To many people, there is nothing better than a good cup of coffee. Different people have different ideas about what a good cup of coffee is. When you need a special cup of coffee, you may stop off at the local coffee shop for that fancy frothy hot or iced beverage. But for every day, it is great to have the makings of a great cup of coffee right at home. So how do you choose the best coffee beans and means to make that great cup of coffee? Do you want easy gourmet coffee or do you want to grind your own beans and use that special coffee maker to get a praise-worthy cup of coffee with your own labor?
Coffee Beans or Ground Coffee?
UK coffee roasters are one fine group of coffee bean suppliers. Every country has good sources of coffee makings for those who look. But, why not give the UK suppliers a try? They offer whole beans or ground beans. Suppliers source coffee from countries such as Ethiopia, Columbia, Brazil, Java, Costa Rica, Kenya, India, and Tanzania. Each country grows coffee with unique characteristics and if one country has a bad year, coffee can come from the other countries.
The coffee can be ordered dark or light roasted and as whole beans or ground coffee. To make the best coffee, the best machines are needed and many coffee suppliers also sell coffee-making machines and coffee bean grinders. People have choices on which form of coffee to order and to use, and it all boils down to how easy a person wants to get a cup of coffee to be and what form they think gives them the best taste. Many coffee aficionados have a collection of different coffees for different moods and for variety.
How is Coffee Processed?
To fully appreciate that morning cup of coffee, it is necessary to understand how coffee is grown, harvested, and processed.
- Planting and growing coffee plants is a time-honored ritual. The unroasted coffee seeds or beans are planted in shaded beds and allowed to sprout and grow for a few days before being moved to their own pots with special soils and nutrients. These coffee plant seedlings are carefully nurtured and shaded until they are late enough and vigorous enough to be transplanted to their final growing fields. this is done during the rainy season to ensure enough moisture in the soil to allow maximum root growth.
- The newly planted coffee fields take from 3 to 4 years to mature and bear fruit which may be called cherries. The fruit goes from green to bright red to dark red with fruits at various stages being on the same plants.
- Harvesting the coffee fruit is done by hand or by machine. Since the cherries ripen at different rates, handpicking yields the highest quality. Hand harvesting will be done in up to three pickings to clear a farm. In Brazil where the fields are flat, the coffee cherries are often harvested by machine.
- Coffee is harvested in one of two ways, strip picking where the cherries are stripped off the branches by hand or by machine and by selective picking where only the red cherries are picked and the green ones are left to ripen and be picked at 10-day intervals until the plants are bare. The cherries picked at the beginning and end of the season are not the best quality. The best cherries are the ones harvested mid-season.
- Coffee cherry processing must be done as soon as possible to prevent losses by spoilage. Processing will be one of two methods. The first method is the dry method wherein in dry regions the cherries are spread out on a clean, large raised surface to dry in the sun for 15 to 20 sunny days. The cherries are raked or stirred regularly to ensure even drying. They are covered at night. The over-ripe and under-ripe cherries are discarded. This method makes higher quality coffee beans. The second method is the wet method where water is used to clean and sort the berries and then put them through a pulping machine to remove the outer skin or husk leaving naked beans. The naked beans are then put in tanks of water and stirred to get rid of the remaining sticky substance. They are washed several times and then put out in the sun to dry. The dry beans may be called parchment coffee.
- Coffee milling comes next and removes the dried husks, exocarp, endocarp, and mesocarp. Better quality beans are also polished. The beans can be sorted pneumatically using air jets to separate the heavy and light beans. Then the beans are sized in a series of screens. The beans are sorted from finest to lower qualities.
- Tasting takes place in a process called capping. The tasters look for acidity and the body and the aftertaste of the coffee.
Coffee Roasting
There are several types of coffee roasts and they include:
- Light roast that does not produce oil on the surface of the beans. The beans will be light to medium brown.
- Medium roast produces medium brown beans developed during the first “crack”.
- Dark roasting produces darker charred beans with oil on the surface. Dark roast happens after a second “crack” and the beans will be dark brown to almost black.
This stage of processing takes place close to where the consumer will buy the beans because roasting causes the beans to start to lose their quality. This is why some people prefer to home roast coffee beans. The type and time of roasting produce different coffee flavors and each has its loyal adherents.
Coffee Grinding
Coffee grinding is the final step before coffee brewing and that end result of a delicious cup of coffee. Grinding coffee beans can be done by a processor, a supplier, a coffee shop, or the person making coffee at home. The coffee can be ground to different textures and degrees of fineness depending on the coffee brewing machinery it will be used in. Grinding determines how fast the coffee will release its flavors and perhaps how strong the final cup of coffee will be.
