For thousands of years, every morning, humanity has tried to answer this question.
Nature contains thousands of delicious soluble substances inside coffee beans, and we want them all to be in our cup.
Over time, we realized that when ground beans are poured with hot water, it turns into coffee. Sometimes it turns out delicious, sometimes not so much. Why is this so?
We'll try to answer this question by looking at the microscopic level of the coffee bean and seeing what happens when coffee meets water.
When we look at coffee at a cellular level, it's easy to understand how the water-to-coffee ratio, timing, and grind size affect the brewing process. This understanding will help us understand concepts such as extraction and total dissolved solids (TDS).
Don't be afraid of these abstract concepts or expect a story full of routine technical details. What we are about to tell you is the story of one of the most epic prison breaks, where millions of good guys go free while the bad guys remain behind bars. And, as usual, there is a superhero who saves everyone.
Collection of different varieties of coffee: specifics of the process
Experts count three botanical varieties of coffee: Arabica, Robusta and Liberica. Each of them has its own specificity, which is expressed, among other things, also in the methods and features of the collection process.
As for Robusta and Liberica coffee fruits, after ripening they remain on the trees for quite a long time. This is necessary so that they, as they say, “dry”, and subsequently it is easier not only to collect them, but also to pre-process them.
Such a widespread and considered the most valuable variety of coffee, like Arabica, is harvested in several stages. The fact is that the fruits of this botanical variety ripen unevenly on trees, and therefore the ripe ones are removed step by step, leaving the unripe ones to “reach condition.” In most cases, the interval between collection stages is about two weeks, and most often there are three of them: preliminary, main and late.
It is mainly thanks to the gradual process that it is possible to ensure that the grains are ultimately of exceptionally high quality. In this case, a lot depends, of course, on the level of qualifications of those people who are involved in harvesting coffee: experienced pickers remove only ripe beans, and not overripe or underripe ones.
How coffee is harvested in Brazil
Coffee on Brazilian plantations ripens almost simultaneously, so highly productive berry harvesting is possible. But you still have to sort the fruits, as well as remove twigs and leaves accidentally mixed with the grains. A special pneumatic tool that shakes the branches is widely used, as a result of which the ripe berries themselves fall off the branches.
At the next stage, the fruits are processed and dried, which occurs directly on the plantation in one of two ways:
- Dry technology.
Coffee berries are naturally dried for 20 days. They are turned over several times a day with a wooden rake, covered at night to protect them from moisture. This method is suitable in dry areas or during periods of drought. Mechanized drying is used less frequently. Afterwards, the dry grains undergo mechanical exfoliation to get rid of the dried berry pulp, peel and parchment shell of the seeds.
- Wet technology.
This technology allows us to obtain the highest quality raw materials. In addition, the rainy season is not a hindrance for her. First, the coffee cherries are placed in water and the pulp is removed through mechanical friction. The coffee beans remain in the water for another 2-3 days, undergoing a fermentation process, resulting in an improved taste and aroma of the final product.
The remaining pulp is then removed under a strong stream of water, and the grains are left to dry for two weeks. They are dried in the sun for only a few hours a day, stirring constantly. The rest of the time, the grains are specially covered, protecting them from the sun and night moisture. Dry coffee beans move easily in the seed coat, which immediately crumbles if the grain is rubbed in the palms of your hands. It is through friction that the seed coat is removed.
Pre-treated grains are green in color. They are then sorted by size: the larger it is, the more expensive the coffee. The coffee harvest ends with packaging. Bags of grains are stored on wooden floors in rooms with a special temperature regime and good ventilation. Next, at the enterprises, the coffee is sorted, polished and various blends are made.
Only after roasting are the beans finally ready to make aromatic, fresh coffee. Now it’s no secret to you how coffee beans are collected. This labor-intensive and complex process allows millions of people around the world to enjoy the taste of their favorite drink every day.
PS We remind you that our online store offers more than 25 types of original Nespresso coffee capsules. Come in and choose a variety of flavors of your favorite drink.
Recently, the demand for green coffee among private buyers has increased greatly. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, the consumer culture and literacy of Russians is gradually growing and an increasing number of people prefer to roast raw beans at home to preserve the freshness and taste of their favorite drink. On the other hand, interest in green coffee is fueled by increasingly widespread legends about the miraculous effect of green coffee in the fight against excess weight. In this short article, we decided to answer the main questions that customers who are interested in green coffee ask us.
What is green coffee?
