How to Process Coffee Beans - Flying Bean Blog

A beverage made by steeping coffee beans, the seeds from certain Coffea plant varieties, in hot water is known as coffee. When coffee berries change from green to a bright red, that is a sign that they are ready to be picked. They are then harvested and dried. Coffee beans, which are dried coffee seeds, are heated at different temperatures, depending on what kind of coffee taste is wanted. Coffee is made by roasting beans, grinding them, and then brewing them with almost boiling water.

Coffee has a strong and slightly acidic taste, is night-black in hue, and its caffeine content serves to give it an energizing impact. Coffee is a beverage that is highly sought after all over the world and may be made and served in different forms.

Evidence of the consumption of coffee appears to have originated in Yemen in the middle of the 15th century. Coffee beans were initially roasted and brewed in Sufi sanctuaries in a similar way to the techniques currently used for consuming it. The Yemenis received the coffee beans from traders outside of their country who had obtained them from the mountainous Ethiopian Highlands and they started growing it on their own. By the 1500s, coffee had become widely available in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

The two most common types of coffee beans are Arabica and Robusta. Coffee is cultivated in over 70 nations, largely within the equatorial zones of Latin America, South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.

In 2018, Brazil had the highest production of coffee beans, accounting for 35 percent of the global production. Coffee is a very important international trading commodity, being the primary agricultural export for a number of nations. This piece of writing details the journey coffee takes from its beginnings as a coffee cherry to becoming a finished cup of coffee by outlining the coffee bean roasting and coffee production procedures.

Green Coffee Beans and Coffee Harvesting

Coffee production starts when the coffee cherries are harvested. Small evergreen trees or shrubs bear both the coffee cherries and the blossoms. A coffee tree can reach a height of around 16 feet, however, it is normally trimmed back to a height of between five to seven feet, as this makes it easy to collect the beans. There are three different ways of harvesting. They are strip picking, machine picking, and hand-picking. Only using ripe coffee cherries is extremely important. Fruit that is either too ripe or not ripe enough will give the coffee an unpleasant taste and reduce its balance, evenness, and complexity of flavor. The method in which coffee is harvested is extremely crucial.

Coffee pickers also collect data about the coffee vegetation, including the state of the branches and leaves, any pests that may be afflicting the fruits, and the initial indications of any illnesses or fungi. It is essential to have this wisdom in order to keep an eye on the state of coffee plants and coffee quality, and frequent checks of the crop should be done.

Strip Picking

This technique is widely used because it expeditiously collects coffee berries and does not entail any tools. Because coffee is usually cultivated on mountainous terrain, this makes it difficult to employ machinery. The harvester removes all the cherries from the branch regardless of whether or not they are mature.

This process is quick, but there will be a combination of ripe and unripe fruit, so it must be separated out prior to being processed further.

Machine Picking

The use of harvesting machines is not as common due to the need for an even area of terrain to operate them. When feasible, employing a machine to do the picking is an incredibly successful approach.

Although the cost of a harvesting machine is significant, the need for only one worker to operate it makes the overall labor costs much lower. The geography of Brazil is conducive to the use of machine picking because it has relatively flat terrain.

Hand-Picking

Selecting by hand is a longer process and is generally only utilized by producers that make specialty goods. The people harvesting the coffee tree select only the mature cherries and let the ones not yet ripe stay on the tree.

It can take up to a maximum of 10 harvests to collect all of the cherries from the coffee trees, depending on the dimensions of the farm. Although it costs more, the yield of the harvest tends to be of better quality.

THE 3 MAIN PROCESSING METHODS

When discussing the finer details, there can be numerous ways to process coffee, but usually they can be divided into three sections: Washed, natural, and honey.

Different treatments of the beans will yield distinct tastes, and this is something to remember when searching for a specific flavor in your cup of joe.

THE NATURAL PROCESS

The most long-established way of dealing with coffee beans is using the natural processing technique. It’s also called “dry processing.”

Common Flavors: Strawberry, Blueberry, Raisin, Pineapple, Jackfruit, White Wine Origins: Ethiopia and Yemen.

As the coffee beans dry, they take on the flavor of the fruit, resulting in an incredibly sweet and intense taste. You might experience a strawberry or blueberry note. It is typical to sense a kind of fermented and Winnish taste when drinking coffees made without chemicals. Areas that have had a longstanding custom of consuming pickled and fermented edibles are usually fond of unprocessed foods. In regions like Taiwan and Korea, there is a plentitude of naturally processed coffee beans offered in coffee shops.

Method:

Procedure: This technique is quite unrefined and rudimentary in its simplest state. The cherry is gathered and then positioned on mats that raise up, or patios and beds, where it is dried by the light of the sun.

Once the cherry has achieved the ideal level of hydration, the coffee is hulled to take off the skin and pulp from the coffee cherry. Typically this will take 2-4 weeks.

In past times, natural processed coffee was viewed as being of inferior quality since it does not take away defective cherries in the way that washing does.

Farmers must vigilantly monitor the cherries while drying to prevent fungi and excessive fermentation from occurring.

THE WASHED PROCESS

The most popular and ever reliable technique of coffee processing is the washed process.

Typical Notes: Chocolate, nuts, lemon, florals, stonefruit

Originated in: Latin America

A washed coffee is thought of by many as the ‘ordinary coffee’. Compared to the other main types of coffee, it increases the sharpness and definition of the coffee bean.

