The secret of great coffee is no secret. Much of what you need to know can be found our label:

Our back label.

SHADE GROWN: CAFÉ BUENO PREMIUM SANTO DOMINGO is grown on steep hillsides in the deep shade of mature Cacao groves on small individually owned farms. These freeholds support several generations of growers who bring many decades of experience to the task of cultivating coffee the traditional way.

Esperanza Balbuena is in charge of sorting. She knows a bad bean when she sees one.

Growing methods have remained essentially unchanged since the 1720s when coffee was introduced to the New World by Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, who stole a seedling from The Jardin Royale in Paris and planted it on Martinique.

During the perilous 1725 voyage from France to Martinique, Matthew Di Clieu shared his rationed drinking water with the New World's first coffee plant.

100% COFFEA ARABICA: Of the 30 or more species of Coffea, only three are of any commercial importance: Arabica, Robusta and Liberica. The latter two are universally considered inferior, found only in cheap blends and instants.

BLENDED BOURBON & TYPICA: These are the traditional, hardy varieties of Coffea Arabica which on our farms require no fertilizers as they receive ample nutrition from the thick bed of compost formed by the leaf drop and prunings of the Cacao trees. We eschew herbicides and control pests organically. Agribusiness has developed coffee varieties that can be grown on level ground in direct sunlight. They are higher yielding and easily harvested by monster machines (thanks to chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and ripeners). But, should you taste a coffee that has a special nobility and a greater complexity, it will unerringly be a Bourbon or a Typica, grown the hard way.

NEW CROP: We roast only the most recent harvest. Unroasted beans can be kept around for years; few age very well.

Ready to pick. Typically, a coffee plant is visited five times during the harvest season, in order to pick only the ripest cherries.

HAND WASHED: After depulping the unhulled beans are soaked in tanks to segregate floaters and wash away mucilage. Very desirable fermentation occurs at this stage. Our beans are washed in collected rainwater rather than in mountain streams, eliminating a source of bean contamination and watercourse pollution. Beans can also be dry processed, which is easier and cheaper, but yields lower quality.

SUN DRIED: It takes fourteen suns before the washed beans are ready to be hulled and sorted. They are dried outdoors on hardwood platforms and concrete patios. To get to market quicker, some producers in other countries use wood-fired ovens to hasten drying, thus preventing varietal nuances from developing naturally, compromising flavor. This is not so great for the forests where the firewood is cut either.

ISO 16 + SCREEN: Bigger beans do not necessarily make better coffee, but for even roasting beans of approximately the same size are required.

ISO 33 10-2 #16 Screen

SCAA CLASS I SPECIALTY GRADE BEANS: The Specialty Coffee Association of America classifies five grades of coffee beans, depending upon taste, acidity, body, aroma, and the absence of defects and cup faults. Class I is the best.

SCAA Class 1 Specialty Grade Beans (Green).

DRUM ROASTED: This is the traditional way of applying high heat to a revolving drum containing the beans. The outcome is primarily dependent upon time, temperature, volume, density and moisture. Roasting is a respected profession in the Dominican Republic for it truly takes an artist. The men who roast our beans have been drum roasting coffee from our valley since 1946. After roasting, the beans are tumbled, winnowed and screened to remove roasting chaff and shake. There are more modern, push-button, hot air roasting techniques which have their advocates, but not where we live.

Drum Roasting circa 1910. In our valley, things have not changed too much.

38-42 AGTRON® - MODERATELY DARK: The degree to which beans are roasted is often expressed in roastspeak such as "Full City" (What city? How full?). We use an Agtron® near-infrared spectrophotometer reading to describe the roast. The Agtron® numbers tell with certainty the darkness of the roast, permitting repeatability and comparison. An Agtron® 38 - 42 is equivalent to "French, European, High Continental, or Italian."

Our Beans.