HARVESTING & PROCESSING

Zentveld’s purchase quality green bean arabica coffee from over 20 local Northern NSW growers. The beans are either hand picked or machine harvested, depending on the size of the plantation. With proper use of professional processing equipment, no discernable difference in green bean quality is evident between hand picked or machine harvested ‘ripe cherry’.

• With experience and fine tuning of the harvesting machine to suit the conditions of the crop, over 95 % ripe red cherry should be picked in each harvesting run over the Spring harvest season. ( i.e very few under ripe green coffee is picked).
  
• Correct use of quality ‘wet’ processing and grading should further ensure that only prime red cherry gets selected for drying to become ‘parchment’ coffee.
  
• As a roastery, Zentveld’s are uniquely placed on the family coffee plantation. With CAPE AUSTRALIA importing and sourcing coffee processing equipment, we have access to using the latest technology so we can further grade each batch of beans as they come in from different growers. This gives us greater control as roasters, and maximizes the quality of our green beans selected prior to roasting.
  

For detailed information on coffee growing, harvesting and processing, refer to the CAPE AUSTRALIA website.