With coffee consumption growing each year in the United States and in other countries, it becomes more difficult to buy specialty-graded, green coffee beans. Coffee is the second largest commodity in the world; oil is the only commodity with a larger footprint. With any commodity, as demand increases, so does the cost. This makes purchasing green coffee one of the most important things we do at H.C. Valentine Coffee Company. Our green coffee buyers, product development managers and sales executives continue to look for green coffee beans that embody H.C. Valentine and its commitment to “excellence and beyond.”
A major portion of sourcing high-quality beans is travelling around the world to the best coffee growing regions of Central America, South America, Indonesia and Africa. Coffees are grown in the “Coffee Belt” between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic Capricorn due to the warm tropical climates. As you may or may not know, the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn each lay at 23.5 degrees latitude. The Tropic of Cancer is located at 23.5 degrees north of the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn lies at 23.5 degrees south of the equator.
As you will see in our pictures, in many coffee origins, coffee trees start growing from small seedlings to full size coffee trees. These trees are pruned each year to a size so that people can hand pick the coffee cherries. The growers wait for the yellow and green cherries to ripe to the red color before they are picked to be processed at the mill. The fruit (or pulp) is then removed from the cherry, leaving the seed or bean, which is dried. The various methods of processing green coffee have a significant effect on the flavors present in roasted and brewed coffee.
At H.C. Valentine, we buy and support organic coffees, fair-trade coffees and rainforest alliance coffees. Certified coffees have a higher cost but help support the farmers and their communities. Both roasters and coffee drinkers benefit from the higher quality of the certified coffees.
You can order artisan roasted H.C. Valentine specialty coffees sourced from all over the world on our website. Thank you for being a coffee lover!
A coffee tree with many ripe coffee cherries. A single tree will produce approximately a pound of finished roasted coffee.