Industrial roasting

In industrial roasters, coffee beans are roasted at 800–1,000 °C in just 2–3 minutes and then cooled down with water.

The extreme heat and short roasting time result in uneven development of the bean: heavily roasted layers form on the outside, whilst the inside is less developed. Flavours and essential oils may escape, and burnt and bitter notes dominate the taste.

Weight loss also remains comparatively low, at around 4–5 per cent, thanks to the short roasting time. This process is efficient for industrial-scale production – after all, time is money. There is hardly any other way to produce thousands of tonnes of coffee.

Our gentle drum roasting process

We roast in small batches at 180–200 °C, taking 17–20 minutes to do so. This allows the beans to develop evenly, reduces unwanted bitter compounds and enables the flavours to unfold much more effectively.

It takes more time and costs more money. But it’s precisely that time that you can really taste.

And we go one step further: we use A-grade coffee beans, roast them using traditional methods in a gas-fired drum roaster, then grind the coffee and fill the capsules with it, without adding any additional ingredients.

Tradition takes time. We take the time to build it.

The selection

Why only 5 out of 100 beans make it to us

Every cup begins far away, on a plantation, with a decision. Only about 5–6% of the world’s coffee harvest passes the strict Green Coffee Grading of the Specialty Coffee Association.

For the big manufacturers, that’s simply too little. For us, it’s just right. And what sets these beans apart? You can recognise them long before they are roasted. They glow an even jade green and smell of fresh hay and dried herbs, almost like a summer meadow.

In an entire 350-gram sample, there is not a single defective bean. If a bean smells even slightly musty or of vinegar, its journey ends before it has really begun.

The sorting

A detail that decides between chocolate and smoke

Imagine baking large and small biscuits for the same length of time on the same tray. The small ones turn black, the large ones stay raw inside. It’s exactly the same with coffee beans. Beans that are too small burn and taste of smoke and charcoal. Beans that are too large stay pale at the core and taste grassy and sharply sour. Both crowd out what we really love good coffee for: chocolate, caramel, nuts and a delicate, natural sweetness.

That’s why we sort every bean by size before it goes into the roaster. It’s painstaking and takes time. But it’s the only way for each bean to roast for exactly as long as it needs. What ends up in your cup is rounded, balanced and full of aroma.