How is coffee prepared? Harvesting, processing, roasting

If you’ve ever wondered How was your coffee prepared?that path had traveled to get to your house, and how it had passed into the form you most commonly know, we will explain everything to you production process here, just for you!

What is coffee?

The coffee bean originally comes from coffee fruitA cherry red from which it passes vert au lipstick ha expiration. This contains 2 green coffee beans, the beans that have not yet been processed for consumption. So for 500 g of green coffee or 400 g of roasted coffee you need around 2.5 kg of cherries.

The coffee harvest

Green coffee is harvested over a period of two or three months in spring or autumn depending on the country of production. However, the ripening of cherries is not necessarily uniform over time. The collection process can then vary depending on the technical and economic capabilities of the producer:

• THE collection it’s the best costlybut which allows the best result for one optimal coffee quality. It consists of manually selecting and harvesting the cherries, based on their ripeness and color. A harvest therefore lasts several weeksto get a similar maturity for all the cherries picked. It’s a more technical thing precise and more reliablewhich can sometimes be even more advanced for high-end specialty coffees, which in this case require even more of expertisestricter rules and specifications.*
• THE stripping allows for a larger harvest economic et fast. We harvest at the same time all the fruits of the same branchmanually or mechanically, plucking cherries from the tree with a comb. We thus obtain cherries with different maturities. It is a less precise technique that necessarily has an impact the quality of the coffee and the flavor of your cup.

• THE mechanical methodfor its part, it is even less precise since it consists of putting a net under the treeand shake it to do so falling cherries. This does not allow precise selection of fruits and rigorous sorting.

Coffee processing

After the harvest we enter the production phase fruit selection and processing. This is where we’re going we extract green coffee beans from our cherry. Also in this case there are two methods:

• The dry way : The most simple and the maximum fast. The goal here is tospread the cherries out in the sun. After 15 days of beerthey are ready to be shelled. Sometimes some productions are equipped with a drying device to reduce this time to 3-4 days, and thus be able to use the product more quickly. Shellermachine that will take care of separate the beans from the different external layers. Followed by cleaning, triage et bagging cereals in canvas bags, so that they can be transported to the four corners of the purchasing countries.

• The wet way requires large quantities of water and so it is more expensive compared to the dry method, but also guarantees better preservation of the qualities of the grain. Here we dry the beans directly and then pass them through different phases wash them in basins and let them ferment for 24-36 hours, then the rinse with clean water. At this point the moisture content of the beans rises to 57% and then returns to 12.5% ​​(recommended humidity for processed coffee beans) after 8-10 days of sun drying.

As a general rule, the dry method is best suited to grains Robustwhile most Arabic they are wet processed, depending on the country of production.

Coffee roasting

Roasting is the final phase of coffee preparationbut also the step it will determine the final quality of the grain and its qualities organoleptic. The green coffee beans, which have finished processing, have been transported, and are now cooked to enhance its aromas.

In contact with heat, the coffee bean dehydrated (humidity level increases to approximately 3%): it becomes lighter and swells. So, the sucre contained in the grain transform AND volatilesent become aromas.

THE duration and the temperature the toasting may vary depending on the variety of coffee product, to thus preserve the aromatic characteristics of each coffee. The more the coffee is roasted, the more its color will be dark and his bitterness pronounced. A lightly roasted or blond coffee will have something extra Clear and it will be more acid. The key is therefore to know balance the aromas depending on the desired yield.

There are different roasting intensities, each with their own properties.

• light : blonde, Claire from New England
• average : amber or American
• medium thrust : monk’s robe or light French (most common in France)
• push : dark or French
• very advanced : very brown, dark French or Italian

Finally, the coffee beans are finally roasted conditioned land or in their form normal. Purchased ground, the coffee must be chosen based on the preparation method from grind influence the passage of water into the coffee.

Now you know the secrets to making coffee. Would you like a cup to celebrate?