Green coffee is the raw bean from the berries that grow on the coffee tree. Green beans differ visually from roasted grain, of course, in color, larger size, higher density and almost complete absence of odor.
How is green coffee obtained?
The berries ripened on the coffee tree are harvested manually or using simple mechanical tools. Then the entire harvested crop is processed in a “wet” or “dry” way. During the “wet” method, a complex system of filtration, fermentation, washing and drying is used. The “dry” processing method means that the berries are naturally dried in the sun and then mechanically peeled from the husk and shell. In the end, only coffee beans remain.
How long can green coffee be stored?
Is it possible to roast coffee at home?
Of course yes. Nowadays, it is not difficult to find special, fully automatic coffee roasting machines intended for home use. The principle of their operation is simple - pour green coffee into a special container, press the desired button, and wait for the roasting process to complete. Don’t forget to let the coffee “infuse” a little and get rid of gases. That's all. The downside of this preparation is that it only wastes time on the whole process, but believe me, it’s worth it! Because you get the freshest coffee in the roast that suits you best.
Does green coffee really help with weight loss?
The totality of facts about the properties of coffee, revealed by numerous scientific studies, indicates that this assumption has a very real justification. Green coffee beans are one of the record holders for the level of chlorogenic acid, which promotes the breakdown of fats in the human body. In addition, the combination of antioxidants and caffeine in coffee beans accelerates human metabolic processes. All this ultimately leads to weight loss. Quite a lot of articles have been written on this topic, so if you need exact numbers and examples, they are not difficult to find on the Internet. You shouldn't expect supernatural results from coffee, but it is a fact that green coffee helps you lose extra pounds.
How to make green coffee?
The process is not much different from making regular black coffee. First, grind the coffee beans (they can be very strong, so be careful not to break the grinder). Next, choose a brewing method that is convenient for you (green coffee can be easily brewed in a Turkish coffee pot, in a French press, or in a geyser coffee maker). During cooking, try not to bring the drink to a strong boil. For a Turk, the process will be as follows: pour in coffee, add water, as soon as the first signs of boiling appear, remove from the burner.
How to choose the right green coffee?
The rules are simple. Look at the quality of the grain - it should be clean, without black spots (the process of rotting begins with them), without holes and without eaten edges, indicating damage by insects. The coffee should be light gray or light wheat in color. The smell should not be obvious, sharp and should resemble the smell of dry grass. The grains must be absolutely dry, without moisture or oil deposits. It is important to remember that even raw grains can be completely different in appearance - depending on the varieties, places of origin, processing methods, etc. None of these factors detract from the beneficial properties of coffee; the main thing that plays a role is how long ago it was collected and under what conditions it was stored. Try to buy green grains from companies that specialize in them, which, as a rule, get them from trusted sources.
Are there any side effects from drinking green coffee?
Science has not identified any side effects from drinking green coffee. Green coffee does not contain any harmful substances. The main thing is to choose high-quality and fresh grain that has not yet lost its beneficial properties.
Coffee plantation yield
This indicator depends on a large number of factors: the type of coffee, climatic conditions, the nature of the soil, the height of the plantation above sea level, etc., etc. However, there are still some average indicators. As a rule, from one hectare of coffee plantation, from 850 to 1600 kilograms of coffee fruits are harvested, and in some particularly fruitful years - up to 2000 kilograms.
Approximately 2.5-3 kg of berries are harvested from one Arabica tree. Of these, about 0.4-0.5 kilograms of roasted coffee beans are obtained in a toga. Thus, it turns out that one tree produces enough coffee per year to make about fifty cups of the drink.
Labor shortage
It is becoming increasingly difficult for farmers to pay for manual coffee picking; today, the payment of pickers' labor constitutes the bulk of production costs. This is one of the reasons why coffee produced in a developed country, such as Hawaiian Kona, is very expensive. Where the economy is thriving, people don't want to make a living picking berries. Coffee farms in Central America often employ workers who migrate from one country to another, harvesting the crop at different times of the year. Today, most of these pickers are Nicaraguans, because Nicaragua has the weakest economy in the region. In the future, finding workers to harvest the harvest will be even more difficult. At one time, Puerto Rico even used prison labor.
Basic methods of collecting coffee
If we talk about technologies for collecting coffee beans, there are several of them today. They differ quite seriously in the level of mechanization and complexity. The main ones are the following:
- Picking;
- Stripping;
- "Comb";
- Mechanized.
