Myanmar Whole Bean

The 700ha Estate has been within the Maing family since 1998 and they first planted coffee in 1999 and is one of the largest plantations in Myanmar. U Sai Wan Maing who runs the Estate is one of the few 20 Q graders in Myanmar, remembers as a child passing coffee farms when visiting family with his parents as they traveled the road from Yangon to Northern Shan. For Sai Wan Maing quality has always been at the forefront of what he is trying to achieve and as well as having achieved the CQI Level 2 processing course this year he has previously also been named as an Outstanding Coffee Grower by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2003. For Sai, it is also important to help the smallholder farmers around the estate with education and knowledge he can share to help them improve their quality. The coffee on the Estate is grown under shade and is inter-cropped with silver oak and
macadamia trees to provide shade. The estate is always experimenting with fertilization, irrigation, and the distance trees and shade trees are planted.

The harvest starts in Mid - December and runs through until April where the coffee is hand-picked and this lot is made up of only the variety SL24. The coffee is then pulped and fermented in tiled tanks without water hand covered for approximately 12 – 18 hours (temperature depending.) It is then washed with immature beans and defect initially separated. The coffee is then transferred to drying patios where it is then dried for 7 – 10 days weather depending. The coffee is milled on the plantation but then delivered to the Mandalay Coffee Group where it is then put through density tables and color sorters ready for export.