As everyone should know, coffee is everywhere in the world. With it being such a huge market almost every major customer based company either have, or are implementing coffee sales into their business, be it traditional espresso machines & grinders, bean to cup, or even a simple drip filter.
This post will focus on how the coffee gets from A to B, tree to you.
The history of coffee
There is a lot of folk law and rumor around where and when coffee originated, although most story’s date back to around the 17th-century at either Ethiopia, or Yemen.
Coffee grows at its best between the tropics of cancer & Capricorn, this area is known as the “coffee belt”
From seedling, coffee plants take around 5-10 years to start baring fruit, known as the cherry and can continue to produce fruit for 10-20 years after. When fully-grown plants can reach heights of 5-10m
The Beans
Coffee is well known and loved for its caffeine content, which in the wild acts as the coffee plant’s natural pesticide.
There are 2 main types of coffee beans; Arabica and Robusta. There are others however, including Libercia & Excelsa. But here I will focus on the main 2.
Arabica
Coffea Arabica grows at heights of between 1970-6500 ft., a lot higher than the Robusta variety, this is due to its caffeine content. Usually between 1-1.5%, around half that of the Robusta. Its basic flavors can be: light, delicate, acidic, aromatic and sweet.
Due to the high altitudes of the growth of Arabica, getting the beans from the plant proves to be more difficult than the Robusta extraction. Having to be picked, or stripped by hand and then transferred to the processing location. Because of the flavorings and the extraction process, Arabica is widely known as a premium bean.
Robusta
Or canephora grows at a lower level, between 650-1970 ft., which makes it a lot easier to extract. Robusta can still be hand picked but is usually left to machinery.
Caffeine content between 2-4% with basic flavors including: chocolaty, earthy, full bodies, not very aromatic and robust
Processing the cherry
Once the coffee cherries are picked they then have to be extracted, this can be either the wet , or the dry process.
Wet
In the wet process, the ripe coffee cherries are immersed into water where any left floating are removed as defective. The remaining cherries are then pressed by machine against a perforated surface allowing the seed, and some pulp to pass through. After this is removed from the machine, the beans are left to dry to around 10% moisture content, usually by sun drying or machine drying. The end result of the wet process leaves behind a “washed coffee bean”.
Dry
The dry process happens by ripe cherries being placed on a surface of land. The process takes about 2 weeks, and the cherries must be raked while drying to avoid mildew. Dry processing produces coffee with less acidity and more body compared to the wet process, this is due to the coffee bean, or seed absorbing some of the characteristics of the bean while drying. Once dried to the specific level the beans are then placed into a machine, which breaks away the mucilage from the bean.
Roasting
Once the beans have been extracted from the cherries they then have to be roasted!
Coffee beans are originally a greenish-yellow color until we roast them!
Coffee beans are also usually transported before roasting, as once roasted the beans begin to lose their freshness.
The first stage in roasting is endothermic. The green beans are slowly dried to become yellowish and the beans begin to smell like toast, or popcorn.
The second stage, usually called the first crack happens at around 205 degrees Celsius (400 f). During this step the beans can in crease in size by 100%, becomes a light brown color and experiences a weight loss of around 5%.
In the next stage, temperature is increased to around 220 Celsius, the color changes from a light to a medium brown and a further weight loss of around 13% occurs.
In second step is followed by a short endothermic period, which is followed by another exothermic step called the second crack. This crack takes place between 225-230 Celsius. And the roast color is defined and medium- dark brown. The second crack is much quicker sounding and the beans take on an oily sheen.
Once roasted they are ready to either blend, or send out to retailers!
this is what I have so far, please feel free to leave a comment or hit me up @baristablogsuk if I've missed anything or you would like to know more.
