Coffee Harvest Season is upon us.

Please read the title again. It should read, ” Fire Ant Torture Test is upon us. Yes, as I mentioned in previous blogs, we pick process, and roast our own coffee to use in the cafe and we also sell it on Lazada, Shopee, and our website of course. My wife and I do all the picking of the ripe coffee beans, thankfully last year she did more harvesting than I did which was a welcome relief. I have been stung so many times by these fire ants that live on the coffee trees, that I have phantom stinging feelings now. Since our coffee is all organic I have to deal with these little buggers. So far it looks like we will have a good crop of coffee this year albeit a little later harvest than last year. One day I might do a course for those interested in the coffee process from bean to cup. I’ll spare you the fire ant fun. However, here is a quick rundown of the coffee process. The process we use is called the wet method. Some just sun dry the beans till the finish.

1. Pick the red coffee beans only.
2. Wash and let them ferment a couple of days in water to loosen the pulp from the bean.
3. Separate the pulp with a pulping machine. I used to have to hand-crank the pulper for the first two years.
4. Soak the beans again for a couple of days in water- More fermenting
5. Air dry the beans – 30-60 days is what we target.
6. Pack away until you need to make coffee. we like to store them for a few months or longer.
7. Remove the husk from the bean and separate the chaff with a blower and husker.
8. Roast the beans. We only do Light, Medium, and Dark Roast.
9. Pack and Ship or use in the cafe! This process takes about 2-3 months on the low end.

Well there you have it the cliff notes version of The Coffee Process. We are no experts for sure. We just figured it out along the way visiting coffee farms in Hawaii and anywhere we could to get tips on the process as well as how to brew coffee. We are a long way from completing our education on the entire process. What’s unique about our coffee is that we infuse our won vanilla extract into the coffee beans during the roasting process. That is the differentiator to set us apart from the rest of the pack.