Picking is the most labor-intensive method of harvesting coffee beans, but it ensures the highest quality of the finished product. This method consists of experienced pickers manually picking only ripe berries from the trees. Thanks to this, batches of coffee collected using picking are characterized by a very high degree of homogeneity. However, since this method is quite expensive, every year it is used less and less in industrial coffee harvesting.
Stripping is also a manual method of collecting coffee berries, but it differs from picking in the absence of “selectivity”: the picker removes absolutely all the fruits on it from the branch. Technically, this procedure consists of the picker holding a branch with one hand, and with the other, using sliding movements directed from top to bottom, “rips off” both berries and leaves from it. Stripping is most often used when, for some reason, the crop simply could not be collected on time, and it provides a much lower quality of the collected grains than picking.
Another manual method of collecting coffee is the “comb,” however, it differs from stripping and picking in that it involves the use of an additional device. It is a crossbar with sparse teeth and in appearance it really resembles a comb. The branch is “combed” with it, and fruits (mostly ripe ones) fall onto the cloth spread under it. This method of collecting coffee beans is quite simple, technologically advanced, productive, and provides very good quality beans.
In recent years, the mechanized method has been increasingly used. It involves the use of special vibration equipment that “shakes” the berries from the trees. Since not only mature, but also green fruits, as well as many leaves, fall off, the quality of such collection is low. But it provides high productivity and does not require much labor. The mechanized method of collecting coffee is most common in Brazil.
In order for coffee lovers to enjoy the aroma of coffee beans to the fullest, the coffee fruits must first be collected, then processed, and the resulting beans must be roasted.
When harvesting fruits of more expensive varieties, coffee trees are shaken, causing only ripe fruits to fall to the ground. Cheaper coffees
They collect by picking both ripe and unripe fruits.
This is followed by a processing stage, as a result of which the grains are separated from the fruit shell. There are two main ways to process harvested coffee fruits: dry and wet. The choice of method depends on water availability, crop ripening conditions, weather and timing of crop ripening, and the availability of hulling and drying equipment.
During dry processing
The collected coffee fruits are scattered in an even layer on a concrete surface or on special platforms. Sun drying takes up to five weeks and depends on several factors: the thickness of the layer of coffee beans, the average daily temperature and the number of sunny days. During drying, the fruits are turned with a rake or by hand. After drying, the coffee fruits are placed in bags and kept for several more weeks so that the fruits additionally lose some of their moisture. After this, they are subjected to peeling, separating the fruit shell from the green coffee bean. In some African countries, coffee is peeled by hand, while in others there are special peeling machines for this purpose.
Wet processing
more complex and is used mainly on large plantations. It allows you to obtain better quality coffee beans. Freshly picked coffee beans are subjected to preliminary cleaning, during which twigs, leaves or foreign objects that have fallen along with the coffee bean are separated. Then the coffee fruits are quickly washed, after which they are cleared of pulp in a special apparatus - a pulper, which separates the shell of the coffee fruit from the beans. After pulping, the fermentation stage begins, which allows you to get rid of the slightest remnants of pulp, fibers, films and skin shells. This process should last no more than 36 hours, otherwise the taste of the final product will sharply decrease.
After fermentation, the grains are rinsed in cold water, drained into sieves, and then laid out on a stone floor or on wire mesh racks to dry. Coffee beans are dried under the scorching rays of the sun in the open air. To ensure that the grains dry evenly, they are turned over periodically. This final stage lasts approximately 2 weeks.
The residual moisture content of the coffee beans should be 11-12%. It is important not to overdry the beans, as excessive drying negatively affects the quality of the coffee. For example, Arabica, dried to 10%, loses its characteristic bluish-green color, becomes fragile and acquires an unusual taste. Fungi and bacteria begin to develop in under-dried seeds.
Arabica beans are mostly wet-processed.
. Robusta is dry processed almost everywhere.
In order for the grains to acquire a more beautiful appearance, they are polished in drums specially designed for this purpose. Sometimes coffee is placed in a drum along with sawdust, as a result of which the beans are smoothed out, but tiny particles of sawdust remain on them, which look like a white coating. This coating is considered a sign of a high grade coffee.
In some countries, there is a special position - coffee bean quality inspector. These specialists control all incoming batches of coffee beans for their uniformity.
After drying, the coffee beans are ready for sale and further processing.
