The Journey Coffee Takes Before Reaching Your Cup

Kaydee Barker
Aug 25, 2017 · 10 min read

Before making our own journey to the slopes of Volcan de Fuego in Guatemala and talking with coffee farmers, we had little idea about where our coffee came from.

We have a new and deeper appreciation for that magical morning elixir after learning from various organizations and the farmers of Yepocapa, Guatemala. Now we’d like to share a bit of that knowledge and appreciation with you. Step by step, or paso a paso, as they say here in Guatemala, this is what it takes for coffee to reach your cup:

1. Growth — a long-term investment

Young plants generally take between 3 and 5 years to begin producing coffee. The amount of time required before the first harvest depends a little upon the variety of the coffee and a lot upon the altitude it grows at. The higher altitude coffees take longer to develop.

This is true both when talking about the plant maturing to be able to produce and when talking about individual coffee cherries ripening. In Guatemala, the highest altitude coffee cherries take up to two months longer to ripen than the lower altitude coffees.

The plants require care throughout the year, so that farmers always have work to do. This care includes fertilizing and trimming the plants, planting shade trees, running irrigation to water them during dry seasons, and battling the common problem of soil erosion through adding felled trees and short, strong-rooted plants in between coffee plants.

Due to turbulent weather patterns and diseases such as coffee leaf rust, or “roya” as it’s called in Guatemala, this long-term investment is constantly at risk. Though there’s little that farmers can do about changing weather conditions, they are always on the land caring for their coffee as best they can, applying an organic copper-based fungicide, and planting new plants that they hope to be resistant to these problems.

2. Smell the flowers — and watch out for bees

The life cycle of a coffee cherry actually begins with a bloom, which in Guatemala generally opens in late February or March. A small white flower with a sweet vanilla-esc fragrance appears on each stem that will later bear fruit.

The coffee plants, all sub-varieties of Arabica in Guatemala, are self-fertile, meaning that they don’t require pollinators such as bees in order to finish their flower-to-fruit cycle. However, in ecosystems such as that of Yepocapa, it’s well known that the coffee plants and the bees of the area depend on each other.

Studies such as one published by Dr. Veddeler and Dr. Tscharntke in Agroforestry Systems Journal back this up, showing that honeybees that help pollinate the plants can increase the yield of fruit by up to 78%.

While coffee farmers that we talked to didn’t cite these studies, they clearly believe that this is a fact of their work. The work of the honeybees is therefore the next step in the life cycle of the cherries.

3. Collect the cherries — all by hand

Coffee cherries, when they are healthy, ripe and ready to be picked, appear round, plump, and fully red or yellow. Depending on the variety, the hue may be a bright sunflower yellow, a bright rose-red, or a deeper grape-like red.

The coffee cherries develop unevenly, because the stems whose flowers developed and became pollinated first produce and develop cherries first. The difference in the first cherries and the last cherries on a single plant becoming ripe may stretch over a month. Because of this, the only way to harvest cherries only when their ripe is to pick them individually by hand. Frequently.

Once picked, the cherries are loaded into bags with an end weight between 60 and 150 pounds, which are then carried from farms to coffee cooperatives or third-party sellers called coyotes. Farmers (in Guatemala and many other countries) use a strap that loops under the bottom of the bag and over their foreheads in order to carry the coffee.

4. Sort and ferment — “wet” and “dry” methods

When coffee reaches a cooperative such as the one we connected with in San Pedro Yepocapa, it gets weighed and loaded into separation tanks. In Yepocapa, one tank is used for certified high altitude coffee and the other for “conventional” coffee (i.e. everything else). In order to be certified high altitude, the coffee needs to be grown above 4,500 feet or 1,372 meters.

After this initial separation of altitude, farmers using a method called the “washed method” or “wet method” use water to separate high-density beans from low density beans. The high-density beans sink and flow through one tube, while the low-density beans float to the top and flow into a different tube.

The density of the beans is determined by variables such as variety, altitude, and ripeness. Right now, Guatemalan coffees are also affected by turbulent winds and unexpected rains, causing coffee cherries to wither. Yet another variable is the existence of “roya” or coffee leaf rust, which causes the cherries (as well as the affected plant itself) to dry up.

The low density beans are less developed, so they will become instant coffee. The high density beans have developed flavors that make a good cup.

Next, the whole coffee cherries flow into the “despulpadora”, or de-pulper machine, which removes the outside shell (the fruit itself) from the coffee beans.

The shells float and flow out to a pile that the farmers may use for compost or making sub-products such as “coffee tea” and coffee flour. The beans are carried into fermentation tanks, where they will sit for around 24–48 hours to allow the beans to ferment in the sweet mucilage still covering the outsides of the beans.

Alternatively, farmers can use a method called the “natural method” or “dry method,” where they skip these separations and lay the coffee cherries out to dry in tact. This allows the beans to ferment and dry inside their cherry shell.

Both of these methods have merits: the products of the washed method are more consistent than that of the natural method, but the sugars and flavors are a little more developed in products of the natural method.

