It fascinates me how coffee is brought from being a tiny seed into being in my venti vanilla mocha. It's an unnatural fascination, really. I'm so incredibly fascinated by it that I'm planning on taking a trip to see coffee farms in other countries. I'm so incredibly, dauntingly, fantastically bewitched by the process that I can hardly think of anything else. My job is suffering and that's saying something coming from a barista. Alright, maybe I'm not that fascinated with it, but I do find it interesting. I find it interesting enough to think that you and I (as coffee drinkers) should at least know the basics of what happens from seed to cup. I also hope that by knowing a little more, we can start to appreciate our drinks for what they are. So read on dear Sir or Madame and consider yourself educated.
The coffee bean starts its journey as a shrub in a coffee farm. The typical coffee tree will take about three to five years to start producing cherries and end up being about 10 feet tall, depending on the species. When it does start producing cherries, they are harvested one of two ways. Much like regular cherries, coffee cherries ripen at different times and are often handpicked throughout the season as they ripen. They can also be "stripped" or harvested all at once, either by hand or by machine; the ripe cherries being separated post-harvest. This method typically wastes about a quarter of the cherries.
After they are harvested, the cherries go through a process to remove the pulp from the the seeds or "beans" on the inside. Two common methods of accomplishing this involve leaving the cherries out to dry in the sun or washing the pulp off with water. There is also a thin shell around the beans that must be removed separately during the processing of the cherries. After having been processed, the highest quality beans are typically roasted and brewed by a group of elite, certified, and quality graders. They rate the coffee on a scale of 1-100. Only the highest quality beans end up in a specialty coffee shop. After, the beans are shipped to the roaster. The roaster typically does his or her own evaluation of the coffee upon its arrival. The beans are then roasted into the dark, aromatic beans we think of when we buy coffee. I try to roast my own coffee at home and, trust me, roasting is easy to do but very difficult to do right. If you have ever had a great cup of coffee that came from great beans, the amount of time and dedication that it took to get that into your hand might boggle your mind.
I don't know of many foods that have been cared for, inspected, and selected with the same level of dedication that coffee beans have been. If I were to try to explain the whole process in detail, it would probably fill a decent-sized book. Maybe not a bible or dictionary sized book but probably at least a "first-harry-potter" sized one. So, the next time you go into your favorite coffee shop and order a large vanilla mocha, remember the painstaking process it took to get that coffee into your hand. Maybe then we can start to appreciate coffee for what it really is: fascinating.
The coffee bean starts its journey as a shrub in a coffee farm. The typical coffee tree will take about three to five years to start producing cherries and end up being about 10 feet tall, depending on the species. When it does start producing cherries, they are harvested one of two ways. Much like regular cherries, coffee cherries ripen at different times and are often handpicked throughout the season as they ripen. They can also be "stripped" or harvested all at once, either by hand or by machine; the ripe cherries being separated post-harvest. This method typically wastes about a quarter of the cherries.
After they are harvested, the cherries go through a process to remove the pulp from the the seeds or "beans" on the inside. Two common methods of accomplishing this involve leaving the cherries out to dry in the sun or washing the pulp off with water. There is also a thin shell around the beans that must be removed separately during the processing of the cherries. After having been processed, the highest quality beans are typically roasted and brewed by a group of elite, certified, and quality graders. They rate the coffee on a scale of 1-100. Only the highest quality beans end up in a specialty coffee shop. After, the beans are shipped to the roaster. The roaster typically does his or her own evaluation of the coffee upon its arrival. The beans are then roasted into the dark, aromatic beans we think of when we buy coffee. I try to roast my own coffee at home and, trust me, roasting is easy to do but very difficult to do right. If you have ever had a great cup of coffee that came from great beans, the amount of time and dedication that it took to get that into your hand might boggle your mind.
I don't know of many foods that have been cared for, inspected, and selected with the same level of dedication that coffee beans have been. If I were to try to explain the whole process in detail, it would probably fill a decent-sized book. Maybe not a bible or dictionary sized book but probably at least a "first-harry-potter" sized one. So, the next time you go into your favorite coffee shop and order a large vanilla mocha, remember the painstaking process it took to get that coffee into your hand. Maybe then we can start to appreciate coffee for what it really is: fascinating.
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