Processed and dried coffee is packed in jute bags. Typically, dried raw materials are stored for about a month. But just like expensive wine, good coffee requires aging. When raw, unroasted coffee is stored for a year or more, its quality improves - the herbaceous taste characteristic of a drink obtained from freshly harvested coffee is lost. For example, Arabian coffee from Yemen acquires its high quality only after a three-year shelf life, and Brazilian coffee only after 8-10 years of storage.
Along with the traditional one, there is an American technology for processing raw coffee, for which special chemicals are used. As a result of this treatment, there is no need to age coffee for several years.
Treatment
So, somehow we collected coffee cherries. The next step is to remove the coffee beans from them.
The structure of the coffee berry
The berry consists of 5 parts:
- Pulp
is the outermost shell of the berry. It is similar in structure and shape to cherries; coffee berries are also called coffee cherries. - Gluten (mucilage)
is a colorless jelly-like substance covering the patch. It contains a lot of sugars and because of this it is sticky to the touch. Sometimes it is confused with pulp, but it is easy to remember: pulp is colored, gluten is colorless. - Parchment (parchment shell)
is a hard shell around the grain. It protects the coffee bean from changes in humidity and the penetration of unnecessary substances into the grain. Therefore, it is usually removed immediately before the grain is exported - this process is called hulling (hulling). Sometimes confusion arises due to the fact that pament refers not only to the shell itself, but also to the grain together in it. - Silver skin
is a fragile film covering the coffee bean. They don’t take special care of it; when fried, it will turn into a husk. - The grain itself
. Typically, a coffee cherry contains two beans. If there is only one grain, it is called peaberry.
I tried to label the parts of the coffee cherry (I hope I didn't make a mistake):
Original photo by SFT-Trading sft-trading.ru/blog/573
To extract grain, you need to remove the pulp and gluten from it. In general, they can be removed with your fingers without any problems, but several tons of berries cannot be processed this way.
In fact, there is another intermediate method - honey, read about it in the article on the SFT-Trading website
Two different processing methods are used: dry and washed.
Dry processing method
The collected berries are laid out on a flat surface under the sun. For about a month they lie under the sun on special patios. During this time, the pulp becomes completely dry and is easily peeled off mechanically on drum machines. There is no need to worry about damaging the beans on these machines: as long as the coffee beans are green, they are very strong.
Dry processing video:
Washed processing method
Coffee is processed in three stages:
- Sorting
. The collected berries are first dipped into water for sorting. Ripe berries sink, berries of average quality remain floating in the middle, and unripe berries or berries with defects float. - Depulpation
. Sorted berries are cleared of pulp. The coffee bean in gluten is mechanically squeezed out of the pulp. Those who have ever prepared cherries for dumplings can imagine this process. - Fermentation
. After the coffee is cleared of pulp, the pachament (the grain in the gluten) goes into large tanks for fermentation. These tanks are filled with water containing bacteria. The grain stays in them for 36-72 hours, during which time bacteria eat the gluten on the grains. After this, the grain is washed.
Washed processing video:
Drying grain
The coffee beans obtained by any of the two methods must be dried. The grain is laid out on a patio in the sun or on African beds for 4-6 weeks. All this time it is tossed, loosened and turned over so that it dries evenly and does not rot. Drying ends when the moisture content in the grains decreases to 10-11%. The dried grain is placed in bags.
Depending on the processing method, it takes 1-2.5 months from picking the berries to receiving the grain ready for export.
Here's what drying grain looks like (all photos from fratellocoffee.com/coffee-drying-speeds:
How dry and washed processing affect taste
With the dry processing method, during drying the berries begin to ferment, juice and sugar from the pulp penetrate into the grain. Coffee brewed from such beans turns out sweeter, with a slight aroma of stale berries or fruits.
With the washed processing method, depulpation and fermentation occur quickly, within 2-3 days. During this time, sugar from the pulp does not have time to penetrate into the grain. Coffee from such beans is purer, with a more pronounced natural sourness.
"Natural" processing method
Historically, the dry processing method was also called “natural”. This does not mean that the washed one is somehow bad, that terrible chemicals or herbicides are used there. Most likely, the dry method simply appeared first.
If a store or coffee shop sells both dry-processed and washed-processed coffee from a single farm, it will usually add “dry” or the abbreviated “nat” to the name to differentiate them. See:
Designation of washed and dry coffee in the torrefacto store
Designation of washed and dry coffee in the tastycoffee store
Remember about coffee processing
There are two processing methods: dry and washed. Dry is sweeter, washed is cleaner, more acidic. Dry-processed coffee is labeled in stores as “dry,” “nat,” or “naturally processed.”
