How it all started
Welcome! “Life is too short for bad coffee” Would you agree?
We certainly think so, with Siam Hills Coffee, it is all about the bean and nothing but the bean. Our premium coffee always starts with our premium beans, of course.
Would you like to learn more about the entire journey and process of our beloved coffee beans until your own cup of coffee?
If yes, awesome! Feel free to continue reading about our coffee journey.
OUR HOME
For us and many others, coffee is a luxury. And therefore, it should also be treated as such. In order to guarantee the best possible outcome for a high-standard premium coffee, every step we share with you is crucial.
Every well planned journey or process needs the right beginning. For our coffee journey, this beginning is OUR HOME – OUR COFFEE FARMS, set between lush green mountain ranges in Northern Thailand. You are more than welcome to hopefully visit us one day.
Our well-experienced and trained farmers carefully hand-pick our shade-grown coffee beans.
We only select the ripe coffee berries for a great coffee for all of us to enjoy.
Did you know? In order to get one kilogram of green coffee, you would need five to seven kilos of coffee berries, first. On average, each coffee tree is carrying about one kilo of coffee berries. So, in total you would need up to seven trees to hand-pick for an entire kilo of green coffee beans.
As you can imagine, a lot of people will have to work in a team for our favorite fresh cup of coffee we all like to enjoy each morning.
For us and out of these circumstances, it is a natural thought process to let our co-workers become active partners in our business model and approach. We rise by lifting others.
Our goal is to make everyone, who is involved ob our coffee journey also receive the appreciation in an equal way.
Fair Trade and Organic are not only two magic words for us. We are constantly motivated by the ideas behind and keep pushing us further to eventually realize our visions every day.
OUR HARVEST – PICKING OUR COFFEE BEANS
Have you ever visited a coffee farm maybe? The harvesting of coffee beans can be considered a form of art in itself. Moreover, many people compare to harvesting grapes.
By hand we only pick really ripe berries with a rich red color. If we are not careful enough and also pick green berries or even only slightly damaged berries, the quality of the aroma in your very own cup of coffee would be lower already.
Overripe berries with black spots on it can make our coffee taste foul already.
As you can see, a lot of experience is needed to recognize the exact optimum degree of ripeness of every single berry. We fully trust our farmers. Additionally, all team members will help and support them the best we can. We put special focus on detailed information for outside factors like the respective climate and precipitation around our farms.
We believe, that with the right passion, everyone will be able to learn and can improve. So to speak, they can explore their own individual coffee journey themselves the same time. The care we show is always worth wile, it is the best base of our rich and full-bodied flavor in our coffee.
OUR FARMS
To be honest, our real work and coffee journey starts after the harvest and our careful hand-picking of the best cherry beans from our coffee trees.
To make it short, it all starts with Pulping. Furthermore, Wet Processing, Drying, Careful Selection of Beans will follow. Our regular Quality Inspections and the eventual Packaging and all of its logistics around it will give the final touch.
During our harvest, we are preparing our coffee beans by using the wet method. For this, we are placing our berries in water tanks. As a result, it allows the pulp of the fruit to swell. They are then pulped, fermented, washed multiple times and dried for eight to ten days.
As you can imagine, this is quite some work. But it also gives our washed coffee a very particular high quality due to its nuanced and distinctive flavors through the process.
QUALITY ALL THE WAY
Just about every step from the berry to green coffee is decisive to its taste.
For you to have the best taste, we allow our coffees to ferment in the water tanks after pulping, for instance. The fermenting process runs at a slower and more controlled pace, which results in a more nuanced aroma, fortunately.
Our next step on our coffee journey is to wash the beans multiple times.
During this stage, we are also able to sort out so-called ‘floaters’, beans without seeds or with only underdeveloped seeds.
Afterward, the remaining parchment coffee is dried naturally, because this ensures a better end quality once again.
At this stage, you can already see and taste the difference to mechanical drying. We are more patient and give our beans the time to fully develop they need.
We prefer the natural way and lay our beans on flat drying beds in the sun for up to ten days. Here, we regularly turn and cover them during the hot midday sun as well as during nights. We will continue until they achieve the optimal residual moisture of 11,5%.
After one more peeling and polishing, we select our beans again carefully by hand in order to sort out any broken beans of foreign bodies, for example.
