Fermentation and drying are where fine flavour is made or lost. We refuse to outsource either to a bulk processor — both happen in our own facility at Crique Jute Village.
Beans arrive within six hours of harvest and enter a traditional cascading fermentation of 6 to 7 days. Temperature readings and cut tests are recorded every 48 hours and the cascade is timed against them, not against the clock alone.
Our annual processing capacity of 60 metric tonnes lets us consolidate whole-farm harvests into consistent, repeatable lots rather than a patchwork of smallholder ferments.
| Fermentation & drying | |
|---|---|
| Cycle length | 6–7 days, traditional |
| System | 3-tier cascading wooden box |
| Processing capacity | 60 metric tonnes per year |
| Monitoring | Temperature + cut test every 48 hrs |
| Target | >80% well fermented |
| Drying method | Passive solar, direct and indirect |
| Facility | Purpose-built roll-out racks, airflow monitored |
| Final moisture | 6.5% |
| Post-dry | Aging period to develop flavour |
Fermented beans move onto purpose-built roll-out racks and are dried by passive solar energy, direct and indirect, with airflow monitored throughout. Trained personnel turn the beans constantly until moisture reaches 6.5% — roughly six days in good weather.
Dried beans then rest. That aging period continues to develop the flavour profile before the lot is graded, hand sorted and either shipped as beans or sent up to our own factory.
Why centralize? Consolidating fermentation and drying in one facility is the single biggest lever on consistency. It is also what makes traceability real: one lot, one cycle, one record — from six farms, not six hundred.
