[Roaster] At Kihiyama, Every Good Cup Begins with Sorting Beans | Kihiyama Café

2025년 8월 20일

During the pour-over process, the coffee grounds bloom like a volcano, showcasing the freshness and quality of the specialty beans.

Kihiyama Café | At Kihiyama, Every Good Cup Begins with Sorting Beans

At Kihiyama Café, founder Mr. Li finds joy in focusing on every detail of coffee. From removing defective beans to managing roasting time and temperature, and even interpreting color, sound, and aroma, each step influences the final flavor. This dedication makes the process meaningful and gives him unique fulfillment in the world of coffee.

Kihiyama Coffee founder, Mr. Li, is hand-brewing coffee in his shop, demonstrating his focus and dedication to every detail of the process.

Details Define Flavor

Mr. Li believes that coffee flavor comes from careful control of every stage. Removing defective beans and precisely managing roasting curves are essential to avoid unwanted flavors. While defects objectively exist, how a roaster interprets, explains, and handles them is what brings out individuality and creativity in specialty coffee.

“To pursue great flavor, we must first remove anything that creates bad flavor.” — Mr. Li, Kihiyama Café

The Advantages of AI Coffee Bean Sorters

Relying solely on hand sorting is inefficient and labor-intensive. With the AI coffee bean sorter, processing one kilogram of beans takes about 13 minutes, compared to an hour by hand—saving nearly 47 minutes. Even with additional checks before roasting and packaging, efficiency is far beyond manual sorting.

How does an AI sorter save time?

The AI coffee sorting machine can quickly process large volumes of beans while continuously learning and improving its accuracy. This ensures stable quality over the long term, something human labor alone cannot achieve. It frees roasters to focus on flavor development and customer experience instead of repetitive sorting.

Why is AI sorting more consistent than manual sorting?

Manual sorting is limited by fatigue and concentration, often leading to inconsistent results. In contrast, intelligent sorting solutions inspect each bean individually, accurately removing insect-damaged and moldy beans. Mr. Li believes this shows that AI technology doesn’t replace people, but rather complements them.

User experience of the sorting machine

Mr. Li especially values the machine’s user interface, which clearly shows the volume of beans processed—even down to individual beans. This level of transparency and precision is impossible with traditional hand sorting. For him, this is where technology adds real value to specialty coffee.

Boosts efficiency—1 kg sorted in just 13 minutes
Inspects beans individually, removing insect-damaged and defective beans
Ensures stable quality while reducing manual workload

Kihiyama Coffee founder, Mr. Li, pours green coffee beans into the avercasso AI Coffee bean sorter, preparing to use AI technology to precisely remove defective beans and ensure coffee quality.

The Commitment of Kihiyama Café

For Mr. Li, the AI coffee bean sorter is not about replacing people but allowing them to focus on more meaningful tasks, like creating new flavors and engaging with customers. This attention to detail and quality makes Kihiyama Café not just a coffee shop, but a place that embodies the spirit of bean sorting.