Sirocco has long been involved in direct fair-trading with growers in the producing countries. In this way we and our customers make a valuable contribution towards improving the living and working conditions of coffee planters and their families in the producing countries as well as encouraging environmental protection on the spot.

In our view, paying a fair price for first-class green coffee and cultivating long-standing personal partnerships is the only correct way to encourage sustainable economic practices and to secure existences. It is, of course, also a prerequisite if we are to achieve the desired first-class bean quality.

Sirocco is also committed locally to social projects in the producing countries. One of our Brasilian growers, for instance, runs a school on his plantation in Poços de Caldas (Minas Gerais region) together with a kindergarten, which has been made possible thanks, mainly, to higher green coffee prices. Among the somewhat older inhabitants of the village, an irrigated football pitch was met with the same enthusiastic response, as you might expect in Brasil.

And since Sirocco works exclusively in the specialty section of the market, we support the initiatives of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), which defines and fosters the quality of gourmet coffee while complying with ethical and sustainable principles all the way down the valued-added chain.

Over a period of several years we developed a unique roasting process that enables us to roast our Sirocco coffee even more aromatically. By mixing fresh air with the beans, we are able to ensure that the roasting process is particularly gentle. But we have also gone a step further: by using short blasts of cold air, we achieve a non-linear form of roasting, which result in a perfect aroma.

The result of the "Alpine Roast" process is a coffee that is equally satisfying as a caffè lungo or as an espresso: "milder", sweeter, with an extremely low acid content, a very good body and the aroma of berries and caramel.

After the carefully controlled roasting process – which, thanks to investments in modern machinery and catalytic converters, is very environment-friendly – the roasted single-origin coffees are blended using time-tested, secret recipes. The freshly roasted coffee is then packed, either ground or as whole beans, depending on the order, and immediately delivered.

The feedback we receive from our customers, some of whom have worked with us closely for decades, together with the appreciation and competition successes of master baristas, strengthens our resolve to continue along the road we have started out on.