Caye Coffee in Belize

This morning Nani said, "Get dressed Romen, we're going on an adventure."  Nani took me to Caye Coffee (located here on the island of Ambergris Caye).  Marcy the owner, gave me a tour of the facility and showed me how they roast coffee beans.  I learned all about coffee and how the whole process works.  Nani enjoyed a coffee beverage before leaving, and I had a kids drink.  It was a great morning with my Nani and we look forward to many more adventures together.

Today, I got to help bag coffee at "Caye Coffee". 

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This is the commercial coffee bean grinder, they use to grind beans.  After the beans are roasted and have cooled down, they are placed in this grinder to create ground coffee.

Marcy (the owner), showed me where they store their coffee beans.  These beans are kept in a temperature controlled environment, until they are ready to be roasted.  

1. Drying Stage - Caye Coffee keeps a careful eye on the condition of their beans and control the environment (i.e. humidity) that affects them.  When the beans have dried to the right degree, they will roast them.

Roasting beans take them from their green color, to a nice brown color.

2. Browning Stage - The browning stage is the stage wherein the aromas of the beans will start to develop. This stage follows the drying stage. During the browning process, we see what is called the "Maillard Reaction" taking place. This means the natural sugars and amino acids within the coffee beans start to react and create a distinctive color and flavor characteristic to the coffee bean.  During the browning stage, we see what most roasters refer to as the first crack. This means the beans are expanding which brings us to the next stage.

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Romen, we take the beans from this green color, and roast them to light & dark roasts for our various coffee brands.  The darker the color, the fuller the flavor.
We make three kinds of coffee Romen.

1. Light Roast (Front Street)
2. Medium Roast (Middle Street) Mixture of light & dark roast
3. Dark Roast (Back Street)

3. Roasting Stage - This is the stage where we fully shape the taste profile we are trying to create for Caye Coffee.  If we roast too fast, we will create a coffee that tastes smoky and is too sharp, so we take our time. When roasting, we control the humidity and the roasting time to create the perfect roasted bean for our coffee.  This roasting stage, leads to the aroma compounds that most people love about our coffee.

Roast Degree - The roast degree is one of the most important factors, to consider when roasting.  The color of the bean tells you a lot, when you are deciding when to roast and how long to roast. 

• Lightly roasted beans can have a sour, acidic taste while dark roasted beans have a more raw, bitter taste.
• Lightly roasted beans are also known for a more fruitier taste, while dark roasted beans often have a somewhat burnt taste. 

Roast Time - The roast degree has the biggest role when it comes to determining the definitive taste of the bean. This is where experience comes in.

• Roast fast and you create more aroma compounds but risk burning the beans.
• Roast slow, and you have more control over the flavor development.

As the beans expand, they will harden and as a side effect, they release what is called "chaff".  Chaff is another word for the skin of a coffee bean.

4. Cooling Stage - After roasting your beans, you will need to cool them down.  That's what this big round bin does Romen.  This is an important step, as cooling down your beans helps to stop the roasting process.  The beans need to cool for about 4 to 5 minutes to ensure that roasting has stopped.

5. Discharding Waste Stage - Remember we talked about the chaff, which is the skin on the coffee bean?  This skin needs to be removed, in order to finish processing your coffee beans. 
This machine collects the chaff here in this compartment.  Once the beans have cooled properly (and the chaff has been removed), we are ready to cup our beans.  Cupping is another word for testing.  Before we grind and bag the coffee, we want to make sure we are getting the desired results as to taste. 

6. Cupping Stage - Cupping beans is another way of saying you are proofing the roasting results.  Cupping relies on the experience and skill of the person tasting the coffee.  The process includes sniffing, and tasting to get a clear picture of the taste you’ve created.  How cupping is done, is different for each roaster. 

7. In Summary - We hope you enjoyed your tour Romen, and learned alot about how to make coffee.  Every coffee roaster has their own preferences, methods, product materials, and secrets, they use to achieve that perfect cup.  Have Nani bring you back again, and we can bag more coffee together. 

This ends my tour on how to make the perfect cup of coffee from BEAN (to) CUP. 

We Miss You Jaymin