QUALITY ASSURANCE
1. ORIGIN
The origin of our coffee plays an important role in our quality assurance. Hence it is extremely important for us to travel to the origin countries in order to establish personal contacts with producers, farmers and exporters, to cultivate them over the long term and to develop an understanding for each other.
In addition, we use the on-site visits to make sure that our quality standards are complied with, including the picking of the cherries, the sorting, processing and the drying methods.
Another essential part of our visits are the cuppings. We use them to calibrate ourselves with our partners and to give them an understanding of our ideas and above all those of our customers. The impressions on site also help us to better understand the countries, their structures and thus their logistics.
2. PURCHASE DECISION
In the next step, we receive a selection of samples from the origin that we
use to make our final purchase decision. Before the offer samples are shipped, they are evaluated in a first quality control by our partners in origin. As soon as the samples reach our sample room, all samples are cupped and rated on Cropster according to the SCA-Scoring. In doing so, we ensure that the cup profile meets our expectations and quality requirements. In the subsequent green grading the green coffee is evaluated in terms of bean size, moisture level and defects. The coffee bags also play an important role in our buying decision. It is important to us that our specialty coffee is either packed in GrainPro or Vacuum Packs and the material of the bags is of high quality.
After our final decision, the quality is checked one more time - just before shipment. Based on the pre-shipment samples, we decide whether the quality (bean size, cup profile, etc.) meets our expectations.
3. ARRIVAL
As soon as the coffee arrives in Hamburg, the container is visually and olfactorily checked by our storekeeper. When storing the bags, average samples are drawn and sent to us. We also check the arrival samples in the form of green gradings as well as cuppings. Here, too, all data is entered in Cropster and evaluated on the basis of the SCA-scoring. In this course, we also like to send customers and interested parties’ samples.
Even after the arrival of the coffees, the different qualities are cupped regularly in our sample room to make sure that the quality is given.
4. SHIPMENT
After the previous steps, we deliver the respective qualities to our customers. Regular client cuppings - at our sample room in Hamburg, but also among our customers or interested parties on site - allow us to present our portfolio, but even more importantly is to better understand the expectations of our customers or prospects and to consider them in the next purchase decision.
This is why feedback about our coffee is very important to us. Only in
this way we can ensure that our purchasing decisions are right and, if necessary, make suggestions to our producers. In order to make the feedback easier, we have provided all samples with QR-codes, which in turn link to Cropster and give the interested parties the possibility of a simple and clear feedback.