours, depending on the relative temperature and climate conditions.
Dry Mill
The dry mill or "Beneficio," as it is called in Spanish, is the plant where the coffee is sun-dried, spread out in concrete or well paved patios for some
10 to 12 days. Then the coffee is placed to rest in well ventilated warehouses for a period of
45 to 60 days until the beans' relative humidity is homogenized on the entire lot. This rest period, prior to de-hulling allows for the bean pores to close, which will give it great consistency and hardness that will enable its quality to last longer prior to and after its roasting.
"Gourmet Coffee doesn't come easy; It is labor intensive and an Art."
Hand Sorting
We do not use mechanical dryers and electronic sorting machines for two reasons:
- They send needy people into unemployment, especially women who are the primary household sustainers in Latin American families.
- The intensive mechanized processing potentially damages the quality of the coffee.
In our effort to help small and medium coffee farmers, Esperanza Coffee is committed to paying fair trade prices for our producers coffees. We work with small producers associations such as "Pueblos en Acción Comunitaria" (www.apac.org) and "Aldea Global de Jinotega" (www.pagjino.org).
Cup of Excellence
Esperanza Coffee, with its small producers associations (Aldea Global de Jinotega and Pueblos en Accion Comunitaria),
is the First Place winner of the Cup of Excellence Contest in 2002, and this year's Cup of Excellence 2003.
We have five winning producers among the winning coffees out of a total of 385 participants.
A panel of coffee experts from the main specialty roasting companies participated
from USA, Europe, Japan, and other countries.
