The Secret is out – this is how we produce the finest coffee in the world

We take great care where our coffee beans are concerned. The sourcing, blending and roasting are all equally as important factors as the coffee machine in producing the perfect cup of coffee. Here's an overview of what goes into the production of the finest coffee.

Sourcing the coffee beans

To produce our distinctive gourmet coffee blends, we source our beans from the finest growing regions around the world. Each type of bean has different flavour characteristics and each growing area lends different flavours to the coffee due to the differences in soil, weather and growing conditions.

The beans are hand picked and then processed using various methods depending on the particular plantation and coffee type. Finally the beans are sorted and labelled as green coffee beans as they are green in colour at this stage (the distinctive brown colour is developed during roasting).

We only import green coffee beans, which means we can have complete control over the blending and roasting. Only this way can we guarantee our coffee’s freshness and consistency.

Hand roasting

At Caffe Society we know that blending and roasting the very best coffee is part art, part science. From hand roasting and expert blending to state of the art roasting and quality assurance machinery, we bring the best of both worlds together to create the perfect cup of coffee.

Only the highest quality coffee beans from around the world are hand-picked by our roasters from a huge list of available coffees each season. Looking for uniform bean size, rich green colour, strict moisture levels and perfect flavour profiles, among other things, our roasters ensure that each and every bean in one of our bags is as perfect as possible. We then roast the beans on a variety of different roasters depending on the flavour profile and end cup result that we want. From traditional slow drum roasting that develops flavour slowly and fully, to state of the art 21st Century German ‘Fluid Air Bed’ roasting that gives us a huge array of variables to exploit the inherent flavours of the bean to never before seen accuracy. As the beans roast they darken in colour and develop the flavours found naturally inside them. From crisply acidic Kenyan coffees to deep rich Indonesians, we roast each to the perfect sweet spot to make the most of what they can offer. Throughout the roast profile we manually adjust the variables inside the drum (drum temperature, air flow and air speed amongst many others), perhaps the perfect embodiment of art and science working hand in hand.

At the end of the roast our highly skilled and experienced master roasters judge by eye the exact moment to shut off the roast, cutting off the heat and immediately cooling the beans with a mixture of water quenching and cold air to bring the beans back down to a stable temperature. The beans are then removed from the roaster and immediately run through a series of tests to make sure that the artisan skill used in the roast has paid off. The colour of the beans is checked using a light spectrometer, the best tool available for checking the roast profile, and then tasted by our panel of highly skilled coffee tasters to ensure the flavour profile is consistent, balanced and above all exceptional.

This mixture of art and science is essential to the way we roast our coffees. The science ensures the consistency and control of the product, whilst the art adds passion and dedication to the end result, giving what we think is the perfect blend of coffee.

Coffee blends

Developing a blend is no simple task and many things need to be taken into account such as the purpose of the blend, the type of brewing method and the flavour profile desired. The structure of the blend mixes aroma, acidity, body, flavour and aftertaste to create the desired outcome. Like a fine painting the combination of all the components come together to create a unique masterpiece.

Blend Example - Caffe Society Super Crema, our best selling blend

Honduras SHG The Honduras brings a sharp peak of sweet acidity to the blend with sweet nutty notes and a soft finish
Indian Mysore The Mysore has a smooth subtle chocolate note and brings a balanced creamy texture to the blend
Ethiopian The Ethiopian brings the character to this blend with sweet berry like notes a full flavour and a earthy/chocolate finish. Some subtle notes of dried apricot
Indian Cherry The Indian Cherry bring depth, body and a persistent finish to the blend
The Blend The combination of the single origins roasted to perfection is a smooth, full bodied and balanced cup with sweetness, fruit and subtle notes of chocolate

What is turbo roasting and why we don’t do it?

Most of our competitors turbo roast in the fraction of the time, usually around 3 minutes. All large companies do this to save money and to increase their profits. This has a detrimental effect on the taste, aroma and flavour as the sugars don’t have time to be released. Where is the art, craft and romance in this method?

Our most expensive coffee works out at only 7p per cup ( based on a 6kg case of beans) our best selling Supercrema at 5.5p. The cheapest coffees on the market (from cash and carrys, supermarkets and inferior suppliers) are around 4p per cup . These don’t have any flavour and most consumers would not return to buy another! Why compromise quality to save 2p per cup ! Especially when you may be selling for up to £2 or more.

Profile roasting

An added benefit is the “profile roasting” technology we employ. There is a computer linked to our Lilla roasters. Once we roast a particular blend for the first time we can effectively save the profile on computer to guarantee an exact replica next time we roast it, rather than the trial and error that other roasters might employ!

Detection & removal of foreign bodies

During the roasting process all our coffee beans are passed through an x-ray machine to identify any foreign body – particularly useful for finding stones that are similar in weight and density to coffee beans.

No amount of magnets, sieving or roasting at 250 degrees can eliminate these little beggars. No other roaster in the UK can offer this reassurance.

Finished product - the finest freshly roasted coffee

So there we are, carefully picked beans from around the world delivered to our warehouse in Yorkshire. Carefully roasted on a daily basis, packaged immediately to seal in the freshness and on to our shelves ready to be shipped out to our discerning customers nationwide.

On being delivered to you our coffees are on average 2 weeks old. You will be able to open a bag and smell the freshness from the other side of a room. You will be able to see the oils oozing out of the beans ready to be ground to produce the perfect coffee.

Don't compromise on quality

As you can see, producing coffee to the highest standards is a complex process requiring a great deal of skill, care and expertise. Shortcuts can be taken to reduce cost such as turbo roasting and mass production, but these will always result in an inferior product.

Buying cheap inferior coffee is a false economy

By buying a cheap mass produced coffee from a cash and carry or supermarket, you may be saving a penny or so per cup but it's false economy if it means you are losing out on repeat customers.

Try our coffees and taste the difference

Take a look at our coffee section and see our wide range of gourmet coffees at competitive prices.

• Fresh coffee beans
• Ground coffee
• Coffee pods
• Coffee for cafetieres
• Fairtrade coffee
• Freeze dried coffee

or why not try out a selection of our coffees by buying one of our
coffee sample packs for as little as £20.00

• Coffee bean sample pack
• Ground coffee sample pack