The process of coffee beans from planting and picking to the process of processing coffee beginners

Planting and picking

The first flowering period of the coffee tree is about three years old, and the fruit is ripe about 6 months after flowering. The fruit generally contains two seeds, called "flat beans", and a few contain only one seed, called "round beans". These coffee seeds are "raw beans". Coffee fruit contains two seeds, namely coffee beans. The two beans are connected face to face with each other on one side of the plane. Each coffee bean has a thin outer film, which is called silver skin, and its outer layer is covered with a yellow outer skin, called endocarp. The whole coffee bean is wrapped in a sticky pulp to form a soft and sweet coffee pulp with the outermost shell.

Coffee trees all over the world grow only in the tropics or subtropics, so the zone between latitude 25 degrees south and north is generally called coffee belt or coffee area. However, not all the land located in this area can produce good coffee trees. At present, coffee is grown in more than 70 countries in the world, all of which are located in the "coffee growth zone" with the equator as the center and between the latitudes of 25 degrees south and north.

Sunlight, rainfall, soil, altitude, temperature, as well as the way coffee beans are harvested and the production process, will affect the quality of coffee itself. Under the premise of ensuring a temperature of about 20 degrees, the higher the altitude or the closest to the Tropic of Cancer, the stronger the unique flavor of coffee.

Very different kinds of coffee

Coffee trees can be divided into two main varieties: Arabica (Arabica) and Robusta (Robusta).

There are also some minor species, such as the Liberian species (Liberica) and the Alabasta species (Arabusta), but they are rare on the market.

Although Arabica and Roberta are widely cultivated, there are significant differences between them. Beans are different and tree species are not the same. Therefore, their use is also different. The world's production of Arabica beans is about 70%, while Robosta and others account for 30%.

Arabica

Arabica has a variety of tastes and acidity, high acidity, less caffeine, red color, less oil, can only grow above 800 meters above sea level, strong aroma, and a variety of different flavors, taste more pure, taste lubrication, chocolate, vanilla and nutty flavor. This kind of coffee is used in the best coffee shops in the world, and experts believe that the quality of this kind of coffee depends on the reasonable blending of bean seeds. Brazil is the largest growing country of Arabica beans, followed by Colombia and India.

Robusta

The flavor of Robusta is more bitter than that of Arabica, and its quality is much lower, so it is mostly used to make instant coffee. In general, the coffee sold in fast food restaurants mainly uses Robusta coffee beans as the material. Because it is made in Africa, most Africans drink robusta coffee. It has strong resistance to disease and high yield, accounting for less than 30% of the world's total coffee production. Robusta has low acidity, high caffeine content, brown color, thick fat and less flavor than Arabica, which can increase the taste and gelatinous taste of coffee.

Liberian coffee trees account for less than 5% of the world's output. Liberian coffee trees are suitable for planting in the lowlands, and the coffee beans produced are highly fragrant and bitter.

The second step: raw bean treatment

The treatment methods of raw coffee beans can be divided into natural sun method, water washing method, natural water washing method and honey treatment method. Different treatment methods also have an effect on the flavor of coffee.

1 natural solarization method

The process of this method is the simplest. The fruit begins the process of sun drying without treatment after picking. This is the oldest method of treatment in existence. This method is still used in places such as Ethiopia and Brazil.

Natural sunlight can retain the fruity aroma of coffee fruit. When you taste this kind of coffee, you will find that the coffee has a fruity aroma and a brighter taste. After drying, people will use special machines to remove the shell of the surface layer. This process is called drying and shelling (Dry Milling).

2 washing method

In the process of washing, the peel and pulp of the fruit are treated with a special desizing machine and the coffee beans are peeled off. The coffee beans then enter the fermentation tank for fermentation treatment so that the mucous membrane is no longer sticky. The sugars in the mucous membrane are decomposed during fermentation. Depending on the fermentation method, the fermentation time is usually 12 hours to 6 days (some growers use the watering system to ferment coffee beans. This method is called the Kenyan washing method (Kenyan method) and usually lasts for several days). It is extremely important to decide when to stop fermentation. Once the coffee is overfermented, the taste of the coffee will become too sour. Once the sticky material in the mucous membrane is decomposed, it will be washed down with a lot of water. (the waste water from the raw bean treatment process is considered to be the source of pollution in the coffee industry. Today, advanced technologies are being developed in many areas to recycle and filter the waste water produced by this process. Water shampoo was born in the 19th century, also known as "wet processing".

