Coffee is undoubtedly a very loved and staple drink in most western countries. However, that does not mean all coffee is the same. While some variants might give you the best drink you have ever tasted, others might ruin your experience. To understand what you should choose, you need to know everything there is to coffee beans. How they are produced and processed are some of the more important factors.
The Birth of a Coffee Bean
What you might know as coffee beans are essentially seeds derived from cherry-like fruits. Coffee trees are known to produce cherries that start as yellowish fruits that eventually change to orange, and lastly, a bright red color indicates that they are ripe for picking.
Premium quality coffee cherries usually grow in clusters along the branches of these trees. The Exocarp is the outer skin of the cherry that has a bitter taste. It is quite thick, which helps protect the Mesocarp, which is the middle layer, and rather sweet, very close to how a grape tastes. Then comes the Parenchyma, which has a sticky texture and protects the beans inside the cherry. The beans lie inside the endocarp, which acts as a protective envelope for it.
Coffee is typically picked by hand. The cherries are stripped directly from the branch one by one, which ensures selective picking. This way, you can easily choose what kind of cherry you are picking and select only the ripest ones.
Coffee Cherry Processing
After the picking procedure is complete, the cherries have to be processed right away. Coffee pickers often pick 45-80 kgs of cherries each day, where the coffee bean is only 20% of the entire weight. The two predominant procedures are:
1. Dry Process:
Considered to be one of the most inexpensive and easiest methods, in this, cherries are left out in the sun to dry. However, it often takes longer, about a week to 10 days, for the moisture content of the cherries to get to 11%. They become brown, and the beans rattle inside.
2. Wet Process:
This process sure does require some effort. In this, the pulp of the cherry is totally removed within a day of picking. With the help of a pulping machine, they wash away the pulp and outer skin, leaving only the beans.
These are then forwarded to fermentation tanks, which are left for 2 days. Gradually the enzymes loosen the Parenchyma from the beans, after which the beans are dried either by mechanical dryers or sunlight.
These beans are then sent for another process, known as hulling. In this, all the other layers alongside the bean get removed. With that, the process is almost complete, and it is time to grade the beans as per their size and density.
This is where the selectors differentiate between premium quality coffee and regular ones. Now that you know all about the process, you can easily find yourself the best batch from any reputable store like Bulwark Coffee.
