Coffee - Bean Growing
January 10th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
For a tree grown in over 70 countries, from Indonesia to Brazil, it’s curious how narrow a range of conditions is required to produce quality ‘beans’ and how relatively small the total output is.
The word ‘beans’ is deliberately in single-quote marks, since the thing that gets roasted and ground to make the drink isn’t really a bean at all, it’s a seed.
In particular, it’s the seed of a fruit that grows on trees that can easily reach twenty feet or more. Some wild varieties grow to over 45 feet or 15m. Most of those seeds come in a pair, though there is a variety that produces only one (the peaberry). The berry resembles a cranberry, with a sweet pulp covered by a membrane called a silverskin.
In a band around the equator from approximately 25 degrees north or south, comes the overwhelming majority of the world’s coffee output. Temperatures of between 60F (15C) and 70F (21C) are best as is rainfall of six inches per month or more.
Loamy, good-draining soil is needed and also helpful is high humidity - plenty of mist and cloud at the high elevations, over 3000 ft (915m) for the good stuff. At these elevations the oxygen content is lower, so the trees take longer to mature.
The robusta, or coffea canephora, goes into making the majority of coffee because it can be grown at lower altitudes and is more disease resistant. But it’s the high-altitude coffea arabica that forms the base of a gourmet cup.
Diffuse light and moderate winds are helpful, both of which are sometimes produced by deliberately growing in the shelter and shade. By contrast, wine grapes like hot sun and lots of it.
Once planted, the tree takes about five years to mature to first crop and even then a single tree will only make enough for about two pounds (1 kilogram) of coffee.
Those two pounds equal about 2,000 beans, (correct or not, it’s the standard term), usually hand-picked by manual laborers. Manual they may be, but ignorant they are not. Coffee bean harvesting is a skill developed over time, where the picker learns to select good beans and discard the bad. Bean by individual bean. That’s only one reason coffee is high priced.
The trees have broad, dark green leaves and produce a flower that resembles Jasmine. Some - in Brazil and Mexico, for example, - blossom over a six to eight week period. In countries that lie along the equator such as Kenya and Colombia, though, a tree can have mature berries growing alongside still ripening ones. That’s part of what makes picking such a specialty.
Blossom to harvest may cover a period of up to nine months depending on the weather and other factors and the cycle will be carried out for the life of the tree - about 20-25 years. With the best cultivation technology, a good harvest will be between 6,600 lbs (3,000 kg) and 8,800 lbs (4,000 kg) per hectare. (One hectare is about 2.47 acres.)
From these inaccessible regions, where conditions are harsh, the berries are brought down and processed to make up the world’s second largest commodity (by annual dollar volume).
So, the next time you savor that brew, give a thought to the long journey it traveled to reach your cup. It might make that high price seem less steep.
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How you get from the Coffee Bean to a Cup of Coffee.
May 29th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
All around the world people are enjoying coffee. As with everything they way they take their coffee varies, some like iced coffee, others want a strong expresso. Some people will only drink it in the morning, while others will enjoy a cup off coffee throughout the day. As these people are enjoying their drink, how many wonder how the coffee bean, picked somewhere in the world ended up in their cup.
From Bean to Cup
Coffee comes from the seeds of the coffee plant. These seeds or the coffee beans then undergo a process that prepares them for drinking. This starts with the coffee berries being picked from the tree and defruited.
Defruiting means the fruit is taken away and only the coffee beans are left. They are then dried and then sorted after which the coffee beans are sometimes aged or roasted directly.
The beans turn dark when undergoing the roasting process because the sucrose in them is caramelized. Some people prefer to do the roasting of the dried beans themselves at their home. Roasting brings out the flavor of the coffee beans because the heat it is exposed to turn carbohydrates and fats into aromatic oils. Roasting also burns off the moisture in the beans and also the carbon dioxide.
After the roasting, coffee beans are typically ground to make them ready for consumption. A Turkish grind is a straightforward process of making coffee where the ground coffee is mixed directly with water. This procedure makes very fine textured ground coffee. Other ways of preparing the ground coffee is using the percolator or coffee maker.
Different Kinds of Coffee
Espresso:
Made by forcing very hot but not boiling water through compacted ground coffee. A stronger flavor is made and there is more coffee bean matter in the drink. This process results in a stronger flavor so most espresso drinkers use very small cups to consume this.
For those who do not wish to be encumbered by the long process of percolating or making coffee from ground coffee, there are several alternatives. These are pre mixed coffee, available in canned form. Some varieties come already sweetened or already mixed with creamers. Other coffee drinks, which are pre-mixed, come in plastic bottles or cans.
Instant coffee:
Instant coffee is coffee granules that have been freeze dried or dried into soluble powder. These powdered coffee forms just need to be mixed with water and other ingredients depending on the drinker’s preference.
Many people like the convenience of just adding the granules to hot water compared to percolating, which may take time.
Some coffee producers also make their roasted coffee decaffeinated. This takes out the caffeine from the coffee beans but still leaves the flavor and aroma.
Hopefully this will have given you an idea of how the coffee bean ended up in your cup of coffee in the morning. No matter how you decide to enjoy your coffee in the morning it will have made quite journey. If your looking for the best coffee you have ever tasted I would recommend having a look at Mystic Monk Coffee that is roasted by monks passionate about coffee.
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