Roasting coffee beans
A very important, if not the most important stage in coffee production is the process of roasting beans.
, thanks to which the whole bouquet of aroma and taste of the grain is revealed. Roasting of expensive coffees is still carried out manually, since this process is more of an art than a technology, where much depends on the experience and skill of the roaster.
If the beans are not roasted well, the taste of the drink will be spoiled. Properly roasted beans should have a bright shine and look uniform. If they are dull, then this indicates that the grains are either overdried or the roasting technology was violated.
There are different degrees of roasting, each of which can add a different flavor to the same type of coffee.
- Light roasting
is only used for high-quality, delicate Arabica beans grown in the highlands. This method of roasting is also called semi-urban or New England. In the USA, lightly roasted coffee is called cinnamon because the color of the roasted beans is similar to the bark of this spicy plant. Coffee brewed from lightly roasted beans has a sour, slightly watery taste. - Scandinavian roasting
is a type of light roasting that produces a light brown color when roasted at 220-230ºC. This method differs in that the coffee aromas and oils do not come out, but are concentrated inside the bean. Scandinavian roasted coffee is used to prepare the drink in drip coffee makers and French presses. - Medium roast
is the American way. It is distinguished by the fact that coffee beans are roasted intensively and for a long time, but at the same time they never allow oily substances to be released on their surface. As a result of roasting, the beans acquire a dark color, and the finished coffee drink has a luxurious aroma with a bitter aftertaste. - The Vienna roast
is darker than the Scandinavian roast and is most popular in Central Europe. It is also called light French, business or urban. With this method of heat treatment, dark brown spots and oils appear on the surface of the grains, and, accordingly, the drink made from them is quite aromatic. This type of roasting is especially suitable for drip coffee makers and French presses. - French fry
- high. The grains acquire a dark brown color and begin to shine from the abundantly released oils. From such grains, a drink with a bitter taste and a taste of campfire smoke is obtained. In some cases, espresso is prepared from coffee roasted this way. It is mainly used in French press coffee makers and coffee pots. - Continental method
- better known as double or deep frying. The grains acquire the color of dark chocolate. In the United States, coffee that has undergone this treatment is called French roast, New Orleans roast, or European roast. - Italian roasting
is the darkest and is carried out at a high temperature, allowing the maximum flavor of the coffee bean to be revealed. As a result, the grains become very oily, almost black in color. Italian roast coffee is used only for making espresso or in moka coffee makers. By the way, in Italy itself, coffee is roasted to a lighter shade than, for example, in the USA.
By mixing roasted coffee beans of different varieties and different degrees of roasting, manufacturers achieve unique flavor combinations, and the composition of the resulting blends is kept in the strictest confidence.
Only a small part of the coffee is roasted by hand, the majority is roasted automatically. In industrial coffee production, there are three main types of roasting: thermal (contact and convective), dielectric and radiation.
With the thermal contact method, the heated metal of the walls of a special drum containing two and a half hundred kilograms of green beans transfers heat to the coffee bean. But this method was not widely used, especially after convective apparatuses appeared at coffee processing plants in Brazil and the USA in 1935. In them, a stream of air heated to 200°C paints coffee beans a chestnut color, and different types of coffee are brought to varying degrees of darkening. The beans are not completely roasted in drums, but only give them a soft brown color, allowing the coffee beans to “cook” due to their own heat. This ensures uniform roasting, and the grains do not contain impurities and acquire a smooth, shiny surface.
Dielectric frying uses microwave energy. Since ultra-high frequency waves are able to penetrate evenly deep into coffee beans regardless of their size, beans roasted in this way have a uniform taste. The features of microwave energy make the roasting process continuous and faster, and the coffee obtained in this way contains the maximum amount of extractive substances.
The radiation frying method was invented in the USA. As a rule, roasting with the help of ionizing radiation energy is used for combined production methods - first, coffee beans are illuminated with gamma rays, and then roasted using standard heat treatment technologies - but in a shorter period of time.
During heat treatment, coffee beans increase in size up to one and a half times, but at the same time lose about 20 percent in weight due to the evaporation of water, the combustion of foreign particles and the decomposition of certain substances. But at the same time, during roasting, a new element is born - kafeol, which allows us to enjoy the wonderful aroma of roasted coffee.
Sometimes, to give the grains a special shine, they are coated with a very thin layer of glycerin or sugar solution.
If, in the final version, coffee is delivered to the market in beans, then its processing is completed: the coffee beans are packaged in specialized sealed packaging and sent to their destination.
