How coffee is grown and produced

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Coffee trees (or simply coffee) grow wild in the highlands of tropical Africa and Asia, but they are cultivated almost all over the world. Most types of coffee trees are small trees or large shrubs up to 8 meters high. In room conditions, they often take the form of a bush. All parts of the plant contain caffeine, which acts as a pest repellent.

A young plant begins to bear fruit no earlier than two years later, usually in the third or fifth year. The fruits of the coffee tree ripen in 6–8 months, and are tied throughout the year, so they can only be harvested by machines in Brazil, where, due to special conditions, the crop ripens at approximately the same time.

Thus, most often the fruits of the coffee tree are collected by hand, systematically, once a week. In small plantations, the crop is harvested in manual containers (for example, in buckets), and in larger plantations, in a small cart, removing only ripe berries one by one. In Brazil, the derriça harvesting method is known – when every single berry is harvested. There is also a method of shaking the fruits to the ground, followed by raking and sifting dirt.

The quality of coffee depends not only on the botanical variety of the coffee tree, soil and other conditions, but also on how it is harvested and processed. It is important to collect ripe fruits. Unripe seeds-grains are tasteless. On the other hand, due to ignorance, perfectly ripened and harvested fruits can be “blown away,” because they must be properly processed immediately, otherwise the crop will deteriorate, become moldy, and go rancid. Thus, the fruits of the coffee tree are also processed on plantations.

How coffee is grown and produced

Blooming coffee bushes in Vietnam | wikimedia.org

How coffee is grown and produced

Blooming coffee trees Arabian coffee (Arabica) | wikimedia.org

How coffee is grown and produced

Coffee plantation in the state of Minas Gerais in the southeast of Brazil | wikimedia.org

How coffee is grown and produced

Coffee plantations in Quindio department in western Colombia | wikimedia.org

How coffee is grown and produced

Coffee plantation in Hawaii | amanderson2 on Flickr.com

How coffee is grown and produced

Coffee tree with fruits | yeahbouyee on Flickr.com

How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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Crop coffee trees are processed in two ways: dry or wet.

 

Dry method

This is an older way of processing coffee beans. In the dry season (for example, in Brazil – in April-September, in Yemen – in autumn), all ripe fruits are removed at the same time, washed and laid in a thin layer in the sun and left to dry for 2-3 weeks. During drying, they are stirred several times a day with a rake, and at night they are covered from moisture.

During this time, coffee seeds are fermented, as if they finish ripening, “get a fortress”, chemical changes occur in them that improve the taste and other qualities of coffee. It is believed that the accelerated drying of coffee in dryers destroys these advantages. Properly dried fruits are husked by hand or poured into special machines to remove the pulp and seed coat from the coffee beans.

 

Wet way

With wet processing, coffee can also be harvested during showers (eg in Colombia, India). Well-ripened fruits are collected and poured into large drums rotating at different speeds with an uneven surface in the middle, into which a strong jet of water is constantly supplied. The drums remove most of the pulp, but little of it remains, so the coffee beans are unloaded from the drums into the boilers, stacked in heaps or pits lined with tiles, and fermented. When the remnants of the pulp from fermentation soften, they can be washed off quite easily with running water.

The washed coffee beans are poured onto flat areas, lined with tiles or rammed with clay, and dried in the sun for 3-4 hours a day with constant stirring for 1-2 months or in fire dryers at a temperature of 50-60 °C. This is a very important step in coffee production. At this time, the coffee beans seem to “accumulate the fortress”, ferment. Too fast drying, as well as long, spoils them. Properly dried coffee beans are poured into machines to remove the seed coat and inner husk.

Interesting fact

There are two elite varieties of coffee, the processing technology of which differs significantly from the traditional one – coffee beans are fermented by passing through the digestive system of some animals.

Thus, the cost of one of the most expensive coffee varieties in the world – Kopi Luwak – is about 550 euros or $ 700 per kilogram. And the price of the most expensive coffee in the world – Black Ivory – is 1100 US dollars per kilogram.

Coffee producers generally do not roast their coffee beans. This is due to the fact that green coffee beans can be stored longer than roasted and even more so ground coffee. Thus, in international trade, mainly green coffee beans are used.

At home, coffee can be roasted in a pan, on a baking sheet in the oven, or in an air grill. There are also household coffee roasters. Roasting takes place at a temperature of 230–260 °C, and the roasting time is 12–15 minutes. The grains require constant stirring to evenly roast them. After reaching the desired degree of roasting, the beans must be quickly cooled, as they will continue the process of roasting due to the accumulated heat.

On an industrial scale, coffee beans are roasted in modern coffee roasters – roasters, where the beans are roasted for 16–18 minutes at a temperature of 200–240 C°.

How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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The unsolved history of coffee

The history of coffee spans several periods. It originates from ancient times and is rooted in the first civilizations of the Middle East, although the origin of coffee is still unclear.

It is believed that the Ethiopian ancestors of the Oromo peoples were the first to notice the energizing effect of the coffee bean. However, there is no direct evidence to this effect, and there is no evidence of where coffee grew in Africa or who among Africans could have known about the existence of coffee before the 17th century.

According to a widespread legend, the Ethiopian shepherd Kaldim became the discoverer of the unique properties of the coffee tree around 850. The later appearance of this legend and the absence of evidence from Kaldima himself lead a number of researchers to assume that the legend is unreliable. From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Egypt and Yemen. The earliest evidence of coffee drinking dates back to the mid-15th century in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen. From Ethiopia, the coffee drink spread throughout the Near and Middle East. By the 19th century, coffee had become widespread in Italy, Indonesia, and America.

Originally (circa 1200) coffee was prepared as a decoction of the dried shell of coffee beans. Then comes the idea of ​​roasting this shell over charcoal. The fried peel and a small amount of silvery skin were poured into boiling water for half an hour.

Currently, there are more than a hundred varieties of coffee. The highest grades of coffee differ in strong infusion and aroma. In Europe, it was highly valued until the 18th century. Later, coffee was classified as a harmful drink, and only in the 20th century did coffee become popular again.

How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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How coffee is grown and produced

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According to the place of growth, coffee is divided into three groups:

  • American (North America and South America)
  • African (Africa)
  • Asian (Asia)

Today, in world trade, coffee is second only to oil in terms of the volume of purchase and sale transactions, ranking second. The largest coffee producers are the following countries:

  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Ecuador
  • Guatemala
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Philippines
  • Haiti
  • Vietnam