Specialty Coffee is very unique in nature and produced only by using top-quality green coffee beans and a careful roast process to highlight the taste notes that are very unique to the coffee beans. We source our coffee beans from different parts of the world by carefully evaluating many factors, reaching out to the coffee farmers or coffee co-ops directly or through their representatives in the US.
At GREATKUP we pick quality green coffee beans based on various factors. Few of them are listed below.
- Beans are grown at higher altitudes
- Grown with different soil characteristics like volcanic soil, foothills of mountains
- Sustainable farming practices
- Biodiversity, Shade Grown, Micro Lots
- Women-owned or operated
- Local Co-ops to support the local economy
- Fairtrade practices
- Organic, Natural washing and drying practices
Procuring quality green beans is only one-third of the entire process. The next crucial step is carefully roasting the coffee beans to highlight their native taste notes. This is where Specialty Coffee differs from generic coffee. The majority of the coffee consumed in the US or in fact around the world is roasted with generic roast profiles in large batches, mixed with one or more types of beans sourced from different growing regions.
At GREATKUP we spend a lot of time in developing specific roast profiles for each type of beans. In reality, there is no generic roasting profile that we can immediately apply to a variety of beans. This is where artisan roasting practices play an important role. It is possible that 10 to 20 various profiles are developed for every type of beans before we find the sweet spot in which the majority of the taste notes are preserved.
Taste notes for each type of beans are very unique, based on their origin, elevation, type of environment they were grown, washing and drying practices. Our main goal in the roast profile development is to highlight the taste notes and strike a delicate balance between acidity and the way coffee tastes.
The final step is cupping. The cupping process is tedious and with practice and patience, we develop different roast profiles to match different brewing methods and needs.
At GREATKUP we invest a significant amount of time in procuring beans, developing roast profiles, and multiple iterations of cupping to achieve the perfect taste notes.
We strongly believe that this process is what makes us unique and creates a perfect and uniform roast all the time. Least but not least, we only roast coffee in small batches, every time to maintain the perfect coffee taste. At first specialty coffee tastes a little different but you will start appreciating the different taste notes offered by different coffee beans.
We offer coffee from Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and India, soon we will be adding more specialty coffee from Guatemala.
GREATKUP specialty coffee is available in, Whole Beans (roasted), Ground Coffee and in K-Cups for your Keurig coffee brewer.