But where do those little things we love to smell, grind, and eventually drink come from? And, as you can probably guess, those plants provide farmers with the beans that will eventually become the amazing coffee you sip every morning.
The seeds come from coffee cherries , the fruit that grows from coffee trees. Harvesting them can be difficult because coffee plants typically grow on uneven surfaces, like a mountain or hillside.
To make things even more difficult, especially for one who is impatient, it typically takes three to four years for the plant to bear fruit…these are but a few reasons you should be extra grateful for coffee farmers and the hard work they put in to make sure you get your daily dose of goodness. You should know the beans that come directly from the coffee plants look a lot different than the ones you picked up at the store. The beans are harvested all over the globe, with Brazil producing the most coffee worldwide.
Some people love Indonesian coffee, too. This just means the fleshy outer layer of the fruit is removed, leaving only the bean to continue undergoing the rest of the coffee-producing and brewing process. The process the farmer uses to get the coffee ready for your consumption is very important, as it impacts the flavor of the coffee later on. This helps break down the thick and slimy layer surrounding the bean.
Afterward, the farmer will wash the beans with fresh water then place the beans to dry either in the sun or in a large, rotating mechanical dryer. Also known as the natural method, the dry method takes all of the harvested coffee cherries to be laid out to dry on a giant patio. After being thoroughly dried, the cherries are put into a de-pulping machine. This method usually produces a more fruity-tasting bean and is common among varieties of coffee from Ethiopia or Kenya.
Despite what its name implies, no actual honey is involved when the coffee beans are processed. How long the honey-coated beans are left to ferment determines which of the four honey processing categories the result falls into. Instant coffee — you either love it or hate it, and without the magic of dehydration, it simply would not exist. Instant coffee is made from whole coffee beans that have been roasted, ground, and brewed before being dehydrated by means of spray or freeze-drying.
The process of decaffeinating coffee begins while the beans are still green. First, the coffee beans are swollen with hot water or steam. Then, some sort of solvent — usually ethyl acetate, methylene chloride, or carbon dioxide — is used to extract the caffeine from them. Then, the newly decaffeinated beans are dried before being roasted and packaged. Not every manufacturer processes decaffeinated coffee the same way, however. Instead, they rely on the Swiss Water Process.
This process enlists the aid of pure water to gently remove the caffeine from beans while also ridding them of dirt, dust, and silverskin. These rumors were sparked by entomologist Dr. Douglas Emlen, when he revealed in an NPR interview that most pre-ground coffee has ground cockroaches in it, as at least 10 percent of green coffee beans are insect-infested.
According to Snopes , FDA has established a maximum level of natural defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans, and unfortunately, these include insect byproducts. Why would anyone dare drink poop coffee, you ask? Ah…now the process is getting exciting!
After all the hard work of harvesting and processing the coffee beans, a few lucky individuals called cuppers will have the honor of being the first ones to taste test the harvest.
Once the green coffee beans have been visually inspected, a small batch will be roasted and ground for taste testing. A good cupper can test several batches and samples in one day and still be able to spot out individual flaws or characteristics.
The importance of taste-testing the coffee is not just to find out the flaws but also to see which beans will blend well together. The cupper first smells the coffee to check its aromatic quality.
The aroma is a huge determining factor of how good the coffee will taste. Next, the cupper will take a spoonful of the coffee sample, cover his taste buds, then spit it out. The coffee roasting process is one of the most important parts of the whole journey. This process is met with great care to transform the green coffee beans into the divine beans we get to take home and enjoy.
Even though this is mostly done by coffee professionals, some big-time coffee drinkers are roasting beans at home. The whole roasting process is a lot more complex than the brief overview here, so if you would like to see in more detail how coffee beans are roasted, feel free to check out the video below to get a more up-close and personal view of how coffee shops get roasted beans.
After being roasted, the beans are shipped all over the world to be sold by grocery stores and coffee shops. Most people overlook how important packaging is for a successful coffee business. Just like every other step in this process, getting the coffee ground properly is something to be approached with vigilance and patience. Going from buying pre-ground coffee to grinding my own beans has positively transformed my whole coffee brewing experience. Besides…nothing this good ever comes easily!
The better we grind the beans, the more flavor our coffee will have. A coarse grind still leaves behind little chunks of coffee beans. This results in green beans that you can store until roasting. What I love about washed coffees is that they can have pure intrinsic flavours from the bean, if the washing is done properly. Roasting the coffee gives it the rich brown color you recognize from the local cafe.
Roasting makes the coffee more soluble, so you can extract all its glorious flavor when you brew, and it adds flavors of its own. The flavor of a roast depends on the time and temperature of roasting. Light roasted beans still taste mainly of the origin, with bright fruit and floral flavors. Medium roast coffees take on some flavors of caramelization from the roast. Dark roast coffees get much of their character from the roasting process, with toasted flavor notes and a full body.
There are many methods of brewing coffee. Plus, the new ones are popping all the time! But at their core, they all do the same thing. To facilitate this extraction, we grind the coffee. The finer the ground coffee beans , the faster you can extract them. A medium grind is for a pour-over and coarse for a slow method like French press or cold brew.
Instant coffee is made by taking regular brewed coffee and dehydrating it to a powder, which you can do through freeze-drying or spray drying. The beans are kept moving throughout the entire process to keep them from burning. When they reach an internal temperature of about degrees Fahrenheit, they begin to turn brown and the caffeol , a fragrant oil locked inside the beans, begins to emerge.
This process called pyrolysis is at the heart of roasting — it produces the flavor and aroma of the coffee we drink. After roasting, the beans are immediately cooled either by air or water. Roasting is generally performed in the importing countries because freshly roasted beans must reach the consumer as quickly as possible.
The objective of a proper grind is to get the most flavor in a cup of coffee. How coarse or fine the coffee is ground depends on the brewing method. The length of time the grounds will be in contact with water determines the ideal grade of grind Generally, the finer the grind, the more quickly the coffee should be prepared.
We recommend taking a moment to examine the beans and smell their aroma — in fact, the scent of coffee alone has been shown to have energizing effects on the brain. To master how to brew coffee , use our guide for tips and methods on how to make the perfect cup for any preference.
Image credit: source: Giphy. Become a Member! User Login. Toggle navigation. What is Coffee? Planting A coffee bean is actually a seed. Harvesting the Cherries Depending on the variety, it will take approximately 3 to 4 years for the newly planted coffee trees to bear fruit. Whether by hand or by machine, all coffee is harvested in one of two ways: Strip Picked : All of the cherries are stripped off of the branch at one time, either by machine or by hand.
Processing the Cherries Once the coffee has been picked, processing must begin as quickly as possible to prevent fruit spoilage. Depending on location and local resources, coffee is processed in one of two ways: The Dry Method is the age-old method of processing coffee, and still used in many countries where water resources are limited.
Milling the Beans Before being exported, parchment coffee is processed in the following manner: Hulling machinery removes the parchment layer endocarp from wet processed coffee. Exporting the Beans The milled beans, now referred to as green coffee , are loaded onto ships in either jute or sisal bags loaded in shipping containers, or bulk-shipped inside plastic-lined containers. Tasting the Coffee Coffee is repeatedly tested for quality and taste.
First, the taster — usually called the cupper — evaluates the beans for their overall visual quality. The beans are then roasted in a small laboratory roaster, immediately ground and infused in boiling water with carefully-controlled temperature. The cupper noses the brew to experience its aroma, an essential step in judging the coffee's quality. After letting the coffee rest for several minutes, the cupper breaks the crust by pushing aside the grounds at the top of the cup. Again, the coffee is nosed before the tasting begins.
0コメント