Our approach is anchored on 3 pillars:
Quality
We are committed to excellence in everything we do. To say that we are committed to quality is an understatement, but our philosophy has been when words fail us, we let our coffee speak!
As an artisan specialty coffee company, we are duty bound to painstakingly select lots that conform to specialty coffee standards and are 100% traceable. This is roasted to bring out the unique flavor notes and aromas of each coffee.
Authenticity & Transparency
We are honest and ethical to the core in setting out the prices of our coffee and in paying the hardworking farmers. We work in a very transparent manner, we don’t pay lip service instead we put money where our mouth is. We are constantly seeking to explore new ideas that include new coffee processing methods, new pricing models and hence we relish being at the tip of the spear, driven by a pioneering spirit that seeks to establish how much room there is out there for respectful, disruptive and thoughtful models to benefit the Kenya coffee farmers. We are very proud of the fact that our initiative together with our likeminded global partners and clients has seen some of the cooperative societies that we work with in Nyeri and Kirinyaga receive the highest pay each year which has seen improved living standards.
Sustainability
At Rockbern we know too well that we owe mother nature a great deal of debt, hence we are striving to be responsible rugrats in this universe. This has seen us garner courage to subject ourselves to rigorous certifications that include Rainforest.
OUR APPROACH TO FOOD SAFETY
We take your health and safety very seriously. We are constantly seeking to comply with the highest food safety management systems. Rockbern is FSSC22000 certified company. This demands that we have to be accountable for the process and ensure each and every bean that gets to your cup is safe for human consumption. This involves and not limited to regular pesticide residue tests to ensure that MRL (minimum residual tests) set by global health bodies are complied with.
OUR APPROACH TO BEAN SELECTION
Each coffee we buy and roast or buy and export has been taken through a rigorous cupping protocol. We have deliberately invested in a state of the art cupping room to ensure that we can monitor each and every parameter of the coffee from the mundane aspects like moisture levels to the most profound that include the water activity in the beans and caffeine content.
Whereas the main parameter considered is the quality score (the taste, acidity, body, aroma and cleanliness of the cup) we do also take into account the rarity of the specific lot and at times going for even nano lots that are offered as limited reserve editions to our specific subscribers.
OUR APPROACH TO ROASTING
Our approach and principles in coffee roasting can be equated to music, where we are limited to 12 notes and we are always fascinated to hear the different outcomes that music artists can create using 12 notes. In coffee we are trying to play around with limited ‘notes’; Body, Acidity, Aroma.
Our state of the art cupping room gives us the space to experiment with various coffee profiles and ‘play around to seek the most pleasing octave interval’ and strike harmony to create ‘an irresistible and enduring stream of melodies’ in your palate.
It’s important to realise that each coffee tells a unique story, that is dependent on the variety, growing conditions, processing and storage. Therefore it responds to different roast profiles in a very distinct way. There is no one size fits all rule in coffee roasting. Hence, the roasting style will be influenced by the coffee itself i.e. the origin, processing and variety vis a vis the notes the master roaster needs to accentuate to differentiate their flavors while avoiding as much as possible any ‘dissonance’ i.e. burnt traits
We have two roasting equipment, one caters for bulk roast orders and small batch Probat that caters for micro lot and nano lots. These two give us perfect control over crucial parameters like heat transfer and airflow.
Fresh coffee contains a lot of CO2 and if not properly handled carbon can build up after packaging resulting in smoky,bitter burnt flavors. Hence, all our coffee batch is allowed to rest (degas) after each roast and packed thereafter. For optimal results different coffee blends hit their highest note after some time e.g. espresso beans are at best 8 days from roast, for filter coffee is at best 4 days from date of roast.
The peak of our coffee when properly packed is at 3 weeks, however the coffee flavors remain optimal up to 8 months. Grind only what you need and keep the rest packed in the zip locked bag in a cool room temperature.
OUR APPROACH TO PACKAGING
We have decided to go for tin packaging for our limited reserve editions and the 100% recyclable Low density polyurethane bags for the rest of our coffee blends.
This approach has been taken with environment and food safety being at the core.
LDPE-4 ticks both the food safety box and it’s 100% recyclable.
For Green coffee, we have the option of using vacuum packing or jute bags. This involves a painstaking process where our food safety team ensures that all jute bags used throughout the supply chain are food grade and adhere to IJO/98 standards. That is the jute bags treated with vegetable oil and the supplier can provide and support food grade certificates of analysis and migration reports
