Sixty percent of Americans drink coffee each and every day, with the average drinking 3 cups. That’s a lot of cups!
But, have you ever wondered how the process of getting coffee from the plants to your morning cup of Joe works? Let’s go through what you need to know about coffee beans and harvesting, such as Air Roasted Flavored Coffee.
Let’s go through what you need to know about coffee beans and harvesting.
Growing Coffee Beans
Did you know that coffee beans are actually plants? Of course, you can’t plant the ones you buy at the store in the ground—they’ve been processed. Coffee plants are usually grown in fields, ideally in nurseries. Once the seedlings have sprouted in the coffee fields, they are transferred to pots so that they continue to grow.
But, coffee trees take a long time to bear fruit. It actually takes several years for coffee trees to be harvestable.
Harvesting Coffee Plants
Once the nursery is filled with fully-grown plants, it’s time for them to be harvested. Coffee cherries are the fruit that are harvested from the trees. The cherries are green when they’re unripe, and become redder the riper they are.
Coffee trees can be harvested by hand, but nowadays on big farms, they’re usually harvested by machines. These machines either work by strip picking, where they pick all the coffee beans, or selective picking, where they pick only the coffee beans that are ready for harvest.
Processing Coffee
Next, it’s time for the coffee to be processed. First off, the coffee bean must be removed from the fruit as quickly as possible. There are different ways this can be accomplished.
The wet and dry methods are the most common ways. The dry method is the traditional way this has been accomplished, while the wet method is a more recent innovation.
Once the coffee bean has been separated, the husk needs to be removed from the beans. Then, the beans are usually polished to get rid of any excess skin. The polished beans will then be sorted based on their size and weight, and inspected for color and consistency. This is especially important when coffee is being grown for sale.
If coffee is being grown by a small farm or for personal use, the beans are then tasted in order to check that the coffee tastes good and that there are no other issues.
Now that the coffee beans are essentially ready, it’s time for them to be roasted for our use. The roasting process is how we get different types of coffee roasts. Read this article on light roast coffee to learn more.
You can also get different coffee flavors during this part of the process. Once the beans are processed, they’re infused with different flavors.
Now the coffee beans are ready to be packaged, exported, and sold at your local store. You’ll go down to the store, buy your coffee beans of choice, and take them home to brew your morning pot of coffee.
Enjoy Your Coffee Beans Today
Hopefully, you now understand how coffee beans go from the plant to your favorite cup of coffee.
Are you craving for more? There are many different helpful articles available to you on this website.
