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Green / Raw Coffee
The evergreen coffee tree provides man with his addiction.
Seedlings are nurtured in green houses and planted at set
distances depending on the type of terrain. Mountainous terrain is suited for hand picking and the shrubs are more closely planted whilst the level terrain is ideal for mechanical harvesting.
The varying soil compositions, climatic changes and altitude all contribute in developing each origins unique natural composition
and character. The farmer’s expertise is also required to ensure
the perfect harvesting periods. It takes three to four years for the seedlings to develop into small trees. |
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At this stage the plant experiences its initial flowering which is triggered by rainfall. The flowers are very similar to the Jasmine flower. They are a pure vivid white and grow in clusters right along the length of the branches at the base of the dark green leaves.
The plant during the flowering stage almost looks as if it is covered in snow. The small Jasmine-like flowers have an irresistible fragrance which perfumes the forest but are short-lived.
Within a few days the flowers wither initiating the fruiting/cherry stage.
The cherries begin as tiny green ovals and over a period of approximately seven months mature and ripen into bright scarlet cherries. Nature always gifts us with beauty and provides a succulent yellow cherry found in the Bourbon species. |
Within the cherry are two green/raw coffee beans which have a silver skin membrane and are each enveloped and protected by a tougher skin called parchment. The two coffee beans develop a flat side as they rest against each other during their development; the rest of their body takes the commonly known coffee oval shape.
There is also the incident when one of the beans is not formed resulting into the existing bean having no resistance against it and developing into a round coffee bean known as Peaberry. All the nourishment of the fruit is absorbed by this one bean which has a rich intense character. The cherry fruit/pulp has a very sweet flavour which helps contribute to the final character. |
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The farmers experience is now tested as the decision when to harvest is near.
Sugar readings of the cherry pulp are taken ensuring maximum flavour and maturity is reached before harvesting.
Leaving the cherries too long or too little will allow them to become under or overly ripened which leave undesirable notes in the final cup.
Considering the erratic nature of the raw product’s quality and availability, the challenge is to choose from a select group of beans that first must be sorted, cupped and finetuned before proceeding with production...time consuming, and sometimes soul-consuming when yields are affected by nature, politics
and price. |
Mocha Coffee selects premium green beans purely on taste/flavour profile and is not influenced by international market price fluctuations. Mocha Coffee sources all its green beans from farmers who have good work ethics and conditions for their employees and the environment.
The bulk of the coffee comes from small premium top end producers with exclusive supply and hence Mocha Coffee pays well above market prices. |
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The greatest care and attention to detail is seen right throughout all the different stages from growing to processing with all our growers. From nurturing seedlings in greenhouses, hand picking and sorting coffee cherries, floatation tanks separating underdeveloped and defective coffee cherries, naturally sun drying the green coffee beans, huge mechanical dryers ensuring the correct moisture content is left prior to bagging to prevent fermentation, cleaning the raw green coffee beans (milling) and removing the hard protective parchment as well as any foreign matter with gravity, centrifugal and electronic sorting processing equipment to finally screening and grading the various lots and bagging for export. |
Mocha Coffee’s 21 years of experience has developed strong relationships with estate owners and agents that are physically visiting these exclusive estates and advising of current crop situations as well as cup quality. Mocha Coffee is constantly cupping pre shipment samples to ensure that Mocha Coffee’s demand for high quality and particular flavour profiles is met.
Paul Mannassis our key roaster has personally met many of the growers and has been shown all the slight different techniques that each estate owner does in order to differentiate themselves. And to his amazement those slight personal touches have quite a difference in the cup. Having experienced, touched, smelt, tasted and felt these differences we can only say thankyou for a deeper understanding. Our options to integrate specific regions of the same origin ensures Mocha Coffees designs are quite adrift from the norm and consistently stable in taste. |
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The constant global demand for quality has seen farmers improve their processing methods as well as adding a wider range of differently processed green beans. These include Sun dried, Washed, Semi-Washed, Natural and Pulped Natural. Green coffee from the same region yet processed differently will produce different flavour characteristics.
Coffee of a particular region yet the same type of coffee with merely a few acres separating crops can poses a different aroma and flavour.
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Mocha Coffees expertise ensures it secures certain lot types and blends them together to maintain the desired characteristic of each origin whilst adjusting the proportions of the different origins to achieve the desired (style) balance in all our range of blends.
Mocha Coffee’s blends consist of various origins of coffee often up to 7 different origins are used in designing our renown style for each of the different blends. |
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