Coffee consumption: the 10-step process that lights up your day

IN ORDER for you to get that perk every morning or through every sip of that coffee you enjoy, there is a long unseen, unnoticed process that the consumer does not have to endure.

These processes are carried out by persons at various levels, thus ensuring that the consumer is provided with a quality product that has passed through rigorous assessments at every stage of transition in the process of generating that fine cup of brew.

STEP 1: PLANTING

These seeds are planted in nurseries and are cared for until they are sound enough to be permanently planted in the field.

STEP 2: HARVESTING OF CHERRY COFFEE

Coffee plant is ready for an economic harvest at three to four years. When the fruit takes on a bright, deep red colour it is then ready to be removed from the plant.

STEP 3: PROCESSING OF CHERRY COFFEE

The cherry ripe fruits are carefully removed by hand. Coffee processing can be done by one of two methods:

The Dry Method: This is where the freshly picked cherry ripe coffee are simply spread on large surfaces to dry in the sun.

The Wet Method: After harvesting, the pulp or skin is removed in a wet mill, using water. The freshly harvested fruits are passed through a mechanical machine where the skin is separated from the bean.

I Drying of the beans:

The beans can be sun-dried by spreading on patios (barbecue) tables or in mechanical driers. The now dried beans are known as parchment coffee and are stored in jute (crocus) bags until they are ready for commerce.

Processing of the coffee: Before the parchment coffee is commercialised it goes through a process of transformation as follows:

STEP 4: HULLING

Here machine is used to remove the parchment layer from the wet processed coffee. For the dry processed coffee, hulling is the removal of the entire dried husk from the dried cherry coffee.

STEP 5: POLISHING

This process is optional in which any silver skin that remains on the beans after hulling is removed mechanically.

STEP 6: GRADING AND SORTING

This process is done by evaluating the size and weight of the beans as well as the colour for any imperfections. Defective beans (unacceptable size or colour, overfermented beans, insect damage, unhulled) are removed either by hand or by machinery.

STEP 7: COMMERCIALISING THE BEANS

The processed beans are now referred to as ‘green bean’. These are packaged in jute bags or in the case of Jamaica, in barrels, in preparation for export. Before commercialising, however, the ‘green bean’ is tested for quality and taste. This process is referred to as ‘cup testing’.

The tasting consists of the cup tester slurping a spoonful of the coffee with a quick inhalation. The objective of this process is to spray the coffee evenly over the cup tester’s taste buds to determine the taste profile of the coffee.

STEP 8: ROASTING THE COFFEE

Roasting of the coffee bean is a process that transforms the ‘green coffee bean’ into the aromatic brown beans. Roasting produces the aroma and flavour of the coffee we enjoy so much.

STEP 9: GRINDING OF THE COFFEE

Grinding is done to release the flavour from the bean into a cup of coffee.

STEP 10: BREWING THE COFFEE

Since coffee is personal, the right way to make it is how the drinker likes it best. It is therefore important that the brewer be able to master the fundamentals in perfecting the brewing technique.