Upon receipt of the coffee cherries from our farms and local farmers, the coffee processing begins at the Pulpery. At this stage, the pulp (outer skin of cherries) is mechanically removed from the beans. After pulping, the beans are washed to remove the mucilage (a slippery sap that surrounds the beans) and are immediately transported to our Finishing Plant for further processing.
At the Finishing Plant the wet parchment (washed beans) are sun dried on concrete slabs for three to five days to reduce the moisture content to below 45%, thereafter they are transferred to rotary dryers for further drying. After the beans are dried to our acceptable standards they are placed in silos for resting over a period of eight to ten weeks for perfect aging.
The next stage in the processing is the hulling or polishing where the husk is removed from the beans. Thereafter, the beans are graded according to size and density and are categorized as number ones, twos, threes and peaberries (a single bean from a cherry). The beans are then sorted by machines to remove defected beans and contrasting colours. Further sorting is done, manually, by our hand pickers to remove any defects which were not removed from electrical sorting. The beans are then packaged in 60kg burlap bags for storage.
