It’s The Little Things…Everything You Want To Know About The Difference Of Lifeboost Coffee
Do the details really matter?
Is greatness something that actually hinges upon the seemingly minute aspects of a process, of a product, of anything really?
Some of the greatest minds certainly think so…
Considered to be one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, John Wooden once said, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, once explained, “Details matter. It’s worth waiting to get it right.”
Leonardo Da Vinci, a man who likely needs no introduction, once described his painting, rather his process, in this manner, “Details make perfection...”
And, while you might not think basketball, technology, and painting have much to do with growing, processing, roasting, and delivering you a truly great cup of coffee, like these talented individuals, we too have found this to be abundantly true: the details make all the difference!
You see, like Da Vinci, what we’ve discovered, as we create our own work of art in each Lifeboost bag of coffee, is the attention to detail in each step, the careful extra mile, the art in the making, is what truly adds beauty to our final product, a beauty we can attest is evidenced in each sip!
So, brew a cup of your favorite Lifeboost selection (I’m having a cold brewed glass of our light roast with a splash of heavy cream, and a dusting of cinnamon.), then sit down in your favorite chair, and happily sip as you join us on a journey…a journey exploring the little things that make your Lifeboost cup of coffee clean, healthy, and delicious, sip after sip.
The Details Of Growing Lifeboost Coffee
The first leg of our journey takes us to the lush, green rainforest mountains of Nicaragua.
Here in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, near the border of Honduras, at some of the highest elevations in the region, Lifeboost coffee is grown between 2000-5700 feet above sea level.
Our farmers recognize the difficulties brought on by the terrain of the land at these altitudes, but as they too enjoy the same delicious coffee that you sip each day, they know all too well the importance and benefit of this detail when growing their coffee plants at such heights.
Here, at such elevations, a cloud forest creates a canopy of moisture. This canopy makes the air cool and the oxygen content low, forcing the coffee plants to grow at a slower rate.
And, this slow growth, another important detail, creates a sweeter, more dense coffee cherry.
Then, though we’re exploring the little things that make Lifeboost so special, this next part of our growing process, we must say, is something rather big.
Instead of deforesting large areas to mass produce our coffee, our farmers work on small plantations without the use of a single chemical. That’s right, no insecticides, no herbicides, no fungicides, and no fertilizers.
Our farmers don’t need to use these harmful chemicals because growing coffee at these elevations brings natural benefits to the process:
- Molds and other mycotoxins aren’t able to easily colonize at high elevations, bringing a natural front line of defense for our coffee plants.
- Rainwater easily drains away from the plants on the mountain, also keeping the plants dry enough to prevent mold and fungus growth.
- Aside from elevation, the native plants and animals in the region live in harmony with our coffee plants, providing natural pest protection, gentle shade, and an abundance of nutrients to the soil.
Combine these benefits with the slow growth of our coffee cherries, and you’ve got a tastier, healthier (nutrient-dense) coffee bean, all benefited from little/big details like location, habitat, and knowledgeable coffee farmers.
But, growing specifics alone won’t bring you a great cup of coffee.
Lifeboost coffee farmers monitor the growing process carefully, and their knowledgeable, watchful eyes look for some specific, important details when it comes to harvesting.
Mechanical harvesting, a process incorporated on some mass-production coffee farms, isn’t selective. And, when you’re dealing with coffee cherries, selection is of utmost importance.
That’s why our farmers carefully select coffee cherries to be harvested by hand over the course of many pickings.
Their watchful eyes looking for ripeness in color, a deep yellow or red, depending on the variety, and their hands closely examining texture, a smooth, firm feel between their fingertips.
The overripe cherries and those with defects are discarded. And, those still possessing a bit of green remain on the plant to continue growing. Only the finest cherries make it to the next step in the process.
The Details Of Processing Lifeboost Coffee
If the freshly picked fruit was set aside, this would allow for molds to develop and the cherries would degrade.
So, as soon as each round of harvested cherries are collected, they are taken to a washing station where they are once again sorted. Here, any damaged, underripe, or overripe cherries are removed.
Then, the next detail in making you a truly great cup of coffee lies in the washing of the cherries, where we use pure spring water to wash them with the mucilage, or the inner layer of the coffee cherry, completely intact.
Once fully washed, the skin, pulp, and mucilage are removed through both washing and fermentation, which results in a smooth, clean bean.
Next, the washed coffee dries on raised beds, naturally, in the sunlight.
Some of our coffee is even dried on beds with retractable roofs, ensuring the drying process can even continue on wet, cloudy days.
And, because inspection is a needed, repeated, detail in our process, once dried the beans are again searched, as careful eyes inspect, detect, and remove any subpar beans.
At this point, the coffee beans are raw, smooth, green, and in most cases, ready to be roasted.
But, like Da Vinci, we see the value in that careful extra mile.
And, this is why we incorporate another, extra, detailed step in our process of making a truly great cup of coffee.
Lifeboost Coffee Goes The Extra Mile, Testing Each Bean
Even with precise, perfected, and pristine washing and drying methods…
Coffee is still considered a delicate commodity, as it’s prone to contain harmful mycotoxins.
In other words, despite being grown at high elevations amidst native flora and fauna, without the use of fertilizers and pesticides, molds and mycotoxins are always something we feel need to be tested for, to fully ensure nothing detrimental to our health could possibly be present in our coffee.
