About Jimmy Zee's Coffee

Jimmy Zee's only uses the best specialty grade Colombian coffee beans. The specialty grade Colombian coffee comes from regions such as Huila, Medellin, Antioquia, and Popayan.

The story of Colombian Coffee begins in the nursery, where thousands of carefully selected beans are planted. The beans are sown close together and covered with rich, fertile soil. After about eight weeks, the seeds germinate and roots develop. The healthiest plants are selected and transplanted in the nursery and carefully nurtured for six months. When the seedlings grow to about two feet in height, they are transplanted to the plantation where they are carefully cultivated.

It takes an average coffee tree approximately three to four years to grow to full size and to blossom. The first fruit appears about six months later. Coffee trees are unique; they bear ripened fruits and flowers at the same time. Each coffee tree produces one pound (455 grams) of coffee annually. When the coffee beans are a rich, red color, they are ready for harvesting. Only then are the berries picked individually.

Unlike beans from other origins, all Colombian coffee is "washed" coffee, which gives Colombian Coffee its rich taste and aroma. When the washing is over the beans must be dried. They are scooped up and put into large straw baskets. They are then spread out on great open-air terraces, where they are turned again and again until the wind and sun have dried them completely.

The beans are then brought to the mill where the parchment husk and skin that surrounds each bean is removed. The beans pass through different screening processes, where they are freed from impurities and sorted by size, weight and shape. Now the rich, olive-green beans are ready to be poured into bags and are sealed for export.