Find Out About The Life Of A Gourmet Coffee Bean
The essentials of a gourmet coffee bean: branch to cup
A gourmet coffee bean starts off as just any other fruit on a branch. The small red berries that preclude a gourmet coffee bean are just the beginning of the brew that pours into your mug. And while the settings may change, the overall process of a gourmet coffee bean remains the same.
Hanging in the sun
As a small red berry, the gourmet coffee bean is grown to full ripeness before it is harvested. Most of the time, the berries are picked by hand, but machines are also used.
The coffee plants are continuously producing berries, so a gourmet coffee bean plant can be picked over and over throughout a season.
Did you know. . . Tea was the most popular beverage in America until 1773, when the Boston Tea Party took place.
After the picking
When the berries have been harvested, the gourmet coffee bean is still beneath the flesh, needing to be extracted. The outside parts are called the skin, pulp, parchment, and silver skin -- they all need to be removed.
For underneath is the twin gourmet coffee bean.
Once the gourmet coffee bean is revealed, there are two routes that it can go. The beans can be dry roasted in the sun, or wet roasted to remove any remaining outer layers.
The wet roasting is much gentler, but the dry roasting is an age old tradition, so it will depend on the particular coffee farmer.
The best of the gourmet coffee bean harvest are selected and packaged.
Off to the roast
The higher quality beans are called Arabica. This means that they have few blemishes and will produce a fine gourmet coffee bean flavor.
The beans are then shipped to particular roasters who place them into hot roasters for specific amounts of time. The longer a gourmet coffee bean is in a roaster, the darker the bean.
A gourmet coffee bean is then ready to be packaged again and shipped to stores and coffee houses.