COFFE PRODUCTIONS

1.- Planting

Coffee bean germination process.

There are two basic methods for the germination of seeds. In one method, coffee seeds
are pregerminated by spreading on a sand bed and covering with moist burlap bag sacks
or straw. The seeds are watched closely and removed as soon as radicals emerge. An
alternative method of germinating coffee beans is to mix the seeds with moist vermiculite
or expanded polystyrene and keep in the polythene bag. Coffee seedlings are grown in
nursery beds or polybags and are planted in the coffee fields when they reach 20-40 cm.

Harvesting

Depending on the variety, it takes approximately 3 to 4 years for newly planted coffee
trees to begin to bear fruit. The fruit, called the coffee cherry, turns a bright, deep red
when it is ripe and ready to be harvested.

Due to the botanical characteristics of the coffee tree and the fact that coffee is often
grown in mountainous areas, widespread use of mechanical harvesters is not possible and
the ripe coffee cherries are usually picked by hand, a labour-intensive and difficult
process. The main exception is Brazil, where the relatively flat landscape and immense
size of the coffee fields have permitted mechanization of the process.

Whether picked by hand or by machine, all coffee is harvested in one of two ways:

Strip Picked - the entire crop is harvested at one time. This can either be done by machine
or by hand. In either case, all of the cherries are stripped off of the branch at one time.

Selectively Picked - only the ripe cherries are harvested and they are picked individually by
hand. Pickers rotate among the trees every 8 to 10 days, choosing only the cherries which
are at the peak of ripeness. Since this kind of harvest is labour intensive, and thus more
costly, it is used primarily to harvest the finer arabica beans.

Field Processing

Coffee beans are the seeds of fruits that resemble cherries, with a red skin (the exocarp)
when ripe. Beneath the pulp (the mesocarp), each surrounded by a parchment-like
covering (the endocarp), lie two beans, flat sides together. When the fruit is ripe a thin,
slimy layer of mucilage surrounds the parchment. Underneath the parchment the beans
are covered in another thinner membrane, the silver skin (the seed coat). Each cherry
generally contains two coffee beans; if there is only one it assumes a rounder shape and is
known as a peaberry. Coffee beans must be removed from the fruit and dried before they
can be roasted; this can be done in two ways, known as the dry and the wet methods.
When the process is complete the unroasted coffee beans are known as green coffee.

DRY METHOD: The dry method (also called the natural method) is the oldest, simplest and
requires little machinery.

The method involves drying the whole cherry. There are variations on how the process
may be carried out, depending on the size of the plantation, the facilities available and the
final quality desired. The three basic steps, cleaning, drying and hulling, are described
below.

Firstly, the harvested cherries are usually sorted and cleaned, to separate the unripe,
overripe and damaged cherries and to remove dirt, soil, twigs and leaves. This can be
done by winnowing, which is commonly done by hand, using a large sieve. Any unwanted
cherries or other material not winnowed away can be picked out from the top of the
sieve. The ripe cherries can also be separated by flotation in washing channels close to the
drying areas.

The coffee cherries are spread out in the sun, either on large concrete or brick patios or on
matting raised to waist height on trestles. As the cherries dry, they are raked or turned by
hand to ensure even drying. It may take up to 4 weeks before the cherries are dried to the
12.5% maximum moisture content, depending on the weather conditions. On larger
plantations, machine-drying is sometimes used to speed up the process after the coffee
has been pre-dried in the sun for a few days.

The drying operation is the most important stage of the process, since it affects the final
quality of the green coffee. Coffee that has been overdried will become brittle and
produce too many broken beans during hulling (broken beans are considered defective
beans). Coffee that has not been dried sufficiently will be too moist and prone to rapid
deterioration caused by the attack of fungi and bacteria.

The dried cherries are stored in bulk in special silos until they are sent to the mill where
hulling, sorting, grading and bagging take place. All the outer layers of the dried cherry are
removed in one step by the hulling machine.

WET METHOD: The wet method (also called the washed method) requires the use of
specific equipment and substantial quantities of water. When properly done, it ensures
that the intrinsic qualities of the coffee beans are better preserved, producing a green
coffee which is homogeneous and has few defective beans. Hence, the coffee produced
by this method is usually regarded as being of better quality and commands higher prices.
Even after careful harvesting, a certain number of partially dried and unripe cherries, as
well as some stones and dirt, will be present among the ripe cherries. As in the dry
method, preliminary sorting and cleaning of the cherries is usually necessary and should
be done as soon as possible after harvesting. This operation can be done by washing the
cherries in tanks filled with flowing water. Screens may also be used to improve the
separation between the ripe and unripe, large and small, cherries.

After sorting and cleaning, the pulp is removed from the cherry. This operation is the key
difference between the dry and the wet methods, since in the wet method the pulp of the
fruit is separated from the beans before the drying stage. The pulping is done by a
machine which squeezes the cherries between fixed and moving surfaces. The flesh and
the skin of the fruit are left on one side and the beans, enclosed in their mucilaginous
parchment covering, on the other. The clearance between the surfaces is adjusted to
avoid damage to the beans. The pulping operation should also be done as soon as possible
after harvesting to avoid any deterioration of the fruit which might affect the quality of
the beans.

The pulped beans go on to vibrating screens which separate them from any unpulped or
imperfectly pulped cherries, as well as from any large pieces of pulp that might remain.
From the screens, the separated pulped beans then pass through water-washing channels
where a further flotation separation takes place before they are sent to the next stage.