OUR ROASTING
Maybe you agree with us, but we are definitely not big fans of ‘shock industrial roasting’.
We prefer to work with small batch roasters for a gentle refining of our beans at just under 200 degrees of Celsius for about 11 minutes.
Only through this process, our beans can truly develop their complex flavor. A great side effect is that over the course of this time-intensive process, fruit acids (chlorogenic acids) that are generally hard on the stomach break down the same time.
We are happy that only finely nuanced acids remain in our beans throughout our coffee journey and give our coffee its full and natural smooth flavor.
Our highly appreciated and very experienced roast masters always decide precisely how long the roasting processes will eventually have to last. They constantly take samples. Likewise, they will examine the colors, appearances and scent. Eventually, they are able to precisely determine the ideal time thanks to their many years of expertise experience.
Did you know, that extending of shortening the roasting period by just a few seconds can already give rise to completely different bouquets from very same green coffee?
These kinds of details are really fascinating to us and show how important the role of our roast masters is.
OUR ROASTERS
We mainly use specially European designed roasters with small batches for all of our coffee.
Let’s maybe not get too much into detail, but our roasters combine drum and convection technologies. This creates dark, rich coffees with no bean tipping or scorching. These specifically custom perforated drums recirculate heat to precisely manage airflow and evenly roast the beans.
Are you still with us? 😉
Okay, great! Let’s continue.
Additionally, heat recirculation reduces energy and helps produce cleaner emissions for our neighbors and environment.
Thanks to our kinder, gentler roasting, we protect the quality of our beans with a proprietary cooling process. Most importantly, this will quickly and evenly cool our beans with minimal air exposure for optimal freshness. This is quite remarkable, at least in our opinion. J
OUR ART OF ROASTING
As you learned by now already, we prefer to slow roast our special beans in small batches. This ensures the best possible flavor and freshness.
Our loyal customers wouldn’t have it any other way.
We have found out that people, who sincerely appreciate a great cup of coffee, which is rich, aromatic and eye-opening, these people can taste the difference between our fresh, properly roasted beans, and others that are roasted by the metric ton and sold by huge corporations.
That’s maybe the good thing, to not produce and serve for mass production and consumption. But rather to stay in our own little cozy niche and just trying to make the best out of it on a daily basis. This way, we can have more control and make sure that our coffee journey does not alter in any non-favored direction.
We love to roast in multiple small batch coffee roasters. It is a remarkable process that is half art and half science. At least, in our very own humble opinion and approach towards our work.
We artisan roast by sight, smell, and sound to assure that the natural sugars in the bean caramelize in just the right way. This brings out their optimum flavor. Additionally, we also use sophisticated computerized roasting profile systems. We are able to continuously monitor and ensure the quality and consistency for all our different roasts.
After all of the roasting, everything and everyone has to cool down a bit again, especially our coffee beans. This has to happen rather quickly in order to stop the roasting from continuing inside the beans and keep its desired rich and fresh flavors.
OUR BEANS’ LAST JOURNEY TO YOUR DOORSTEP
After so much talking and explaining, it is time that our little precious coffee bags finally reach your very own doorstep. So, you can fully enjoy our coffee together with us.
This maybe marks the end of our own coffee journey and the beginning of yours with Siam Hills Coffee.
The entire process of harvesting, roasting and alternatively grinding lays behind us. Our beans are ready to be packaged with our modern, high standard packaging machinery. We mostly import and purchase our machinery from Japan, Taiwan and Germany.
Needless to say that we are especially proud of our very own Drip Coffee Bag packaging machine. It allows us to set our own high standards in fulfilling our high expectations and desired goals.
This gives us full control and the opportunity to guarantee to proudly offer only high premium coffee from high premium coffee beans directly from our local farmers to your very own cup of coffee.
Since we have many loyal customers from all around the world and our consumer numbers are steadily growing, there is no place on earth we would not proudly send our coffee to.
There are many great reasons to enjoy a cup of coffee every day. This article will share a few with you.
Some even claim that coffee can make you live longer.
We appreciate everyone being part of our coffee journey, including you. Thank you.
If you would like to learn more about us, please explore our ABOUT US page or even better, visit our INNOVATIONS page.
What is your favorite flavor and how do you like to drink your coffee the most?
And what is your own most memorable coffee experience?