Enter the world of boutique coffee and learn about the process of coffee from seed to cup!

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Boutique coffee is now the top brand in the coffee market, a cafe can not have cake, but you must have coffee from various producing areas on the menu, otherwise you will feel that the coffee shop is missing its soul. You may meet a guest and ask if there is any boutique coffee introduction? Or are there any beans recommended? This is not a simple question, but a traceability behind the boutique coffee.

It is a long journey from a coffee bean to a cup of coffee, which may take as long as three years, from the seed growing into a coffee seedling, to growing into a coffee tree, then to the coffee tree blooming, and then to the coffee tree bearing fruit. Only the farmers know the hard work, so the ownership of a cup of coffee is not just to go to the store to order. Let's learn about the journey of coffee from seed to cup.

Seed germination period

The germination period of the seeds is about 1-2 months after sowing, and the coffee seeds begin to germinate, and after 3-4 months, the coffee sprouts will break through the soil. At this time, the head of the coffee bud seedling still has the shell of the coffee bean seed, while the leaf seedling continues to grow in the seed shell. Four months later, the coffee shell begins to fall off, and the coffee sprouts grow into leaves, which will fall off after the coffee sprouts continue to grow.

Growth period

The growth period of coffee seedlings is from July to September, with the gradual and healthy growth of coffee seedlings, the seedlings also slowly grow into the embryonic form of coffee trees, and the leaves grow normally. When the coffee seedlings grow to 0.15 meters high, 4-5 pairs of leaves will be transplanted.

Mature stage

After about 2-3 years, the coffee saplings will grow into mature coffee trees, and the coffee trees will have blossomed. The coffee flowers are pure and white and smell like jasmine, but they wither in only three days to a week, and the coffee trees have borne green fruit; 4-5 years later, the coffee trees are fully mature. can begin to bear a lot of fruit. The ripening period of coffee cherry is 4 months. The mature color of coffee cherry will gradually change from green to yellow and finally to ripe red. Ripe coffee fruits are similar to cherries, so they are called "coffee cherries".

Coffee bean is the seed of coffee fruit. The structure of coffee cherry is divided into pulp, pectin layer, sheepskin, silver skin and seed.

Fruit harvest

There are two ways to harvest coffee: manual harvest and mechanical harvest. Manual harvesting is the best and the highest cost, because only picking fully ripe coffee cherries, which is the most fine picking method, while mechanical picking will be relatively rough, not only picking unripe and overripe coffee cherries, but also may damage the branches of coffee, but the cost is low, picking is convenient, so that the picking quality is low.

Fruit treatment

There are three common treatments: sun exposure, water washing and honey treatment.

Tanning: this is the oldest and most traditional method of coffee processing. The farmer will spread the picked coffee fruit directly on the ground and expose it to the sun, turning the coffee fruit manually every once in a while to avoid uneven. When the moisture of the coffee fruit is dried from 60% to only about 12%, the pulp and peel are removed with a sheller, and the coffee raw beans are finally obtained. Sun treatment usually adds blueberries, strawberries or tropical fruits to the coffee with mild acidity.

Washing: this is the method used in areas rich in water resources. The raw coffee beans are poured into the sink to remove the unripe or overripe coffee fruits from the surface, and then the harvested berries are used to peel most of the pulp from the coffee beans. The shelled beans are then directed to a clean tank, soaked in water and fermented to completely remove the residual pulp layer. The flavor is not mixed like sun beans, but shows obvious sour, slightly more complex and cleaner cup characteristics.

Honey treatment: this is after improvement and development, evolved into a new way of treatment. "Honey" refers to the mucosal pectin of coffee pulp. After harvest, the fruit will peel off the outer pericarp with a peel machine, leaving the pulp pectin in the sun, so that the sweetness of the pulp can enter the beans, without having to spend as long as the sun method. Honey-treated coffee beans are more sweet and charming, but the method is more complex and the degree of fermentation is not easy to control.

The processed raw beans will be preserved in the form of shell beans, and the water content is about 12%. Before baking, the endocarp and silver skin will be removed, the coffee raw beans of the right size will be selected, and sundries and defective beans will be picked out, so that the good coffee beans with good export feeling can be baked.

Defect selection

Generally, manual selection is carried out, mainly to better select defective beans. When the quality of coffee beans can not be improved, manual selection of defective beans is a way to ensure that the quality of coffee beans does not decline, and the cost is also relatively high.

Grading

The grading of coffee beans varies from country to country. at present, there is not an international classification method, the main classification method: 1. The size of coffee beans is 2. Number of defects 3. Altitude 4.Type classification

Coffee beans from the same producing area are granulated and full, and the size classification is the mesh size of the sieve to achieve classification, through different sizes of the mesh, after layers of screening to come out of the coffee bean grade. (Colombia is graded by the number of coffee items)

Defective bean classification is to randomly take 300g coffee beans as samples, deduct the corresponding scores according to the number of defective beans, and finally grade them according to the cumulative scores. (classification of Ethiopian defective beans)

The higher the altitude of the producing area is, the higher the grade is. (Guatemala is graded by altitude)

Hawaiian Kona coffee beans are divided into two categories: Type1 and Type2. Type1 is flat beans; Type2 is round beans. Under these two levels, they are divided into several levels according to the size of beans and the number of defective beans.

Baking

Roasting is a key step to highlight the flavor of coffee, the use of roasting is mainly hand net and roaster, according to the characteristics of coffee beans to determine the degree of roasting. Manning will choose medium and deep baking, which will highlight its mellow and herbal flavor, while Guatemala will choose medium and shallow baking to show its sweetness and sour taste. All these should be considered from various factors, such as firepower, temperature and so on.

Brewing and cooking

If you want to make a good cup of coffee, understanding the extraction process of each brewing method is the key. Good extraction is the root of delicious coffee. The flavor of the finished coffee is clear, and its variety, origin, processing and baking methods can be obviously shown through the flavor.

Coffee, in fact, is a kind of plant fruit seeds, after treatment, drying, baking, grinding, with water with a variety of unused cooking utensils, mixed out of the drink! And I prefer to call her "juice".

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