Using this technique, it usually produces a smooth and harmonious cup of coffee. The most excellently processed coffees come with intricate flavor notes, a balanced body, and a sharp acidity while still having a sugary taste. They are ideal for making coffee in a regular coffee maker.

The most reliable way to ensure quality is to use the washed procedure. Washing takes place at a dedicated wet mill. At many of the bigger farms in Latin America, there is normally a place to do laundry. In African countries, small-scale farmers are more inclined to take their cherries to local washing stations owned by cooperatives.

Initially, the coffee cherries which have been freshly picked are put in water. This is a method for separating out immature cherries or those with some other issue. The bad or faulty cherries will typically float to the top. They are called ‘floaters.’

The cherries are then taken through a de-pulper to take away the external rind and mash.

A coating of goo, known as mucilage, will remain on the seed. It is similar to the gooey coating that coats the pit of a peach.

The seeds must be left in water tanks for 8 to 50 hours in order to remove their slippery coating. The length of the soaking period given to the seeds depends on the machinery utilized, the temperature of the area, and the producer’s preference.

Following that, the beans will be re-soaked and drained of water once again. The beans are then air-cured on solid surfaces or beds that are at a height off the ground until their humidity reaches 10-12%.

THE HONEY PROCESS

This technique of manipulation surfaced in Costa Rica approximately fifteen years back. Nevertheless, the customary Brazilian technique of preparing coffee is quite alike.

Typical flavors include cane sugar, dates, caramel, apricot, fig and a low level of acidity.

Originated in: Brazil and Costa Rica

This coffee’s flavor is pronounced in its sweetness and body due to the fact that the cherry’s outside skin is removed, yet the pulp is left on while the coffee is drying.

The flavor of the final product is determined by the quantity of pulp that is left.

Certain varieties have a taste reminiscent of dried fruits, and others have a strong and acidic flavor. Usually, they are very sweet and pleasant though.

The method requires that the beans be stripped of the pulp and the left with the glossy outer coating (known as mucilage). Then the beans should be spread out to dry.

Despite the term honey, processing does not involve genuine honey. The title was derived from Costa Rica, where coffee growers likened the sticky and sugary pulp adhering to the bean to honey – “miel” in the Spanish language. Interestingly, this coffee tends to have very sugary and fruity flavors, so it ties in with its name. Recently, honey processing has gained fame around the world among coffee connoisseurs who appreciate it for its blending of the benefits from the washed and natural approaches.

YELLOW, RED, AND BLACK HONEY

Some coffee producers have stated that their coffees can be categorized as yellow, red, or black honey.

These colors indicate the appearance of the coffee beans when they are undergoing the drying process. The final colour of the bean will depend on how much of the pulp is still present.

Yellow Honey goes through a semi-washing process that is designed to leave less mucilage around the coffee bean. This leads to a cleaner and sweeter tasting coffee more similar to the washed method. The drying process is usually faster than the red and black.
Red Honey is also rinsed a bit but it has more mucilage intact and will take on more color when dried.
Black Honey is often said to have all the mucilage intact.

How Roasting Coffee Beans Works

So how is coffee manufactured? The act of roasting the dried coffee seeds alters both the chemical and physical attributes of the unroasted green coffee beans, thereby producing a roasted coffee product. The toasting procedure gives coffee its standard taste by making the green coffee beans transform in flavor. Unroasted beans possess the same levels of protein, acids, sugars, and caffeine as those which have been roasted; however, they lack flavor.

Most coffee is roasted on an industrial level and in mass quantities. There has been a substantial increase in the business of small-scale roasting due to the increasing popularity of coffees from a single source served in specialty coffee houses. Some hobbyists enjoy roasting coffee in their homes as a way to experiment with its flavor and guarantee the freshest possible batch.

Roasting comes after coffee processing and before coffee brewing. The process includes organizing, baking, cooling down, and putting into containers, but could involve pulverizing as well. Initially, bags or containers of unroasted coffee beans are opened by either hand or machine, and the contents are emptied into a chute and screened to take out any debris. The weight of the green beans is measured and then put into containers for storage, unless the operation is running on a small-scale. The beans are transported from the storage hoppers to the roaster.

Initially, the technique involves absorption of heat, meaning the beans absorb thermal energy, however, when the temperature reaches 175 degrees Celsius (347 degrees Fahrenheit), the beans begin to emit heat, making the process exothermic. The result of a chemical process is the beans heating themselves, necessitating a change in the roaster’s heat output. At the completion of the roasting process, the beans are taken out of the roasting compartment and usually cooled down using air or water.

PROCESSING IN THE FUTURE

Traditionally, the washed processing technique has been regarded as better than any other processing techniques. The primary reason for its popularity was because it had a taste that was deemed to be ‘refreshing’, in addition to its effectiveness when it came to picking out immature cherries or other flaws.

This is about to change. People searching for unique tastes in specialty coffee as well as in new coffee markets in Asia are being provided with creative options by farmers who can use agricultural knowledge to develop their production techniques. This capability allows them to come up with fascinating and intricate lots with no fear of the dangers associated with dried-processed coffee previously.

It is noticeable in competitions like the World Brewers Cup that between the years of 2015 and 2017, the three victors each used coffee that underwent natural processing.

In 2018 the victor used a bean that had been processed using carbonic maceration. It is evident that today there is more understanding of how to prepare every kind of specialized coffee.

In the distant future, we may view coffee similar to how we look at wine now; which is divided into red, white, and rosé categories based on processing.