5. Dry them up — to exactly 11.5% humidity

Mas o menos. 11.5% is the “ideal,” but beans can be between 10 and 13% humidity when they ship. This humidity is ideal, because if the beans have more than 13% moisture, they may get moldy during transport. They also become more difficult to roast with good results, either taking on a grassy, vegetable taste, or if roasted darker, simply ashy and burnt.

On the other hand, if the beans are much drier than 11%, they tend to pick up the tastes and scents of transport — plastic or hemp bag, ship’s conditions, etc. Tastes you probably don’t enjoy in your coffee.

Cooperatives using the “washed method” (like Yepocapa’s) achieve the ideal humidity through two methods: drying patios and heated dryers.

Drying patios are large tiled areas which may be in full sun or in shade. Coffee beans are spread onto the patios in the form of “pergamino,” which is the state coffee beans are in when they still have a thin shell around them called parchment. Over the course of 2–3 weeks, they are raked often to rotate them and allow them to dry evenly.

If the weather is poor during this time or a cooperative doesn’t have sufficient drying patio space, the farmers may also use a dryer in the form of a larger heated drum that rotates the beans while blowing warm air through the center.

Some cooperatives use these methods together, allowing the beans to dry to around 20% on the patio before using a dryer to make sure that they reach that perfect 10–13% mark.

6. Sort again — this time by bean size and “defects”

When the beans have been sufficiently dried, they get bagged in 100 pound bags, sealed, and sent to a dry mill.

At the dry mill, beans are put into hulling machinery that removes the “parchment” shells from washed method beans or the entire cherry from natural method beans.

The beans are then passed through a series of screens to sort them by size. They may also be sorted by an air jet, which separates heavy beans from light ones as well as different colored beans, similarly to the way beans are separated by density in the washed method.

Bean sizes are often described on a scale of 10 to 20, with the number representing the diameter of the bean in 1/64s of an inch. A number 10 bean would have a diameter of approximately 10/64s of an inch, and a number 20 bean 20/64s of an inch.

Many of the “defective” beans, which have been affected by insects chewing on them or random deformity will have already been sorted out due to size and shape differences at this point, but any remaining now get sorted out either by hand or machine.

After this important step, the coffee is ready to be shipped.

7. Ship ’em out — over land and sea

The sorted beans are loaded into burlap or grainpro bags. Burlap bags have been used since the beginning of coffee importation, and they are still the industry standard. Burlap, however, doesn’t seal the coffee. This means the coffee is exposed to the air around it during transport, with the odors, humidity, and other factors able to penetrate the bags. With the exposure to air also comes a loss of the natural aromas that the coffee initially has.

Grainpro bags, on the other hand, have been around for about 10 years and consist of multiple layers of food-grade plastic with a gas barrier that effectively seals the coffee against the outside environment. They are currently only used by the specialty coffee market, where keeping the original aromas of the coffee in and outside factors out is really important. It also allows roasters to keep it fresh even if it needs to sit in storage for a few months.

Bags are loaded into a shipping container by hand, layers separated by cardboard. The cardboard acts similarly to silica, helping to draw moisture and odors away from the coffee.

When the 37,500 to 41,250 pounds of coffee that shipping containers generally hold is loaded, it begins its journey from the dry mill to the port, over seas, and across land once again to the receiving facility. Guatemala to Portland, Oregon, as an example, is a trip of more than … miles.

At the receiving facility, burlap bags are unloaded using fork lifts or grainpro bags are unloaded by hand, since they can’t be punctured without compromising the seal. They’re stacked on pallets, which will be loaded into regular semi-trucks. The semi-trucks make the final journey to your local roaster.

8. Roast the beans — release the flavors

Prior to roasting, the beans are little green unknowns. If you toss one into your mouth, it won’t taste like much. Here’s where the magic of roasting comes in.

Heating the beans quickly causes a change to occur in the chemical composition of the beans, bringing out flavors similar to nuts, chocolate, honey, fruits and more.

As the beans heat up, more flavors are brought out until a certain point after the “first crack.” It’s called a crack, because of the noise each bean makes as it expands rapidly and releases the carbons and vapors. The sugars and amino acids continue to react to the heat, which is still climbing in temperature.

If the beans continue to roast past a certain point of time for a dark roast, the flavors developed up to this point will begin to burn off, being replaced with toasty, smoky, and bitter tastes.

It’s a specialty roaster’s job to find the perfect balance, roasting long enough to allow the full development of the coffee’s natural flavors, but not so long as to burn those flavors back off. This perfect time and temperature is different for every coffee.

When they reach this point, the beans are cooled rapidly by blowing cool air into the beans. Afterward, the beans should “rest” to release carbons for a day or so, then be brewed as soon as possible to ensure the most flavor reaches your cup.

9. Get it into your cup!

Each step, from before the coffee is planted to the way it is brewed affects the flavor of your coffee. That means that the last step depends on you, so take some time to try different brew methods and see what you enjoy!

Want to learn more? Take a tour of the Yepocapa San Pedrana Cooperativa:

Photos by Siglo Film crew: Corey Kopischke and Devon Barker

Sources:

Siglo Film

)

Thanks to Devon Barker

Kaydee Barker

Written by

Siglo Film

The story of coffee; the dedication invested into coffee farms over the last 100 years, and the challenges that are threatening the future of those farms.

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