Growing Coffee

After roasting our coffee, employees at European Roasterie carefully package and seal our coffee.

Our coffee is shipped from Honduras to Miami on a large freight ship with the help of a cousin of Guillermo. It is then delivered by truck to our roaster, European Roasterie in LeCenter, Minnesota where it is stored and then carefully roasted on a monthly basis according to our specific requests.

Red coffee berries ready to be picked. The natural sugars in the coffee fruit are what give the coffee beans inside their wonderful flavor.

Throughout the fall, the berries start to turn red. Depending on the altitude and location of the coffee farm, coffee is usually picked 2 or 3 times, to ensure only the ripe coffee berries are picked. In Rio Negro, coffee is usually harvested from November through February.

In May and June, the white flowers turn into small green coffee berries.

Coffee plants take 3 years to grow to full production. In early spring, the bushes are full of sweet smelling white flowers.

Coffee seeds are first planted in small beds or nurseries. Most farmers use black plastic bags to hold the seedlings. Abilio uses a technique that eliminates the use of this wasteful plastic by simply planting the coffee into well packed beds of soil and then cutting out blocks of soil with the coffee seedling which are then planted in their final location.

Our coffee is grown under the canopy of the forest. This provides important habitat for birds, reduces erosion and the cooler temperatures create a better tasting coffee berry too.