So, how is the coffee processed?
1.Harvest- Farmhands pick coffee from December to March. Pickers are paid $1.30/cajuela and a good picker might pick 20 cajuelas/day. Costa Ricans work as pickers as well as immigrants from Nicaragua and Panama.
2.Transportation to the coffee mill- Farmers transport their coffee to the mill. It is promptly measured and checked for quality to make the coffee has been picked in the last 24 hours. If it has sat for longer, the berries would begin fermenting which would affect the taste.
3. Pulping- The coffee goes through a wet milling process. The pulp gets reused to make organic compost, which is given back to farmers. The coffee sits in its own juices and is allowed to ferment.
4. Drying- It is then dried for 24 hours in a machine or sun dried the traditional way for 8 days. Done this way, it has to be raked every hour to ensure even drying.
5. The coffee “rests”- The coffee is stored in silos until it gets to 12% humidity. This takes at least 2 months. The coffee bean still has several layers, which will later be removed, including the parchment. Later, when the parchment is removed, it becomes fuel for the dryers. This decreased their wood consumption by 90% when they began reusing the parchment a couple of years ago.
6. Final processing- The husk is removed and the beans are sorted using machines for quality by size, density, and color.
7. Packaging- Coffee is packaged to be exported for roasting. Roasting is done in a variety of ways and can change the flavor of the coffee.
8. Cupping- The coffee is checked for quality. A “cupper” smells the fragrance of the ground coffee, the aroma after steeping a cup, and the flavor. Each coffee is checked multiple times for consistency.
Coffee Calendar
November-March= harvest (November for lowlands; March= for higher altitudes)
April=pruning
May & June= applying fertilizers and herbicides
July-September=pruning shade trees
September-October= manage and control diseases from the rainy season (i.e. apply fungicides)
1.Harvest- Farmhands pick coffee from December to March. Pickers are paid $1.30/cajuela and a good picker might pick 20 cajuelas/day. Costa Ricans work as pickers as well as immigrants from Nicaragua and Panama.
2.Transportation to the coffee mill- Farmers transport their coffee to the mill. It is promptly measured and checked for quality to make the coffee has been picked in the last 24 hours. If it has sat for longer, the berries would begin fermenting which would affect the taste.
3. Pulping- The coffee goes through a wet milling process. The pulp gets reused to make organic compost, which is given back to farmers. The coffee sits in its own juices and is allowed to ferment.
4. Drying- It is then dried for 24 hours in a machine or sun dried the traditional way for 8 days. Done this way, it has to be raked every hour to ensure even drying.
5. The coffee “rests”- The coffee is stored in silos until it gets to 12% humidity. This takes at least 2 months. The coffee bean still has several layers, which will later be removed, including the parchment. Later, when the parchment is removed, it becomes fuel for the dryers. This decreased their wood consumption by 90% when they began reusing the parchment a couple of years ago.
6. Final processing- The husk is removed and the beans are sorted using machines for quality by size, density, and color.
7. Packaging- Coffee is packaged to be exported for roasting. Roasting is done in a variety of ways and can change the flavor of the coffee.
8. Cupping- The coffee is checked for quality. A “cupper” smells the fragrance of the ground coffee, the aroma after steeping a cup, and the flavor. Each coffee is checked multiple times for consistency.
Coffee Calendar
November-March= harvest (November for lowlands; March= for higher altitudes)
April=pruning
May & June= applying fertilizers and herbicides
July-September=pruning shade trees
September-October= manage and control diseases from the rainy season (i.e. apply fungicides)
Hola Senora Kapeckas!
ReplyDeleteHow's Costa Rica? I'm glad they are now using less wood and it must save them money by not having to pay to throw it out. How muh of the coffee making process happens where you are and how much happens at a different location? Have fun!
Hi Ali- It's great to hear from you. I thought it was great that they are doing more re-using and recycling too! The first steps I described happen here, but almost all of the roasting happens once the beans have been exported. Thanks for writing!
ReplyDelete