| OUR PROCESS AT MAVIS BANK
Hand picking and Floating
 Coffee is collected from the farmers only after it is cherry ripe (completely red). The berries are hand picked and floated in water on each farm. All floated berries are skimmed and thrown away. (The floated berries have undeveloped beans or have been eaten by insects). This is disregarded from the very beginning of our process.
The coffee is then taken to our collecting stations in the respective parishes. Mavis Bank has over 80 collecting station each equipped with floating tanks where again the coffee brought in by the farmers are floated to ensure only pre-floated coffee is received into the factory.
Delivery
Collection from the depots starts in the late afternoon after the farmers have all brought in their produce. Our collectors visit each depot every night and picks up the floated product. This is done in order to get the coffee to the factory in its most fresh form for pulping.
It is best to pulp coffee soon after it is picked.
Pulping
Coffee received from the collectors are placed in large holding tanks for pulping. As it arrives at the factory our quality assurance department checks for green, over fermented and insect infested cherries. This is assessed acted upon after which the coffee is pulped and washed thoroughly.
Washing involved the removal of mucilage (a sugary substance) on the outer section of the bean. Leaving this mucilage on the bean too long results in a fruity flavour then over fermentation (one of the worst off flavours).
After washing what we have is a creamy/brown looking bean known as the wet parchment.
Wet Parchment
Wet parchment is then placed on large concrete slabs called barbeques for drying. Drying on the barbeques can take as much as five days getting continuous sun light. The drying process involves getting the moisture levels in the beans to specific levels.
Mechanical dryers are also used during peak period and the rainy season.
Now the bean is dry and ready for storing. The quality department again assesses the bean separate the good from the bad.
 The dried parchment is now bagged and taken to our warehouses where resting begins. Our beans are rested for at least ten weeks.
It is at this stage the development of certain characteristics occur.
The Appearance:
Eveness of the sizes
Development of the fragrance and aroma
Development of a well defined acidity
Mellowing of after taste and body development
Resting is sometimes called curing in the days gone by. The dried parchment are rested again the quality men assesses…….the coffee its now ready for hulling.
Hulling
Hulling is the process that removes the “husk” outer shell from the bean. Out comes the world famous green bean. The machine we use to do this is a huller. All the husk is stored in a silo and we use same as fuel in our wood dryers used in the drying process.
The green bean after hulled as a silver skin on the outer layer for further protection. The bean is then polished to remove this and the signature green bean is now ready for sorting.
Sorting
Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is sold based on certain specific characteristic. All these attributes have to be tested and verified by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board who are the only authorized exporters.
The characteristics are:
1.(a) The size of the beans
Jamaica Blue Mountain is exported
Grade 1 _______ Size ______ Screen Diameter_______
Grade 2
Grade 3
Peaberry
A peaberry is a mono-cotyledonuous bean.
The above can be exported only in barrels (70kg)
1.(b) Triage – Exported in bags with allowances for size variation as it relates to screen sizes mentioned above
These sizes are the only allowable sizes for export and there can be no broken or discoloured beans.
2.Taste
There can be no off taste. An off taste is an awful taste not fitting of our product eg.overfermented, earthy or a rancid taste.
3.Body – The body can be defined as full bodied, weak body or a good balanced body
4.Colour – JBM is usually a bluish green colour inits green form-very _________ no allowance is given for discoloured beans
Once these attributes are not met we can export our product as Jamaica Blue Mountain.
During sorting machines are used to remove all debris, size the beans as stated above, remove doscoloured ones to the point where there may be only 5% or less, defective beans in any give sample.
We don’t stop there. Our product is then handed to several hundred ladies who have been with us for ages who tediously hand pick the beans to defect levels close to 0 percent.
Our aim is perfection and this is our motto everyday.
Roasting
Joshua our roastmaster has been at Jablum for over twenty years. He has been roasting batch after batch to meet the discriminating palates of our customers. Roasting is done in small batches with every batch being cup tested before and after roasting. The coffee is then packed and sold under the signature Jablum Label in Jamaica, throughout the States and all over the world.
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