Grain sorting
After harvesting, the berries are sorted to separate unripe or overripe fruits from good ones. In places where labor costs are low and there is not enough money to purchase special equipment, selection is done manually.
In more developed countries, berries are sorted using a reservoir of water. The fruits are immersed in tanks filled with water, and the ripe berries sink to the bottom. The pump pumps them into the main processing section, or they end up there themselves. Unripe fruits remaining on the surface are collected and processed separately.
Grinding coffee beans
Everyone knows that coffee is brewed from ground coffee beans.
, and therefore they must first be ground. This is done in two ways: industrially and at home, and it is believed that the latter is used by true coffee lovers.
Regardless of the method, coffee is coarsely ground
, medium and fine, sometimes even very fine grinding is distinguished (like premium quality flour). If coffee is ground industrially, it is additionally sifted through sieves with cells of different sizes so that the grains in the finished product are the same. This is done because grains of different sizes will impart their flavor, aromatic and other beneficial substances to the drink in different ways. The finer the grind, the greater the solubility of these substances, the richer, and therefore tastier and more aromatic the drink.
Solubility of aroma compounds in finely ground coffee
– 1-4 minutes, medium – 4-6 minutes, and rough – 6-8 minutes. At first glance, it would seem that finely ground coffee is the best, but this is not always the case. For example, it is completely unsuitable for brewing coffee in machines where hot water passes under pressure through the coffee powder. The finer the powder, the more difficult it is for water to flow through it. Therefore, the grind must be selected in strict accordance with the method in which the coffee will be brewed.
Coarse grinding is universal, suitable for preparation in any coffee pot. Medium also works with most methods, while fine is for filter coffee makers. Ultra-fine powder is used only for brewing Turkish coffee according to the original recipe using Turkish coffee (cezve).
Ground coffee
, prepared industrially, goes on sale in hermetically sealed bags, from which the air is pumped out or replaced with an inert gas. In such bags, coffee does not spoil for six months or even longer. The best packaging is considered to be bags with an outlet. But an open package loses its wonderful properties, so after opening it is advisable to tie or seal it as tightly as possible. There is this way to store ground coffee: cut a small semicircle in a bag, bend it, quickly pour out the required amount of coffee, then close the hole. Place the package in a tightly closed metal box, which is placed in a cool, dry place.
Experts say that the most delicious drink with a rich, unique bouquet is obtained only from freshly ground selected grains, crushed using a manual coffee grinder. Grinding beans on it is more difficult and takes longer, but the coffee does not heat up too much and, accordingly, loses its aroma less.
It is easier and faster to grind coffee beans with an electric coffee grinder. Depending on how long the coffee is ground, the grind will vary. But there is a limit when it is no longer possible to grind finer, and with further exposure the coffee only heats up. If this happens, it is recommended to remove the lid of the coffee grinder and let the coffee cool. The aroma of ground coffee quickly dissipates, so it is better to grind as much coffee as needed for one time.
A good coffee grinder can make coffee of different grinds: from coarse to extra fine.
What to do, how to be?
Our choice is pre-wetting (pre-infusion)! Before preparing, we will pour hot water over a portion of coffee for 30 seconds - let the coffee “bloom” - quickly get rid of excess CO2, and then start brewing. Like good wine, coffee gets better after roasting over time, to a certain extent, of course. A few days after completion, atmospheric oxygen begins to do its dirty work, that is, oxidation - the main reason for the aging of freshly roasted coffee beans.
Picking
Traditionally, coffee is harvested using the picking method - selectively picking only ripe fruits, without touching green or unripe ones. This makes the harvest fairly uniform, while the roasted coffee does not lose its original taste. The disadvantage of picking is a decrease in productivity. Many varieties of coffee supplied by our company are collected only by the picking method - the same Arabica ripens high in the mountains, where not every car can reach. But every cloud has a silver lining: hand-picked ripe coffee is the key to its quality. One hundred percent ripened Arabica is a storehouse of substances that give our coffee unique flavor and aroma characteristics, valued by numerous coffee gourmets among our customers.
Comb method
A similar method to the above is the “comb” method. In this case, the coffee harvest is collected using a kind of comb, the teeth of which are located at a great distance from each other. At the same time, a cloth is spread under the tree, where the coffee fruits fall. The quality of such coffee will not be high, since the ripe fruits include overripe and underripe ones, however, the producer of this method will be higher than that of previous methods.
