Farm To Cup

Harvest

H.C. Valentine uses only specialty-grade beans harvested in the best coffee growing regions, often on small family farms that have been passed down from generation to generation. Traveling to remote areas and climbing treacherous hills to meet with the people who harvest our beans is not always glamorous, but it is rewarding. They welcome us as friends. And we take seriously our responsibility to them by partnering with organizations that help bolster the local communities and ensure these farmers will continue to reap great harvests year after year—sustaining their way of life as well as the top-quality raw ingredients we rely upon to sustain our own tradition of excellence.

Roast

The process of roasting small batch, artisan coffee is anything but formulaic. Every step takes experience, instinct, and all of the human senses. Watching the beans as they roast, making adjustments as needed at every step of the journey. Listening for the first crack, and then the second, telling the roastmaster when the beans are near the end of the roast. Feeling the beans as they come out of the roaster to check the texture. And tasting—well, that’s the most subjective part and can never be truly judged until a round of freshly brewed coffees arrives at a tableful of friends, and it’s smiles all around.

Blend

Our approach to blending H.C. Valentine coffee is limited only by our customers’ imagination. It begins with a conversation. Is the goal to complement a certain theme of a particular establishment or menu? Does the customer prefer a medium-roasted coffee to better taste the natural flavors of the coffee, or a Sumatran with an earthier taste and depth in body? We “cup” the coffees as we talk—the coffee expert’s equivalent of a fine wine tasting—until the customer is delighted with the product. Only then is the blend for that coffee defined and the component coffees balanced accordingly. And finally, the custom blend is ready to be delivered and then ground and brewed on site to produce the freshest, best coffee possible. 

Brew

All H.C. Valentine coffees are delivered as freshly roasted and blended whole beans to be ground and brewed immediately before serving. Committed to our mission as a full-service coffee company, we hold training sessions at the restaurants, resorts, private clubs, bakeries, and other establishments that serve H.C. Valentine coffee to make sure they know the proper technique for grinding and brewing the coffee to perfection. We also work to provide knowledge of the coffee and educate the staff so they can then share with their own customers the coffee’s rich farm-to-cup story—from its origins to every step of the process leading right to its arrival at the table.