A tightly controlled fermentation process increases the acidity of the coffee and is reflected in the final taste of the coffee. But as long as the coffee is washed immediately after the fermentation process, the taste of the coffee can be improved and has a bright sour taste.

3Natural washing method

This method is extremely common in Brazil. The natural washing method is very similar to the water washing method, except that the natural washing method uses a high-pressure washing machine to remove the mucous membrane of the coffee surface, thus skipping the fermentation process. Several raw coffee processing companies in Brazil and Colombia have patented this method and have become local natural water system processing monopolies. The amount of water used in this method is much lower than that of washing hair, so some people are used to calling it "semi-drying (Semi-Dry)". Because there is no fermentation, coffee beans do not exist (or only have a very low risk of fermentation), and the overall quality of coffee is more constant.

Unfortunately, the taste of coffee tends to be flat because it is not fermented. As a result, growers will not use natural washing for ultra-high quality coffee beans. Most raw bean purchasing companies also rarely buy coffee processed by natural washing.

4 honey treatment method

Honey treatment is used in almost all the producing areas of Costa Rica. This method is also widely spread throughout Central America. Because the surface mucosa of coffee beans is extremely slippery and the sugar content is extremely high, it is often called "honey". In the process of honey treatment, coffee will leave some or all of the "honey" when it is dried. After the coffee fruit is picked, graded and peeled, it is placed on a drying bed to dry.

Because the drying time of the mucous membrane is very short, coffee beans hardly ferment during the drying process. The acidity of coffee beans processed by this method is slightly higher than that of natural washing, but much lower than that of natural washing and natural sun processing.

The third step: baking

Raw coffee beans themselves do not have any coffee aroma, only after baking, you can smell the strong aroma of coffee. So the roasting of coffee beans is the transformation process of the internal components of coffee beans, only after roasting to produce ingredients that can release the aroma of coffee, we can smell the aroma of coffee. But in the roasting process of coffee beans, the change of composition is very complex.

Roasting is roasting coffee beans at high temperatures, or roasting, to create the coffee's unique color (similar to amber, depending on the degree of roasting), flavor and aroma. Frying turns the green (or yellowish) raw coffee beans into the familiar tea-brown coffee beans. High-quality fried roasting refers to the ingenious expression of the aroma, sour and bitter ingredients of raw coffee beans.

Baking is roughly divided into shallow baking (Light), medium baking (Medium) and deep baking (Deep).

Light roasted coffee beans: will have a strong smell, very crisp, high acidity is the main flavor and slightly mellow.

Medium-roasted coffee beans: have a strong mellow, but also retain a certain degree of acidity. In the middle baking to the urban (metropolitan) baking stage, the coffee beans have a dark brown surface, the acidity is replaced by slight bitterness, and most of the flavor has been destroyed.

Deep-roasted coffee beans: dark brown in color and oily on the surface. For most coffee beans, the alcohol content increases significantly and the acidity decreases.

In fact, roasting coffee is a way of processing food, and the roasting of professional coffee is the personal expression of the roaster. Generally speaking, the darker the baking, the lower the quality. Deeper roasting means losing most of the flavor of the coffee beans.

This is the whole journey of a coffee bean in front of you, just as the ancient poem says, "every grain is the hard work of farmers." enjoy your coffee.

Coffee knowledge quiz Q&AQ raw coffee beans really need to be cleaned?

When roasted, raw coffee beans can kill almost all microbes. On the contrary, the washed raw coffee beans need to pay attention to two points: first, pay attention not to soak for too long; second, pay attention to moderate drying, drying time is too long is easy to breed mold, too short and uneven drying will lead to uneven baking.

Q seals the freshly roasted coffee beans directly. Why does the bag pay so much?

The bags are bulging because carbon dioxide is released from the coffee beans. A large amount of carbon dioxide may break the bag, so from the point of view of safety and quality, it is necessary to eliminate the amount of carbon dioxide. The methods of digestion are: slightly "aging" coffee beans, packaging with an one-way exhaust valve, or putting deoxidizer in the bag, and so on.

How does Q extraction time affect the taste of coffee?

The sour taste dissolves faster, and the amount of acid dissolved in water in 3 minutes is not much different from that in 5 minutes (by the 3rd minute, the acid is almost completely dissolved), while the bitter taste dissolves more slowly, so the longer the extraction time, the more bitter the coffee.

Q does the coffee brewed with mineral water taste better?

Coffee is a weakly acidic drink with a PH value of between 5 and 6. How to brew coffee with weakly alkaline mineral water with a PH value greater than 8 will weaken the sour taste of coffee, which may make people feel "blurred" for ordinary people.

Source: Greg extranet