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Preserving the quality of the green coffee beans prior to roasting is essential for illycaffè. More than any other agricultural product, coffee undergoes a continual series of quality control tests to yield the best possible final product.
After purchase, the illy-branded 60 kilogram jute bags of coffee are shipped to the roasting facility warehouses in Trieste, Italy as quickly as possible. During shipping, many precautions are taken to ensure that it reaches Trieste in peak condition. For example, the bags are placed in their shipping containers in a way that maximizes air circulation to minimize any risk of mold, condensation or unwanted odors, rather than in a way that maximizes the number of bags per container.
Upon reaching the roasting plant, further quality control tests are performed by an automated system and sophisticated machinery: robots pick up the bags, count them and place them on the conveyor belt.
Once the beans have been removed from the bags, they are placed on a vibrating screen which separates any remaining foreign objects. An aspirator removes the smaller, lighter impurities and a magnet removes any metal. At this point, the green coffee is stored in silos.
The last selection is conducted by six sophisticated bi-chromatic systems which electronically “photograph” each bean, detecting and eliminating any which do not meet strict color standards—an indication that the bean is not fully ripe, or is a “stinker”, a fermented bean that can ruin a whole batch With this technology, each and every raw bean is inspected at a speed no human hand could match, and with precision beyond even the most highly trained human eye. illycaffè believes that this level of inspection is essential for natural coffees in particular and it is just one of many methodologies used exclusively by illy to approach its goal of “zero defects”. Why does illycaffè go to such lengths? Because a single imperfect bean among the 50 in a cup is enough to spoil an espresso.