This is why our roasts are certified organic. And, this is why you’ll never receive a bag of Lifeboost coffee that hasn’t been third party tested for mycotoxins, molds, heavy metals, pesticides, and more than 400 other toxins.
Why?
Simply put, because we care about your health. And, this means we want to know that you’re drinking, we’re drinking, the cleanest coffee we can find!
The Swiss Water Method For Decaffeination
With health in mind, we also care about the little things, the details, when it comes to decaffeinating our coffee.
Some methods of decaffeination incorporate the use of harmful chemicals to remove caffeine from coffee.
Other methods sometimes omit the chemicals, but these also tend to sacrifice flavor.
And, this is why we use the Swiss Water Method for our decaffeinated selections.
Just to give you a quick glimpse into the details here:
- The Swiss Water Method of decaffeination involves soaking green coffee beans in hot water to remove 99% of the caffeine, more than any other method.
- Then, the caffeine-charged hot water is separated from the coffee beans where it runs through a charcoal filter, used to trap the caffeine molecules.
- At this point in the process, the caffeine is removed from the water solution and only a flavorless (caffeine-free) extract remains.
- Then, a new batch of green coffee beans (fully caffeinated) is soaked in this caffeine-free green coffee extract. And here, as the caffeinated coffee beans and the caffeine-free extract seek equilibrium, the caffeine from the beans migrates to the liquid, rendering the coffee beans caffeine-less, without the use of a chemical solvent.
- With this method, the decaffeination goal is achieved, and the beans retain their flavor compounds and oils.
The Final Details: Roasting And Delivering Lifeboost Coffee
But, while we tip our hats to their delivering services, here we want you to know what happens in the details of the ordering process, namely this:
Every bag of Lifeboost coffee you receive is roasted to perfection only upon ordering!
From our lightest roast (light roast) to our darkest roast (midnight roast) and everything in between (medium, dark, and espresso), we don’t roast any of our coffee until you place your order.
Our roasters have fine-tuned and perfected their methods to bring you quality, delicious coffee each and every time, but this can’t happen until you place your order.
Why?
Because we want you to enjoy the freshest coffee possible.
Sure, it may take just a little bit longer than roasting in mass amounts, leaving it on a shelf, and sending it out as soon as you select the “place order” button on your computer screen.
But, wouldn’t that be wholly unfitting after you’ve learned as you’ve taken this journey with us today?
If we give attention to detail, caring about the little things all throughout our process, why wouldn’t we continue this in our roasting process?
So, when you carefully select your order, only then is your green coffee that’s tested and certified to be free of molds, mycotoxins, pesticides, heavy metals, and more, then slowly roasted to perfection, packaged, and delivered to your doorstep.
And now, in case we’ve missed anything on our journey today, from farm to cup, here’s a few extra details:
- Did you notice we didn’t take any detours in our journey? That’s because we only use single origin, specialty, Arabica coffee beans.
- When you drink Lifeboost, you don’t have to worry about the beans in your bag of coffee being blended or coming from a variety of places/sources. No, all Lifeboost coffee is single origin, and it’s never blended with subpar varieties (a practice often incorporated in the industry to cut costs).
- All of our coffee is low acid. That’s right, the variety of coffee we grow, combined with the elevation, and slow maturity, yields a coffee almost as alkaline as water!
- And, if you’re curious about, or are already a fan of, our flavored selections, rest assured the importance of minute details take center stage here as well.
- A lot of flavored coffees are made with the use of synthetic flavor chemicals. But, not at Lifeboost! Here, all of our flavored selections are made with organic, natural oils. Remember those real, authentic flavorings and extracts grandma used in the kitchen to bake delicious pies, cakes, cookies, and candies? These exact types of natural, organic oils and extracts are what we use as well when flavoring our coffee.
Ways To Save
So, we’ve included the following link which provides detailed, step-by-step, how-to process showing exactly how you can subscribe to Lifeboost and reap loyalty rewards as a subscriber.
It is true that going the extra mile, giving attention to detail in each and every step of our process of bringing you organic, truly clean, pure, quality, delicious coffee does come at a price.
But, that’s why we love offering you these subscription opportunities and rewards!
Our loyalty program rewards you with free coffee perks for every dollar you spend.
And, with a subscription not only can you modify how often you receive coffee, you can regularly modify which selections you’d like to include in your subscription, and you’ll save big time!
With a three bag subscription, you can save 37% on each bag of coffee.
With a six bag subscription, you’ll save even more…a whopping 42%, meaning you’ll barely pay more than $20 for the cleanest, healthiest coffee on the planet, enjoying the attention to detail in each and every sip!
Check out Lifeboost Coffee Medium roast.
References:
- https://attentiontodetail.com/2018/09/19/9-great-attention-to-detail-quotes/
- https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/coffee4.htm
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282595242_Chapter_25_Mycotoxins_in_Coffee
- https://naturalforce.com/blogs/nutrition/what-is-swiss-water-decaf
- https://perfectdailygrind.com/2019/02/what-is-a-coffee-bean-the-anatomy-of-the-coffee-cherry/#:~:text=Mucilage%20is%20the%20inner%20layer,we%20know%20better%20as%20beans.
- https://www.ptscoffee.com/blogs/news/coffee-processing-an-introduction#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20coffee%20we,ferment%20for%2018-24%20hours.
- https://coffeeofthenorth.org/all-about-coffee-cherry-what-does-its-taste-like/