Because the pulping is done by mechanical means it normally leaves some residual flesh
as well as the sticky mucilage adhering to the parchment surrounding the beans. This has
to be completely removed to avoid contamination of the coffee beans by products
resulting from the degradation of the mucilage. The newly pulped beans are placed in
large fermentation tanks in which the mucilage is broken down by natural enzymes until it
is dispersible, when it can be washed away. Unless the fermentation is carefully
monitored, the coffee can acquire undesirable, sour flavours. For most coffees mucilage
removal takes between 24 and 36 hours, depending on the temperature, thickness of the
mucilage layer and concentration of the enzymes. The end of the fermentation is assessed
by feel, as the parchment surrounding the beans loses its slimy texture and acquires a
rougher "pebbly" feel.

Debido a que la fabricación de pasta se hace por medios mecánicos normalmente deja
algo de carne residual, así como mucílago pegajoso adherido al pergamino que rodea los
granos. Los granos recién despulpados se colocan en grandes tanques de fermentación
donde el mucílago es degradado por las enzimas naturales hasta que es dispersado,
cuando se puede lavar. Si no se controla cuidadosamente la fermentación, el café puede
adquirir sabores amargos indeseables. Para la mayoría de los cafés, la eliminación del
mucílago tarda entre 24 y 36 horas, dependiendo de la temperatura, espesor de la capa de
mucílago y la concentración de las enzimas.

When the fermentation is complete, the coffee is thoroughly washed with clean water in
tanks or in special washing machines. The wet parchment coffee at this stage consists of
approximately 57% moisture. To reduce the moisture to a maximum 12.5% the parchment
coffee is dried either in the sun, in a mechanical dryer, or by a combination of the two.
The sun-drying is done on extensive flat concrete or brick areas, known as patios, or on
drying tables made of fine-mesh wire netting. The beans are laid out in a layer of 2 to 10
cm, and turned frequently to ensure even drying. Sun-drying should take from 8 to 10
days, depending upon ambient temperature and humidity. Coffee dries more quickly if
raised on tables because of the upward draught of warm air. The use of hot-air drying
machines becomes necessary to speed up the process in large plantations where, at the
peak of the harvesting period, there might be much more coffee than can be effectively
dried on the terraces. However, the process must be carefully controlled to achieve
satisfactory and economical drying without any damage to quality.

Cuando la fermentación esta completa , el café se lava a fondo con agua limpia en
tanques o en máquinas lavadoras especiales . El pergamino húmedo del café en esta etapa
tiene aproximadamente 57 % de humedad . Para reducir la humedad a un máximo de 12,5
% el pergamino es secado ya sea en el sol, en una secadora mecánica , o por una
combinación de los dos. El secado al sol se hace en las extensas áreas planas de concreto
o ladrillo, conocidos como patios, o en mesas de secado hechas de una fina malla metálica.
Los granos son dispuestos en una capa de 2 a 10 cm , y se voltean frecuentemente para
asegurar un secado uniforme. El secado al sol debe tomar de 8 a 10 días , dependiendo de
la temperatura del ambiente y la humedad .

After drying, the wet-processed coffee, or parchment coffee as it is commonly known, is

stored and remains in this form until shortly before export.

The final stages of preparation of the coffee, known as 'curing', usually take place at a
special plant just before the coffee is sold for export. The coffee is hulled, to remove the
parchment, then passes through a number of cleaning, screening, sorting and grading
operations which are common to both wet- and dry-processed coffee. Electronic sorting
machines may be used to remove defective beans that cannot be distinguished by eye.

Después del secado, el café procesado en húmedo, o café pergamino como se le conoce
comúnmente, se almacena y se mantiene en esta forma hasta poco antes de la
exportación.
La etapa final de la preparación del café, conocido como 'curado', se llevan a cabo por lo
general en una planta especial justo antes de que el café es vendido para la exportación. El
café es descascarado, para eliminar el pergamino, a continuación pasa a través de un
número de operaciones de limpieza, tamizado, selección y clasificación que son comunes a
ambos procesos del café.

ROASTING

All of the flavour and aroma that we enjoy in coffee is created by the roasting process.

Green coffee beans are heated to between 180ºC and 240ºC for 8 to 15 minutes,
depending on the degree of roast required. As moisture is lost, the bean "pops" audibly
rather like popcorn and a chemical reaction called pyrolysis takes place: starches are
converted into sugar, proteins are broken down and the entire cellular structure of the
bean is altered. The heating process precipitates the release of caffeol, or coffee oil, the
essence of coffee that we enjoy in the cup. Since it is also volatile and water soluble, once
the coffee beans have been roasted, the flavour can be damaged by moisture, light and
especially by oxygen.

Tostado

Todo el sabor y el aroma que disfrutamos en el café es creado por el proceso de tostado.

Los granos de café verdes se calientan entre 180 º C y 240 º C durante 8 a 15 minutos,
dependiendo del grado de tueste requerido, y se lleva a cabo una reacción química
llamada pirólisis: almidones se convierten en azúcar, las proteínas se descomponen y toda
la estructura celular del grano se altera. El proceso de calentamiento precipita la liberación
de caffeol o aceite de café, la esencia del café que disfrutamos en la tasa.

Roasting is one part art, one part science, and several parts judgment. Too much heat and
the beans are roasted too dark and too much caffeol is burnt; not enough and the caffeol
is not precipitated. In industrial quantities, the process is carefully controlled, but in
smaller quantities, it is down to individual judgement. The higher the roast, the more
uniform the resulting flavour.

Asar es una parte de arte, una parte la ciencia, y varias partes de juicio. En cantidades
industriales, el proceso se controla cuidadosamente, pero en cantidades más pequeñas, es
a juicio individual. Cuanto mayor sea el tostado, más uniforme es el sabor resultante.

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