Care for a cup of coffee?

Perhaps it's time for relaxing,  for many, a good beverage to delight upon while doing this is coffee. And since this is mainly a coffee shop we would like to offer you a cup.

You have a large list of presentations to choose from: Americano, latte, Espresso, mocha, Capppuccino, cortado, Turkish?

Indeed the list can get long and this are just the presentations of the beverage itself, there is also the quality of the coffee beans brewed, that is, to know if it is arabica or robusta coffee.

Perhaps you are not that fond of it, or pehaps you are, either way a little of culture knowledge won't hurt you :)

Coffee is a brewed drink made from roasting coffee beans. These are the seeds of the coffee cherries. There are two main species of the plant: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (robusta).  From these two main species, arabica coffee is generally more highly regarded than robusta coffee. Robusta tends to be bitter and have less flavor, but has better body than arabica. Also the Coffea canephora is less suceptible to disease.

In 2009 Brazil was the top green coffee producer follow by Vietnam, Indonesia and Colombia.

Coffea arabica is cultivated in Latin America, eastern Africa, Arabia and Asia. Robusta is cultivated in western and central Africa, throughout southeast Asia and partly in Brazil.

Beans from different countries or regions can usually be distinguished by differences in flavor, aroma, body, and acidity.

Originally coffee farming was done in the shade of trees, commonly referred to as the traditional shaded method, or "shade-grown" This method allows the existence of a natural habitat for many animals and insects. In the 70's farmers started to cultivate coffee plants in sun with little or no forest canopy. This allows the berries to rippen more rapidly and bushes producer higher yields; on the other hand, to do this requires the use os pesticides and fertilizers which damage the enviroment.

Thus bringing to discusion with method is allegedly superior, this is up to you to decide, tables of comparison and documents regarding each methos of cultivation can be found throughout the internet. The term "Organic Coffee" is used to refer the shade-grown crops.

... Well this is for the farming, now, into the processing

Green coffee undergoes several processes before becoming the traditional roasted coffee.
Coffee berries  can be selectively picked by hand or strip picked, after that green coffee is either dry processed or wet processed.

• The dry process method is the oldest method of processing; the entire cherry is place to dry on tables or patios.
• The wet process method the fruit covering the seeds is removed before drying, the berries are inmersed in water, the bad or unripe fruit will float and the good ones will sink. The pulp is removed by fermentation or machine assisted.

...Roasting

Now the green coffee is ready to be roasted, this process allows coffe beans to expand and change color and density, thus giving the coffee the characteristic flavor and smell.

It can be sold roasted by the suplier or it can be home roasted. It is very likely that the roasting will take place near the place where it will be consumed.

The changing of the color goes from yellow to different levels of brown, during the latter part oils will come out, making the bean shiny.

Here is where the grading takes places, either done by human eye or more accurately done by spectroscopy. Now as the bean is lighter the signature charasteristics of the place of origin are dominant henceforth the darker it gets, the "roast flavor" gets dominant.

In case you are buying coffee beans just remember that the shinnier they are, the more roasted it is.

...Finally the storage 

Things to get into consideration are: air, moisture, heat, and light, these are place in order of importance to mantain the product fresh. The bag should be kept in a cool, dry and dark place.

From here on we get the presentation of the coffee, this is what we know as esspreso, latte, etc. we will address this topic in another post.

Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised.  ~Star Trek: Voyager

Care for a cup of coffee?