Capsule for capsule, K-fee offers you a fascinating taste experience. We use only carefully selected raw beans from the world's best coffee growing regions for our coffee specialities. However, where exactly are those regions and how is coffee actually farmed? To answer these questions, we would like to take you on a journey along the "Bean Belt". Your next coffee from your K-fee capsule machine is bound to taste even better on your return!
THE BEAN BELT
If you've never heard of the "Bean Belt" before, it's a term used to describe the very special regions that lie 30 degrees north and south along the equator. They offer precisely the perfect conditions for growing coffee. Besides well-known coffee producing nations such as Brazil, Ethiopia or Vietnam, the Bean Belt also includes exotic countries such as Jamaica, Madagascar or Papua New Guinea. World-wide, around 70 countries lie in the Bean Belt, where the two economically relevant varieties Arabica and Robusta are farmed.
However, besides the right geographic location, coffee plants also need a moderate climate without temperature extremes and plenty of rainfall, and the right soil conditions to flourish.
A LOT OF WORK UNTIL THE HARVEST
On average, four years pass before a coffee plant bears its red fruit with the pits that we refer to as coffee beans for the first time and therefore before the first harvest – a very long time during which the coffee farmer has to invest a lot of his time into ensuring that the coffee plant grows perfectly.
Growing and farming coffee plants calls for a lot of manual work, patience and meticulousness. At the beginning, the seeds are grown in special beds. After a few weeks, the seedlings are then transplanted into specially prepared single containers. After they have been carefully tended for around eight months, they can then be planted in the ground on a plantation.
Over time, the coffee plant grows rapidly. Particular varieties would even grow to around 8–10 metres high if left unpruned. However, the plants are constantly pruned to keep their size down to 1.5 to 2 metres, which on the one hand has a positive effect on the yield and on the other also makes the harvest easier for the pickers. After around four years, the time has come at last: the coffee plant finally bears its juicy, red cherries, and they can be harvested, along with their pits, the coffee beans, for the first time.
MORE THAN 1000 DIFFERENT AROMAS
Similar to wine, the way coffee tastes can also differ widely, depending on where and how it was grown. Studies prove that coffee beans even contain more than 1000 different aromas – from fruity, flowery nuances to nutty-chocolaty touches. These high quality, complex raw coffee beans offer our roasters at K-fee the perfect basis for bringing the right coffee for each taste into the capsule.