Ferns is the best coffee on the planet – correct. But how does it all happen? How is the medium bodied Sassetta Latte made? Where do we source the beans to create our full bodied Italia Dark and how are they roasted?
The Perfect Bean
It starts with sourcing the perfect bean. Our beans come from all across the world’s ‘Coffee Belt’ which lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn in Asia, Africa and South and Central America. Here temperatures are ideal for the bean, or the coffee plant’s ‘cherry’- between 15 to 24ºC for Arabica coffee and 24 to 30ºC for Robusta.
Different climates, soils and geographies all help to characterise each bean. Traditional Vietnamese robusta beans have a stronger flavour which yields a great crema, while milder Santos beans come mainly from Brazil. Central American farms produce aromatic sweet beans particularly well, and the medium bean we source from central Africa offers a silky smooth taste. Blending these flavours, perfected in roasting gives our blends their smooth, smoky or sweeter characters.
Processing
Dry processing by using the sun to dry beans and then milling them is the oldest method and takes up to 4 weeks. In wet processing berries are depulped, fermented, washed, dried and then milled. After the skin is removed, the coffee is moved to a clean tank where the rest of the flesh is taken off by fermentation. The coffee is washed to remove leftover debris after fermentation and then it is dried.
Roasting to Perfection
Roasting is an essential part of perfecting our Ferns flavours. In essence, the longer the beans roast, the more intense its taste, the coffee gets darker, and the beans gradually take on more flavour. The body of the coffee gets heavier, until the dark roast stage, where the body again thins. Lighter roasts will have more acidity than darker roasts and the beans are dry, while darker roasts develop oil on the bean surface.
Take a look at our different Ferns Coffee blends here.
