The cultivating of coffee can be affected by aspects such as the type of coffee being planted, the acreage available, the sun’s intensity, ground composition, and other factors.
This is a synopsis of the steps involved in planting.
Coffee plants in Colombia are generally located on steep hillsides in the presence of larger plants that have the ability to produce shade and provide a water source; a good example is the banana tree. When the coffee seeds are sown, the coffee plant flowers, and from it emerge the familiar red berries known as coffee cherries.
Let’s see then what this first step is like:
Choosing the seeds and their variety
The procedure of selecting coffee seeds and then planting them is quite captivating. There are two ways:
- Seeds for future planting are selected from the existing trees with the best fruits in order to obtain seeds with the same characteristics.
- Purchase of certified seeds that will ensure an excellent quality coffee.
Planting time
The Colombian coffee harvest has two specific seasons per year; in general, it will always be in the rainy season and this season varies by region:
- Northern zone: starts in March and ends between October and November.
- North center and south center zone: it can be between March and May or between September and November.
- South zone: It starts in October and ends in June.
- Eastern zone: starts in March and ends in November.
If you’re eager to learn more about the individual traits of coffee produced in each region of Colombia and how to identify high-grade beans, read our article on the top coffees from Colombia.
Seedbeds
The chosen seeds are planted in seedbeds, where they will remain for a period of around 2 months, though this timeframe could differ. These seedbeds are typically located in a plant nursery rather than the area where the plantation will be located. This is to save space. A typical seedbed is composed of wide expanses of uncontaminated river sand. The major goal of the seeds is to sprout and produce the initial two leaves. These seedbeds are then constantly watered.
Nursery
After two months have passed, the sprout is ready to advance to its next stage. The nursery. The goal of this phase is to cultivate the harvest and pick the plants that will make it to the concluding crop.
Here, coffee plants are also sold in bags which contain a concoction of dirt and decayed coffee pulp that can be used as fertilizer.
This period of time of about 6 months stretches the entire 8 month time frame before the coffee tree is moved to its place of growth.
There are numerous factors that impact the flavor of coffee that could keep me writing for hours! It all begins on the coffee plantation. I’ve discussed in prior articles how soil and environment have an influence on coffee flavor and why, so now let’s explore the gathering and treating procedures to gain insight into how these procedures provide coffee beans particular features.
It is important to make sure that the environment of seedbeds and nurseries for coffee seeds is regulated in terms of shade, moisture, and nutrients. This will ensure the development of germination and seedling.
Soil preparation and planting distribution
The readying of the earth and the placement of the vegetation are essential for sustaining the coffee cultivation process. Coffee farmers utilize various strategies to maximize the use of the land and cultivate many more bush in mountainous areas while still leaving adequate space between them, contingent on the type of coffee being produced.
It is essential to determine if the plants will be exposed to light or kept in the shade.
A common approach is to organize the crop into one or two rows. Growers cultivating crops on surfaces that are less than 5% slanted will often structure them in the shape of a box or triangle. These are the optimal techniques to take advantage of the landscape.
The Federation of Coffee Growers reported that only a small proportion of Colombian coffee is cultivated in direct sunlight, being 20%. The rest of the crops are covered with plants such as banana and guamo, which help shelter the coffee from heavy rains and also supply organic material for the soil. At the end of it all, farmers of coffee cultivate fertilization and pest control techniques to attain the desired output.
There are three levels of shading:
- Open or sun
- Shadow
- Semi-shadow
It all depends on the weather, the type of ground, and the incline of the area. Coffee plants need to be grown in an area where there is limited sunlight when there is not sufficient precipitation, temperatures are high and the elevation is more than 2,000 meters.
Coffee cultivators additionally choose whether the shade ought to be fleeting or perpetual. The coffee tree is only fleeting in its early years and must be properly developed in order to flourish.
There are basically three steps that take place before the coffee travels all the way to the roaster:
- Harvesting
- Sorting
- Processing
Let’s find out a bit more about these stages!
How Harvesting Works
The coffee cherries can be harvested using different methods, each with their advantages and disadvantages:
- Picking
- Stripping
- Machine harvesting
The quality of the fruit is scrutinized every eight to ten days during harvesting and each coffee berry is plucked alone right when it’s fully ripe. This task is quite lengthy and requires a lot of effort, yet doing so ensures that only fully ripened fruits are used, resulting in an excellent outcome. A different method for manual harvesting is “stripping”: The pickers uproot the whole plant at once, causing all of the fruits to be deposited onto a material on the earth. This technique is more efficient than hand-picking, but some green coffee beans are also collected. With machine harvesting, all fruits are harvested at once. Though this approach is much quicker, the higher yield of unripe coffee cherries that it brings about causes a lot of waste. In addition, machine usage in most cases is impossible because of the unsuitable nature of the farm land or the cost of buying a machine only makes sense when dealing with very large plantations such as in Brazil. We decided to partner exclusively with farms that use the initial technique of harvesting by hand. We guarantee that the coffee we provide you with is of the best quality, and that the farms which supply us with the coffee will maintain their sustainability thanks to the continuous employment opportunities.
