Quality coffee is a way of life at Cherry Hill plant

Melitta facility has meticulously roasted beans since '68

By CHERYL SQUADRITO MOSKOVITZ
Courier-Post Staff
CHERRY HILL


So what is that delicious aroma wafting in the air near Exit 32 on Interstate 295?

It's the warm smell of coffee beans roasting at the Melitta plant on nearby Haddonfield-Berlin Road.

Each year since 1968, the Cherry Hill plant has processed 10 million to 20 million of pounds of coffee for the United States, most of Canada and the Caribbean.

"Twenty-four hours a day, six days a week the plant is running," said John Ashwell, the plant manager, of Collingswood.

Filters and coffee makers are manufactured at another location, he said. About 60 employees work in Cherry Hill.

Roastmaster Ray Flores of Collingswood starts the process by sampling beans from around the world. His scientific process weeds out beans that would produce bitter, weak, acidic or just plain bad coffee.

"I reject about 90 percent of the beans I sample," said Flores, who is originally from Cuba and an expert in his field.

The coffee beans that Melitta roasts come from Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Vietnam, Hawaii and Panama, he said.

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