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Learning The Process Of Coffee Bean To Go From Bean To Brew

We are coffee bean color sorter factory ,i am interested in coffee bean processing .I want to share some information about coffee beans details.

Coffee is a tricky thing to grow. It’s quite picky – from the kind of weather it needs, the altitude, the watering and the list goes on! 

Here’s some things we learned about the coffee farming process (which we now have so much appreciation for).

1. Growing The Coffee Plants 

Take a guess at how long it takes for the coffee plants to be ready for harvest… 

·       Is it 3 months? 

·       Is it 6 months? 

·       Is it 1 year? 

Not even close! It takes 3-4 years before a coffee plant can be ready to harvest. This makes it very hard for coffee farmers to make their income and it’s why they need to plant other things in the meantime

Eduardo also explained that he had to convince his wife to get into the coffee farming business. His wife was reluctant because it could take years and years before they saw any of the fruit. Before the plant can even be ready to harvest, it takes 4-7 years for the seedling to become mature enough to harvest. This required Eduardo’s family to have patience and trust that it will all work out in the end. Truly inspiring to hear! 

2. Selecting The Right Beans 

There are 2 different kinds of coffee beans grown: 

·       Arabica

·       Robusta

A lot of people prefer Arabica because it is much tastier while Robusta has a more bitter flavor. On the coffee farm tour in the hills of Antigua, they were harvesting Arabica beans.

How to tell if it’s time to pick the coffee bean? Easy!

Just check if the bean is a cherry red color. They spend hours and days just picking the beans.

To help them get through the process quicker, they have these baskets that hang around your waist to make it easy to place all the beans you pick.

3. Sorting The Coffee Beans

Some trucks drive through the farm taking the freshly picked coffee chairs to the center for processing. When they sort the beans, they make sure the exterior cherry skin is removed. After removing the layers, you will start to see the coffee bean (as we know it). Coffee beans are actually a very light pale color which means it’s ready to export to other countries. The roasting process is normally done wherever the coffee bean has been exported for extra freshness.

Once that’s been separated, the coffee beans that stay will be used for cheaper coffee brands. They dry these white beans on the ground for the hot Guatemalan sun for a couple of days to weeks.

4. Roasting & Coffee Making Process

We made our way back to Eduardo’s home so his family could show us the roasting process.

He guided us out back where they had created their roasting room. As soon as you entered, the wonderful aroma of coffee beans satisfied your senses. They used a very old and traditional way to roast the coffee beans – in a pan on a bed of hot charcoal. It took around 5-10 minutes for the coffee beans to be ready for crushing.

Eduardo’s wife showed us the old way of turning the coffee beans into coffee grinds. It did not look like an easy task but was it worthwhile? Oh yes!

Finally – Tasting The Delicious Coffee

Matthew and I had been looking forward to the tasting during the whole tour! We didn’t drink any coffee beforehand and didn’t realize it wouldn’t be till 11am that we took our first sip of coffee. Make sure to drink some before you get in the van if you need it!

Eduardo’s family began serving the hot Guatemalan coffee and finally it was time to taste it. They served it Americano style which they believed was the best way to drink coffee. No milk, no flavoring – just pure coffee. As someone who loves iced vanilla lattes, I wasn’t sure I’d like the taste.

But as Matt and I took that first sip, we quickly looked at each other and were amazed! It was one of the best cups of coffee we have ever tasted. There were plenty of flavors and you could tell it was a premium roast.

Eduardo and his family used to have instant coffee before they got into the industry and now they can’t imagine having anything less than their premium roast beans.

We asked Eduardo, “how many cups of coffee do you drink a day?”.

He casually answered, “9-11 cups of coffee a day”. Yes – you read that right!

We loved hearing their stories of how they became coffee farmers. You can easily see the hard work, grit and perseverance it took to get where they are. I guess we resonated with their story because it reminded us of the entrepreneur journey we had been on.

Website:www.htcolorsorter.com

                                           Olivia