Beginning the Brew: How Coffee Gets its Flavor
Most people make a pot of coffee when they wake up. They grind the beans, fill their desired brewing system, add the water, and end up with a hot cup of coffee. This simple morning ritual begins with a much more complicated process, though. Growing, harvesting, and processing coffee can be a complicated task.
Grown
Coffee is grown in warm climates closer to the equator. Coffee farmers usually start with seeds that they’ve saved from being processed to be sold. They plant these green seeds and cultivate their growth to wind up with trees that grow coffee berries that contain seeds, commonly called beans. These berries are then picked from the trees. Most growers have a process for handpicking their crop. The hilly terrain where many coffee growers plant their trees makes it hard to use machines, but on larger, flat farms, machines can be used to harvest.
Sorted and Dried
Once they are picked, the berries are cleaned of debris and sorted. The berries are dropped into a container of water. Unripe berries will float, so they are removed, and the ripe berries are kept. These ripe berries will then have the flesh removed so that only the beans remain. These beans are then fermented to remove a slimy layer of mucilage from the beans. After fermenting, the seeds are washed with fresh water and set out to dry. There are several methods for drying coffee, including labor intensive hand-mixing on drying tables and automated systems that use warm air to dry the beans.
The Final Steps
Once dried, the coffee beans are milled to remove any layers that still might be stuck to the beans. They are then sorted and sent to be roasted. The green beans are roasted until they’re dark. Changing the time that the beans are roasted changes the flavor of the coffee when it’s brewed. Darker roasts usually have a bolder flavor and lighter roasts a more complex flavor. After it’s been roasted, coffee should be left whole as it quickly goes stale. Grinding coffee right before it’s brewed is best, but not necessary.
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