Coffee bean processing: from picking to roasting, perfecting the flavor

Picking coffee beans

The coffee bean processing begins with picking. Generally speaking, when the coffee berries on the trees are ripe, they will turn bright red, which is the best time to pick them. Farmers use manual or mechanical equipment to pick the ripe coffee berries from the trees and put them into baskets or bags.

Peeling and fermentation

After picking, farmers need to peel the coffee cherries. They can do this using different methods, the most common of which are wet and dry methods.

Wet processing involves soaking the coffee cherries in a pool of water and removing the outer pulp through mechanical equipment. Next, the remaining part is fermented in water for a period of time to remove sticky substances. Dry processing, on the other hand, involves directly drying the entire coffee cherries in the sun and letting them dry naturally.

Wash and dry

Whether it is wet or dry processing, the coffee beans that have been peeled off the outer pulp and fermented need to be washed. Farmers will put the coffee beans in a pool and rinse them repeatedly with clean water to remove the remaining pulp and other impurities.

After washing, the beans need to be dried. This step is very important because too much humidity can cause the beans to mold. Farmers usually spread the beans out on large platforms and dry them in the sun for several days.

Baking

After a series of steps such as picking, peeling, fermentation, washing and drying, the last key link is roasting. Roasting is the process of making coffee beans produce aroma and flavor.

Before roasting, farmers usually sort the dried coffee beans and blend or process them separately according to different varieties and flavor characteristics.

Then, they put these sorted coffee beans into professional roasters for processing. By controlling parameters such as temperature and time, they can adjust the target flavor to be achieved during the entire processing process.

During the roasting process, coffee beans undergo a series of chemical reactions, including evaporation of water, caramelization of sugars, and reduction of acidity. These reactions cause the color of the coffee beans to change from green to brown and release aroma and flavor.

Taste and Enjoy

The carefully processed coffee beans are ready for people to taste and enjoy. The freshly roasted coffee beans are ground into powder and then brewed into a rich and mellow coffee.

Behind every cup of delicious coffee are the hard work and expertise of countless farmers who carefully control every step to ensure that the final product perfectly presents a rich variety of aromas and flavors.

Conclusion

From picking to roasting, each step has an important impact on the final product. Only when various processing techniques are fully mastered and reasonably applied can high-quality and excellent-tasting coffee be produced.

Therefore, we should express our gratitude to the farmers and processors who work hard in the coffee industry, and cherish every cup of coffee that comes from their efforts.