Selva Negra Coffee Estate - Quality Control

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Quality is an interesting concept in any industry since it depends on the standards that are being set by the individual company for the product or service they provide. When this product is a commodity, these standards are greatly affected by environmental issues beyond the control of the company. How can we at Selva Negra guarantee you that our quality is a standard above and beyond what you will receive from most other coffee estates.

How can we make such a bold guarantee? Because we are dedicated to what we do, and we live in the estate, with our back door facing the mill, which provides us with maximum exposure to everyday details. We take daily trips through the plantation reviewing all the work, and we work with employees who respect Selva Negra and love the land where they work. But above all, we ensure the quality of our coffee, by inviting you as consumer, retailer, roaster or importer to visit the estate, to see first hand what we do and how we do it. We pride ourselves with our customer satisfaction in not only the coffee that is exported but in the maintenance and quality of the estate where the coffee comes from, which guarantees continous quality for that coffee.

Above all this, we have significant quality checkpoints throughout the coffee cycle where the quality of the process and the coffee is checked. Some of these checkpoints are:

During the harvest - the hand selection of only the ripe cherries from the coffee trees. The immense labor requirement to hand pick the coffee is an excellent quality assurance in ensuring that only the beans that are ready are picked. This prevents the ripe cherries from getting processed with unripened and more bitter cherries and therefore jeapordize the flavor of the cup.

During the washing process - an interesting quality opportunity arises, the weight of the beans is tested by how quickly they sink into the channel after the waterfall. The beans with the greatest densities (higher quality beans) sink to the bottom and allow the "floaters" to float along the top and be captured at the end of the channel. These floaters are then dried is separate racks and maintained separate from the "A" quality beans to be sold as a separate category of beans.
Once all the floaters have passed, the "A" quality beans are passed trough and arranged on the drying racks. (Please review the coffee cycle to better understand this step of the process)

While the beans are being pre-dryed in the drying racks - Employees walk up and down the rows of racks and move the beans around occasionally to help aerate them. This opens up another opportunity for improving the quality of the beans. While the employees are moving along the racks, they remove rocks, sticks, or any beans that might have been broken, or insect bitten.

During the grading process - During this process, beans are disqualified from the A quality export beans by three different methods: by weight, by size and by manual seperation / inspection.

Ready for export - Once the container is loaded up, it is locked and sent to the port. This lock will not be opened until the container arrives at its destination.

There are numerous other steps and quality control checkpoints performed, but if we were to list them all, it would be too cumbersome. Instead, we invite you to visit us and take a look for yourself the fascinating activities at Selva Negra.

Selva Negra Coffee Estate
KM 140 Carretera a Jinotega Matagalpa, Nicaragua 011-505-2772-3883

info@selvanegra.com

	Quality is an interesting concept in any industry since it depends on the standards that are being set by the individual company for the product or service they provide. When this product is a commodity, these standards are greatly affected by environmental issues beyond the control of the company. How can we at Selva Negra guarantee you that our quality is a standard above and beyond what you will receive from most other coffee estates.
	How can we make such a bold guarantee? Because we are dedicated to what we do, and we live in the estate, with our back door facing the mill, which provides us with maximum exposure to everyday details. We take daily trips through the plantation reviewing all the work, and we work with employees who respect Selva Negra and love the land where they work. But above all, we ensure the quality of our coffee, by inviting you as consumer, retailer, roaster or importer to visit the estate, to see first hand what we do and how we do it. We pride ourselves with our customer satisfaction in not only the coffee that is exported but in the maintenance and quality of the estate where the coffee comes from, which guarantees continous quality for that coffee.

	Above all this, we have significant quality checkpoints throughout the coffee cycle where the quality of the process and the coffee is checked. Some of these checkpoints are:
	During the harvest - the hand selection of only the ripe cherries from the coffee trees. The immense labor requirement to hand pick the coffee is an excellent quality assurance in ensuring that only the beans that are ready are picked. This prevents the ripe cherries from getting processed with unripened and more bitter cherries and therefore jeapordize the flavor of the cup. During the washing process - an interesting quality opportunity arises, the weight of the beans is tested by how quickly they sink into the channel after the waterfall. The beans with the greatest densities (higher quality beans) sink to the bottom and allow the "floaters" to float along the top and be captured at the end of the channel. These floaters are then dried is separate racks and maintained separate from the "A" quality beans to be sold as a separate category of beans. Once all the floaters have passed, the "A" quality beans are passed trough and arranged on the drying racks. (Please review the coffee cycle to better understand this step of the process) While the beans are being pre-dryed in the drying racks - Employees walk up and down the rows of racks and move the beans around occasionally to help aerate them. This opens up another opportunity for improving the quality of the beans. While the employees are moving along the racks, they remove rocks, sticks, or any beans that might have been broken, or insect bitten. During the grading process - During this process, beans are disqualified from the A quality export beans by three different methods: by weight, by size and by manual seperation / inspection. Ready for export - Once the container is loaded up, it is locked and sent to the port. This lock will not be opened until the container arrives at its destination.
	There are numerous other steps and quality control checkpoints performed, but if we were to list them all, it would be too cumbersome. Instead, we invite you to visit us and take a look for yourself the fascinating activities at Selva Negra.