The story of our coffee begins in the mountains of Colombia. First the seeds are planted in the mountains just below the banana trees, which offers shade to the coffee plant and thus makes the coffee taste better.

One aspect of Colombian coffee that makes it so unique is the country's high quality control

standards. It starts in the farm where the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia sends an appointed official to inspect each farm for sanitary conditions, healthy trees and the quality of each harvest.

Once the coffee plants are ready to be harvested, the farmers bring them by truck to our factory in Jamundi, Colombia. This is where all Don Humberto & Gringo's Coffee comes from.

Don Humberto rented the factory from his brother in Jamundi, Colombia. Don Humberto's brother lives in the apartment above our factory.

Gringo and Don Humberto went to visit Juan Valdez, the Colombian coffee icon at the Colombian Coffee Park. This is where all Colombians go to learn about coffee.

The coffee beans grow on trees in berries. Two 'married' beans come from one berry, and when they are taken out of their shell and separated they are 'breaking up.'

Local farmers bring in their bags of coffee for inspection. The farmers are always paid the market price for coffee everyday. Farmers come to us because

they know they are getting a fair price for their coffee.

Don Humberto pokes a hole in the bag and takes a sample of

the seeds for testing. He will test the beans for aroma, color, size, moisteure and texture. We only put our label on the highest quality beans.

In our lab, a machine takes the shell off the coffee before it is roasted.

Then we inspect every bean individually and separate the bad beans from the good ones.

After the coffee is taken out of it's shell, and before it is roasted, it is called 'green coffee.'

Next we put the beans through a machine to separate the big beans from the small ones. We only use the big beans for our coffee.

When roasting the coffee, we take out a sample to check the color. This is how we know when the coffee is ready.

After the coffee is roasted it is a rich brown color.

The coffee varieties are distinguished by how long they are roasted; 'smooth' is

taken out first and is the lightest in color, then 'originial.' 'Hardcore' is

roasted the longest, making it the darkest.

Next we separate out the beans and bag them so they are ready to be brought to the Port of Elizabeth, New Jersey.