Coffee: From Crop to Cup
Whenever I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is head downstairs to our coffee bar that was beautifully hand crafted by my grandfather. Through my half closed eyes, I fill up the electric kettle that starts boiling water while I scoop out freshly ground coffee from a jar into our french press. Our go to coffee is typically a single origin bag from Aldi, but sometimes we splurge by grabbing some beans from a local coffee roaster. After letting the grounds steep in the nearly boiling water for about three minutes, I press down the top of the french press and pour my hot cup of coffee into a mug. I slowly wake up as I drink my favorite caffeinated beverage totally unaware that those beans take over four years to be produced.
Coffee beans are technically a fruit that come from a flowering plant. Beautiful white blossoms first sprout from these shrub-like plants that eventually produce a red fruit, or cherry. It takes about three to four years for the plant to become fruit producing, and then there is one giant harvest around October-December in coffee producing regions. This region, sometimes nicknamed “The Bean Belt”, are predominantly tropical areas in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
Fortunately, I was able to see the tail end of this season in March when I went to Costa Rica with Winshape Camps to be a photographer for one of their day camps. In between getting to play with children on the beautiful mountainside of Naranjo, Costa Rica, we were invited to a coffee farm to get a tour on the tractor. It was amazing to hear from these experts about how they grew their coffee plants alongside orange trees in order to obtain a citrus flavor, and gain insight on how these communities' livelihood centered around coffee production.
Chilling out on the bus shortly before our coffee farm tour in Naranjo, Costa Rica
Once the coffee cherries are predominately hand picked, then they are sent to be processed by either a dry method or a wet method. The dry method is where the cherries are simply laid out to dry in the sun, much like a raisin. That outside fruit part, once dried, is actually called a cascara, and I distinctly remember Starbucks promoting a cascara latte a few years back. On the other hand, the wet method is a little more complicated. where a machine typically removes the fruit part from the bean. The beans are then fermented for a few days before moving on to the drying process. After the drying process, the beans are sent to another type of machinery where they are hulled and the outside papery layer of the bean is removed. Sometimes beans are even polished to make them look shiny and free of imperfections. The majority of the time “defective” beans will also be sorted, often by hand, before they end up in bags.
While some beans are sent out straight away after being processed, others can be aged up to three years. The beans are also graded to determine quality and price. At this time, they are much lighter in color and are often called “green coffee”. Once these green beans have finished being graded, they are shipped to roasteries in the country of origin and sometimes all over the world. This is one part of the process many of us are aware of since light, medium, or dark roast is noted on the bag. It has often been thought one type of roast has more caffeine than the other, but the roast has more to do with the acidity. Light roasts tend to be the most acidic and dark roast are the least acidic.
When turning up the heat to a casual 550 degrees Fahrenheit, chemical reactions start to occur in the beans. Starches turn to sugar and you start smelling the beautiful aroma of coffee we are accustomed to in our homes or in the coffee shop. The beans also start to become a bit oily when they are roasted and a crack like popcorn can even be heard whenever they are being tossed inside the rotating drum. The beans are immediately cooled and ready to be packaged and shipped to their final destination.
The coffee plants in Costa Rica are usually grown along the side of mountains and hand picked by workers. We visited during the end of the season in March and only saw a hand full of plants still producing fruit.
Cupping is a method used by roasters to taste and evaluate the flavors within coffee. I was able to take part in a cupping class a few years back at K-Brew in Knoxville, TN. That was the fanciest I have ever felt about coffee. The baristas and roasters that lead the class perfectly measured the grams of coffee that went into our cups and poured water at exactly 200 degrees Fahrenheit in our cups. We then smelled the coffee and described what we were experiencing using a flavor wheel. This is where the care and precision of the farmer comes in, like when the farmers grew their coffee plants near orange trees in Costa Rica. We then broke the “crust” of the ground coffee beans to get the hot liquid and slurp it with our spoons. They assured us this was the proper method and was not at all rude. Overall, it was super neat to learn the intricacies of coffee flavor profiles and pick out flavors like woody, vegetative, and even skunky.
Once the whole, roasted beans become coffee grounds, they can be used for whatever coffee drink you desire- with a few caveats. Light roast coffees are typically best served in the form of drip coffee, which is a fancy way of saying coffee maker. Another good option is a pour over, which is a slower process of pouring hot water from a kettle over a special paper filter. Medium roast coffee is a bit more balanced than light roast and is used for drip coffee as well. Dark roast, on the other hand, is often used for espresso or espresso based drinks. French roast, which is a dark roast, is commonly used with the french press. However, we mostly use our french press with medium roasted coffee.
The flavor wheel used to describe coffee during a coffee cupping class.
As you can see, there is a lot of time and hands that go into one of the most traded commodities in the world. With billions of cups served per year worldwide, it does leave the question of how ethical is the mass production of coffee? Besides environmental issues and diseased crops, there have also been issues of farmers not seeing many of the profits that come from a good that continues to increase in price. Terms like “direct trade”, “ethical”, or “sustainable” are not necessarily regulated by any government agencies and are often used as marketing ploys to buy coffee products. On the other hand, FairTrade International Certified and FairTrade USA Certified are more regulated terms with small producer co-ops that are guaranteed a minimal price per pound. While this system is nowhere close to perfect, it is making a difference and is something to keep in mind when purchasing your next bag of coffee.
Now that you have made it through the written coffee version of How It’s Made, I hope you can have a better appreciation for that cup of Joe that helps wake you up in the morning. At the very least now you have some fun facts to school your friends at the next get together. Whether you prefer your coffee black, with cream and sugar, or in latte form may you enjoy every sip with a side of knowledge.