How Did I Get This Cup of Coffee

Not so long ago I was fortunate enough to travel to Honduras and spend a week learning what it takes to get that great cup of coffee I drink each morning. I had no idea of the intense labor that went into getting me my morning brew until I saw it in action. Although it will never be the same unless you travel with us to a coffee producing country, I will try to explain to you what I learned.1. Growing the beansThe best coffee is grown in the highest altitudes. Our Honduran coffee is 100% Arabica beans and is only accepted if grown at 1200 meters above sea level and above, that’s 3937 feet or roughly ¾ of a mile above sea level. To start a new plant the farmer carefully selects the finest beans from his current crop. He dries those beans and then waits for the next planting season. Once planting season arrives he will start new seeds in a small area where he can pay careful attention to them while they come to life. Once they are about 18 inches tall he will take them and transfer them to their permanent home somewhere on his mountain. After that, he fertilizes, mulches, prunes, and debugs his plants for the next 3 to 4 years, while he awaits his first harvest of cherries (the term for ripened coffee beans).2. Harvesting the beansOnce the plants have produced a fully ripened cherry, the farmer will begin the harvest. Each bean must be picked by hand because machine picking will damage the plant and it will no longer produce beans. This is a very difficult process. First, you are trying to pick plants that are located on the side of the mountain. The terrain is steep and the plants are tall. Often times it is a two person job to pick the cherries from one plant. One person ties a rope to the top of the plant and pulls it to its side while the other person picks the cherries. The cherries are then loaded into a burlap sack that, when filled, will weigh about 150 pounds. That burlap sack is then loaded onto the shoulder of a surprisingly strong young man who treks the sack to the closest road. That bag, along with others, are loaded onto a truck which is headed for processing.3. ProcessingThere are a lot of steps in processing but here are the highlights:

1. Wet Milling – This process removes the cherry hull and mucilage. Mucilage is similar to the insides of a grape and is quite flavorful and sweet. It’s called wet milling because you are using cherries, water, and a milling machine to forcefully remove the hull (skin). The hulls are composted upon removal and used as fertilizer to put back into the soil.
2. Fermenting – Immediately after wet milling, the beans are held in large vat for about 24 hours for fermenting. This process breaks down a sugary layer that surrounds the bean while it is in the cherry. This process can also affect the flavor either positively or negatively if not done with precision. At the end of the fermenting process when the process is “just right” the beans are washed again to remove the last of the sugary mucilage.
3. Sun Drying – Once fermenting is done the beans are spread over a very large concrete patio and subjected to the heat of the sun. The beans are constantly turned throughout the day by using a straight hoe and walking up and down the patio.
4. Solar Drying/Elevator Drying – Some beans are taken from the patio and placed in trays that are then placed in racks and left in the sun for solar drying. Other times beans are taken and placed in large drying elevators. The elevators are heated by flames and this drives moisture out of the beans. No matter what method is used, it is necessary to remove all but 11% humidity from the beans during the process.
5. Dry Milling – Once the beans are dried it is necessary to remove the parchment. Parchment is a very thin layer of material left on the bean. Think of a peanut – first you remove the shell and once you remove the shell you find the nut but it is still covered in a dark brown skin (called testa) which you can remove or eat. This is basically the same as parchment except this material is not good for the flavor of the coffee so it must be removed. The parchment is removed by running the bean through a series of rollers, which basically pops the parchment off the bean.
6. Polishing – Once the parchment is removed the beans are polished to remove and parchment fragments or other debris.
7. Size Grading – The beans are then sent through a series of screens that grade the size of the bean and route them to separate finished bags. All the big beans go one way, the medium another, and the small still another.

4. ExportNow the bean is ready for export and is loaded onto a container bound for port. Upon arrival at port the beans wait to be loaded onto a ship headed for the U.S.A.5. ImportUpon arrival in the U.S.A. the beans are met with distrust, so sometimes they are unloaded from their container, x-rayed to make sure they contain no contraband, and then reloaded as they await a freight forwarder. Once the freight carrier picks them up they are headed to the roaster.6. RoastingThere are few jobs left in America that are still defined as a craft, but coffee roasting is one of those. It takes a well-seasoned artisan to know the ends and outs of a bean, how it will perform in the roaster, what the sounds of roasting beans mean, and how to turn all that data into a great cup of coffee. There is plenty of science as well, such as, what’s the color of the bean before and after roasting, where is the coffee on the flavor wheel, which roast profile best suits this bean, etc. Once roasted, the coffee is ground, bagged, sealed, and placed in cases.7. DistributionFinally, a product is ready for market. It’s all easy from there, right? Wrong. Now the fun really begins. Who’s the customer? How do I get people to buy this great product? How do I communicate the quality of the product so people understand the value in the price? How do I convert a grocery coffee brand drinker to a quality coffee brand drinker?8. Brewing and EnjoyingThis is truly the easy part. Brewing coffee is easy but enjoying great coffee is even easier.So, this is how a cup of coffee gets to your kitchen table, your counter top, or the cup holder of your vehicle. It’s not easy but it’s worth it. It’s worth it because when you produce something go od you take pleasure in seeing others enjoy it. It’s worth it because when you produce something to do good you take pleasure in seeing others helped by it.E.