Manual Screen Sorting
Immediately following the reaping of the crop is the step of categorizing the coffee beans. This basically means that all the beans need to be sorted based on two factors:
- Size/Density
- Colour
The main point of sorting the coffee beans is to guarantee that no defective or low-grade beans are present, and additionally to make sure that all beans that are the same size are placed in the same bag. The size matters a lot since if the bean sizes are not all the same, they won’t be cooked evenly, which will result in an unpleasant taste in your beverage.
Farms producing coffee beans may use either mechanized equipment that can take care of all the sorting, or manually sorted screens for the same purpose. This technique is done by laborers at the farm who carefully choose and classify the coffee beans based on their color and then move them through sieves in order to ascertain their size. These sieves have a number of different stages so that all the beans can be sorted into the correct category depending on their dimensions. The farms with which we collaborate employ the hand-sifting approach, and we concur that this is the superior technique in comparison to the other options, as it is an incredibly thorough procedure that certifies superior quality with a long-lasting resolution that furnishes employ to a great deal of agricultural workers.
Different Methods of Coffee Processing
The seed of the coffee cherry is the coffee bean. The distinction between two coffee processing techniques is separating the bean from the cherry’s flesh: washed and sun-dried, also known as natural coffee. We would also like to bring up the Gilling Basah process in our discussion today. Let’s investigate what these operations are and what kind of flavors they add to coffee!
The Natural – Sun Dried Process
The process of curing cherries by using natural sunlight is straightforward. The red coffee cherries are arranged on top of concrete surfaces, tables, or compressed soil and they are frequently rotated to guarantee that they dry out properly without going bad. The amount of time for sun drying may be anywhere from five weeks to completion, based on the weather. Sun drying no longer requires the use of water, making it a viable option for arid areas. Over the past few decades, the quality of sun-dried coffees has greatly improved due to the utilization of better quality drying beds and shade drying nets. Furthermore, the directors of the collective are devoting increased attention to providing better training to the laborers on the drying racks, so as to ensure that the cherries are rotated consistently, thus guarding against their achieving a soured flavor. Once a sufficient quantity of liquid has been taken out of the material, the kernels may be extracted from the cherry using a machine that applies friction and force. The beans are then scrutinized manually to remove broken beans, stones, or any other foreign matter. The sun’s rays combined with manual sorting of the beans produce qualities such as a gentle sweetness and a light fruity flavor. If you relish your coffee with a subtle, sugary and fruity taste then this could be the perfect choice for you.
The Washed Process
This process is quite different to the natural one. After the manual selection process is completed, the wet coffee needs to be processed within 8 hours of harvesting, or else it will begin to ferment. A machinery set known as a wet mill is used for damp treatment. The cherries initially travel through a depulper station during the machine processing stage, which strips away the external skin and the pulp. This station is also known as a wet mill. A green cherry separator is attached to the front of modern devices, which can automatically identify and remove immature green cherries. After the pulping process, there is still a slimy layer of pectin around the beans, known as the mucilage. The following step involves the removal of the bean from the Mucilage Remover with the addition of water in a mechanical process. The beans drift along through the liquid and eventually get funneled into a cement reservoir.
The Gilling Basah Process
Since the Dutch brought the initial coffee plants to Sumatra in the 1600s, they have been an important part of the island’s plentiful plant life. The impressive volcanic landscape shapes the image of Sumatra. High up on the mountain sides, around 1650 meters from the surface of the ocean, the land is suitable for growing Arabica coffee plants as the land is made up of nutritious volcanic soil. These possess a great amount of trace minerals and also hold water very well. Under the ideal weather, with the shelter of gigantic trees that can reach over 80 meters, the coffee cherries are able to successfully ripen and bring out their one-of-a-kind flavor. This coffee is distinct because of the intricate and conventional methods of making it.
The Honey Process
In 2003, an idea from a Japanese coffee importer visiting Costa Rica led to the implementation of the “honey-processed” method. Inquiries have been made by Illy, an Italian coffee expert, and Guataro from Japan, desiring to grow their range with new tastes. So far, the two of them had been buying very special coffee from Brazil which was handled with special care as the whole pulp from the beans was dried in a natural process, making it a superior quality blend. The Japanese strategy when it comes to inventing novel tastes was to rinse the coffee cherry, but only in a partial manner. This takes away the outer covering but leaves the squishy, adhesive inner contents on the bean. The term “honey processed” was created to describe the sensation of something close to honey, despite having no actual honey included. This fresh method drastically enhanced the possibility of Costa Rican java as it gave it an enhanced richness of flavor and an appetizing acidity.