Boutique Coffee beans: boutique Coffee vs Commercial Coffee guarantee the quality of Coffee from the Source

The small coffee town of Lisalda in Caldas, Colombia

Why is boutique coffee called "boutique"?

The quality of fine coffee is much higher than that of ordinary commercial coffee.

But why?

Does it mean that boutique coffee is born more delicious?

Of course not!

The process of producing micro-batch boutique coffee is complex and tedious. From the selection of fertilizers to the shaded area of trees, from the altitude of planting to the species of coffee beans, all factors will affect the final quality of coffee. Of course, it is not enough to decide where to grow which kind of coffee. In order to grow boutique coffee, you must pay full attention and closely monitor the whole production process.

To sum up, the quality supervision of boutique coffee in the planting stage is divided into three steps:

Pick only bright red fruit and pick coffee.

Do you think coffee picking is easy? In fact, this is not the case, the first step in quality supervision of boutique coffee is from the picking process.

In the past, the principle of coffee picking was to remove all coffee fruits within the field of vision, whether the fruit was green, yellow, red or black. I heard you right. Take off the black ones, too! In those days, quantity outweighed quality, and coffee was regarded as a very common commodity rather than a luxury. At that time, people believed that the more coffee was produced, the more money it made.

Don't take the green ones, take the red ones!

But with the rise of the "third wave" of coffee, the business model of coffee cultivation has undergone earth-shaking changes. Pickers working on boutique coffee plantations are only allowed to pick bright red, fully ripe fruits. This is important because immature or ripe fruit can make coffee taste sour or bitter. This transformation is painful and difficult for most traditional plantations because the compensation of pickers is directly linked to the total weight of the fruit. In boutique coffee plantations, although the picker's salary is also calculated on the basis of weight, the difference is that the less fruit the picker picks, the more diligent he picks and the higher his salary is.

Coffee picker George (Jorge) is bending the top of the tree in search of the brightest, fully ripe fruit. Picking is not an easy job!

Of course, the picker can not be absolutely perfect, at the same time, some immature or ripe fruit will fall into the fruit basket. Some plantations with more stringent quality regulations require pickers to pick the fruit again after the first harvest in order to remove coffee fruit that does not meet the requirements. Only in this way can people ensure that the coffee has reached the highest quality before it is processed.

George shows us the picked coffee fruit.

Find out the defective coffee beans and choose the coffee.

After processing, coffee beans begin a long drying process, until the water content reaches a certain level, coffee can enter the shelling stage. This is the second important link in the quality supervision of boutique coffee.

Why check the quality of coffee over and over again? Because even the most red-looking peel hides beans with flaws and defects. This is impossible for the naked eye to judge, and only when it comes to the shelling stage can you really tell which coffee beans are defective.

Coffee producer Rosa is hand-picking "parchment" coffee.

Coffee beans with defects or defects are picked out by hand. These beans are called "Pasilla". Unfortunately, these "Pasilla" will still be in circulation in the market, and it is the producers of commercial coffee and some local residents who buy these defective beans.

Detection of the last joint raw bean in coffee production

Once the raw beans are shelled, the whole production process of coffee will come to an end, but quality supervision will continue. Before baking, people must test the quality of raw beans. Similarly, "parchment" coffee can also cover up some of the defective coffee. According to the American Fine Coffee Association (SCAA) standards, boutique coffee must be "0" defective, so it is important to pick out defective coffee.

Defective and defective coffee raw beans shown in the Columbia Coffee Federation laboratory

In the past, the picking of raw beans was done by hand, but now many people choose to use more efficient instruments to test raw beans, but the reason why manual picking still exists is that it can create more jobs for local people.

Workers pick raw coffee beans by hand at the Azahar factory in Armenia, Colombia.

Compared with those large factories that pursue economic benefits, what we focus on is not efficiency, but whether it can help the local society and economy to develop healthily and sustainably, so we prefer manual selection.

Raw bean pickers in other factories in Colombia

Cooked bean taste: quality supervision is consistent.

At this point, the coffee has completed its life cycle in plantations and processing plants, ready to be roasted. But if you think that quality supervision is no longer necessary at this stage, you are dead wrong! Quality supervision is consistent, and unless the taste of coffee is perfect, we will not relax for a moment!

Cup testing in the Columbia Coffee Alliance Laboratory

After the strict control of the above three steps, the defects and defects of coffee have been controlled to a minimum.

Quality supervision is the strongest guarantee of fine coffee!

In order not to let the fruits of previous workers' work go to waste, we must learn to appreciate the taste and quality of coffee. Only in this way can you really realize the true value of boutique coffee and the profound meaning behind its delicate taste. Only by ensuring the quality from the source, can boutique coffee be really called "boutique"!

Hundreds of people work hard day and night, just for a cup of perfect coffee!

Source: country of coffee