About Our Coffee
To begin, we purchase only the highest grade Arabica coffee available. Prior to purchasing, we sample or "cup" the coffees to be sure they contain no defects, odd tastes or aromas, and to be sure they are the fine quality our customers are looking for.
Creating great coffee takes just a few simple steps. Steps that we follow fanatically.
At any one time, we have 20 to 30 different varieties of coffee in stock, each imported from a different country or "origin" where they are grown. Every day of the week, Monday through Friday, our Roastmaster begins at 7 a.m. roasting the coffees we need for each order shipping out to our customers that day. All of our coffees are roasted, packaged, and shipped to our customers within the same 24-hour period. We keep no roasted coffee on hand in our warehouse. Small batch roasting is our specialty. We roast small quantities of coffee daily to provide our customers with the freshest coffee possible.
Each of the coffees we offer have flavors and nuances unique to the country or region where there are grown, exactly the same as different wines from different countries, or wines made from different varieties of grapes will have varying tastes. To bring these flavors out, each coffee is roasted differently. There are many variables which effect how coffee is roasted; density of the coffee beans, water content within the coffee, current air temperature and humidity all have a bearing on the final roasted coffee. See Our Roasting Method for more detailed information on our roasting process.
Since we do roast in small quantities, we can offer to all of our customers the option of custom roasting and blending to create blends and tastes exclusive to their desire. There is no extra charge for this, and the only minimum is a fifteen pound quantity.
Packaging Process
We package all of our coffee in 5lb bulk bags. Immediately after roasting, the coffee is packaged into nitrogen-flushed bags. This process forces nitrogen into the package, replacing the oxygen, that would otherwise quickly age the coffee. The nitrogen preserves the wonderful flavor characteristics of fresh-roasted coffee. To further protect the beans, we utilizes "vent tape" valve technology which allows the coffee to de-gas, but prevents exposure to oxygen. One-way degassing valves are critical to maximizing coffee’s freshness by allowing freshly roasted coffee to degas in the package. Our patented one-way degassing valves are industry proven to effectively and efficiently vent CO2 gas build-up while sealing-out environmental oxygen, moisture, and contaminants.
Flavoring Process
Our flavored coffees have set the standard for the industry by using only the finest oil based extracts and ingredients. All of the flavorings we use on our gourmet flavored coffees are selected from dozens of different manufacturers and continually sampled to make sure we are always offering the truest, most flavorful profiles possible. We start with our fresh roasted South American beans then add the flavoring and hand mix to make sure each bean is fully coated to give you a delicious cup with great aroma and outstanding smooth taste.
The extracts used to flavor the beans are a combination of both natural and artificial flavorings. Combining these two types of flavorings brings the best of both to Coffee Masters flavored coffees; resulting in a wonderfully enhanced natural aroma and flavor that will remain with the coffee for a long time. Best of all, our flavoring extracts contain no sweeteners, sugars or calories and are gluten free.
Decaffeination Process
When purchasing decaffeinated coffees, it is helpful to understand the processes used. Opinions differ as to which process is "better"; we offer European Process and Swiss Water Process decaffeinated coffees, both of which remove at least 97% of the naturally occurring caffeine from the beans. All decaffeination, which ever method, is done when the coffee is still in its green or unroasted state. We do not decaffeinate any coffee ourselves, nor is coffee grown caffeine-free.
Because the cellulose structure of a decaf bean has been expanded and shrunk back — but not shrunk back completely — the structure of the bean is not as tight as non-decaffeinated bean. That’s part of the reason that decafs don’t change much during the roasting process. It’s also the reason roasters don’t hear the “crack”— the cellular structure in decaf has already been manipulated, and the traditional crack is moisture reaching the boiling point inside the bean and pushing through.
European Process: This is the method our standard decaf coffee beans use. The green beans are steeped in hot water, which gradually removes the caffeine. The water is separated from the beans and treated with methylene chloride. In this process, the solvent never touches the actual bean. The solvent absorbs the caffeine, which is removed with heat by a process of evaporation. The vital coffee oils in the remaining water are then added back to the beans. Many customers prefer this method because the flavor of the coffee is least affected by this process.
Swiss Water Process: Decaffeinated is a patented process done in Canada. Originally done in Switzerland, hence the name, Swiss Water Process (SWP) coffees are free of added chemicals and processed using the cleanest water possible.
The SWP process works through diffusion, not osmosis. Initially, green coffee beans were soaked in water until all the caffeine and flavor compounds were extracted. The beans were then discarded, and the solution they created was run through a carbon filter that removed the caffeine, leaving behind only the flavor compounds—what SWP calls its green coffee extract, or GCE.
When SWP decaffeinates a coffee, the beans are soaked with a small amount of the GCE, which creates a saturated solution in which the caffeine leaves but the coffee’s flavor compounds remain in place, unaffected. The GCE is like a yeast “mother.” While initially SWP had to sacrifice some coffee to create it, once the first batch was made, it just needs to maintain the health of the GCE and keep it slowly regenerating, which it does by adding small amounts of clean water.
