Yesterday I had the great honor to have a personalized tour of the Swiss Water plant. After checking out Roscanini and 49th Parallel roasters in the Vancouver area in the morning, I was already stoked about the high quality of coffee (decaf even) that folks in the area seem to demand. It's no wonder that Swiss Water chose to locate their North American headquarters in this beautiful city -- and conveniently right next to the elevated train-line, the SkyTrain. (They like to boast they are the only decaffeination plant with their own SkyTrain station!)
Barry Close, VP Operations and Andrea Piccolo, Marketing, were wonderful hosts. We started in the lab and Mike Strumpf's office space. Barry began the tour explaining Swiss Water's "conversion to full commitment to quality" back in 2007 - almost 10 years ago. Barry was hired that year (from the paper industry) to bring his lean management knowledge and implement "21st century" process control and waste elimination methods. I saw many signs that they have implemented very well.
After the tour I was treated to a cupping in the lab with the famous Mike Strumpf! It was a mock-evaluation, like the ones they do after every production run at SWDCC. They cup the decaffeinated coffee vs. the "pre-decaf" and evaluate the "damage-done" so-to-speak. The data collected from these sessions is used by Barry to continuously tweak and improve the processes, to minimize the damage.
As impressive as the plant tour and cupping lab experiences were, I think Andrea saved the best for last, because "last" was the marketing presentation. Sitting in a conference room is not exciting, but the depth of information Swiss Water has on their customer base is awesome. They are connecting customer (consumer and roaster) demand to technology needs, and process requirements in their plant. Barry demonstrated how they are using his chemistry and process knowledge on a microscopic level to improve the quality of finished decaf beans.
Thank you, Swiss Water, for such an enjoyable and educational tour!
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| Burnaby, BC visitor! |
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| Barry Close, VP Operations & Andrea Piccolo, Marketing - six barrel sample roaster in background. |
Photos from the plant tour:
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| Great care is taken to monitor moisture levels. |
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| High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) - the machine that tests the level of caffeine. |
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| "Flight deck" for continuous quality monitoring and control throughout the plant. |
Photos from the cupping session:
Mike has the best map of Brazil I've seen. Swiss water knows where to find good coffee!
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