Processing Coffee

The process begins when the coffee is hand picked when the berries are sun ripe. The berries are brought to the beneficio ¨processing plant¨, to be measured and placed in the cifones ¨water tanks¨ where the fruit is separated into qualities. The berries that floats are separated as a second quality from the heavy premium quality that drowns to the bottom.
At this stage the fruit is depulped, then grains are left to rest in special tanks for 24 - 36 hours were the fermentation begins.

The fermentation process, in the tanks, is highly important for the flavor of the grains, because it allows the grains to absorb from the musilago essential oils until it’s saturation. After the process the grains can be washed to eliminate the remaining musilago and classified by weight in water. (Our grandfather and founder of Hacienda La Amistad Jorge Zeledon, was the first person to mechanize this important process).

The earlier separated pulp is taken to the recycling or comput facility to be processed and incorporated back into the coffee plantations, as a fertilizer.

The clean and classified coffee is then ready for the drying process. This process starts by eliminating the water in the draining tanks, continuing through the pre-drier in a constant flow until arriving at driers were the drying process ends. The driers will operate at very low temperatures for 32-36 hours, using only hot and clean air. The process in the driers can be also made in the patios were the coffee is sun dried.