Julius Meinl Coffee

Where does Julius Meinl purchase its green coffee?
We blend our coffees traditionally from highland Arabica beans grown in the world’s leading coffee growing areas: Central and South America, East-Africa, Ethiopia, India, and Papua New Guinea. Our coffee buyers and tasters apply the highest standards of quality.

How does Julius Meinl produce its coffee?
On arrival at the roasting plant, the green coffees undergo a strict quality control. Our roasting and blending specialists in Vienna or Vicenza then apply their know-how and expertise. What makes Julius Meinl coffees special is the typical, medium dark, Viennese roast. After roasting the coffee beans we apply yet another quality control, electronically inspecting each individual bean, thousands of beans a minute. Thereafter the coffee is packed in airtight and sealed bags to ensure long lasting freshness. Continual tasting and testing of green and roasted coffees guarantee that only the best beans appear in your cup.

What does Julius Meinl offer you?

• Traditional know-how of Vienna’s Coffeehouse culture.
• Unchallenged coffee quality for your customers.
• Nearly 150 years of experience and expertise.
• Unsurpassed quality from our own production.
• Service with 100% satisfaction guarantee.
• Advice and support for customer retention and sales increase.
• Julius Meinl Coffee Academy – the Meinl Mohr is your coffee expert.

Processing green coffee at Julius Meinl

Success through quality.
Coffee is called green coffee until it is roasted. Green coffee is mostly packed in 60kg bags for shipping to various destinations. Each shipment is checked several times. If a sample contains more than 5% spoiled beans it is rejected and sent back. In the Julius Meinl roasting plant the green beans are cleaned again, weighed, and blended according to proprietary recipes.

How is coffee roasted?
We roast our coffees in Vienna, Austria or Vicenza, Italy by applying gas-fired heat. Some 800 aromatic compounds hide in each bean and are only released by applying heat. The duration and temperature of the roasting process are important for influencing the taste of the coffee. Roasting our premium coffees for the coffeehouse and restaurant trade takes roughly 16 minutes and is done in drum roasters. This process is five times longer than roasting coffee in fluid-bed roasters and better enhances the delicate aromas of high quality coffees. During roasting the coffee beans lose approximately 15-20% of their weight, but increase their volume by 30-100%.

How does the type of roast affect the bean?
The degree of roasting is important for the preparation of the coffee.
Light Roast: intense aroma, higher acidity, more body on the palate – for filter coffee
Medium Roast: brings out more of the bean subtleties, aromatic, caramelized, slightly less acidic – for typical Vienna coffee recipes
Dark Roast: harsh, more strongly caramelized, stronger and more intense taste – for espresso

Why is packaging so important for the quality of coffee?
Roasted coffee, bean or ground, is a very sensitive product. To protect the coffee from oxygen, odor, humidity, heat, and light Julius Meinl packs its coffee in air-tight foil immediately after roasting. Ground coffee is packed under vacuum, whole beans in bags with a one-way-valve enabling roast gases to escape without allowing air into the bags. Coffee should be stored in a cool and dry environment. An old saying states: “Coffee should only come into contact with heat three times – the first time on the farm, the second time during roasting and the third time when brewing.

Is Julius Meinl’s quality control really so precise?
Yes. Only the best quality ensures the extraordinary taste of Julius Meinl coffee. First of all a unique electronic sorting system checks each individual roasted coffee bean for quality. If a bean is too dark, too light, or damaged it is removed. The best quality control is continuous checking of green beans and tasting (cupping) the roasted product. Each coffee is first tasted as a single origin product. It is then blended and the finished blend is tasted again. Only after the second tasting is the coffee released for production. Julius Meinl has been doing this since 1862. You can taste the difference in every cup of Meinl coffee.