Visiting the Thailand La Mai Project
By Stuart Grant
By Stuart Grant
By Stuart Grant
By Stuart Grant
Here's how coffee is grown and processed. The following describes the "washed" or "wet" process, which is the predominant style of processing coffee in most countries (notable exceptions: Brazil, Indonesia, Ethiopia). For the purpose of this article I've focused on growing and processing and avoided topics like the technical and political aspects of farming and producing.
Coffea Arabica is the only species of interest for great coffee. It is normally an understory plant - that is, a shrub that grows under taller trees - native to mountainous regions of the tropics. This means a frost-free climate with high rainfall, consistent daytime temperatures around 20-30°C, and (preferably) distinct wet- and dry-seasons. Good volcanic soil is also common to the best growing regions. All of the above amount to very specific environmental requirements! The plants can grow to at least 5 metres in height if left untended, those pictured above (at Mountain Top Estate) are pruned to 3 metres to allow for mechanical harvesting. For manual harvesting they are usually pruned to 2-3 metres in height.
The plants flower after heavy rain, and it then takes several months for the cherries to grow and swell and ripen. Ideally, they become ripe during the dry season so that they can be dried quickly and easily.
Each cherry contains two coffee beans, with their flat sides facing each other, inside a sweet, sticky flesh. Once the coffee is harvested it needs to be delivered to the wet mill.
"Pulping", that is, the separation of the beans from their fruit, needs to happen as soon as possible after harvesting. A pulping machine is used - it works by using motorised drum to squash the cherries (gently), throwing the beans in one direction and the fruit pulp in another. The freshly-pulped coffee beans are covered in a sticky mucilage, which is generally removed by fermentation. The beans are put into a vat, usually but not always immersed in water, and allowed to sit for 12-36 hours. This allows bacteria and enzymes to break down the mucilage. Next the beans are rinsed again, and then dried.
By Stuart Grant
carried with them old-world knowledge of coffee roasting, tasting, and sourcing [and] introduced American coffee drinkers to high-quality coffees ... Starbucks emerged during this period, the brainchild of Second Wave guys. [pp.4-5]The Third Wave (which includes the Big Three profiled by Weissman) essentially built upon the work of the Second Wave and take a further step towards the origins of great coffee by emphasising things like direct trade, microlot coffees, and experimental processing techniques. The interesting thing about this debate is that it is a generational one. Twenty years ago, the Second Wave would have been producing the best coffee available; they were cutting edge. Now, in a time when Starbucks Coffee is seen as anything but specialty, the Second Wave's "cutting edge" is looking pretty dull. But this doesn't diminish what they managed to achieve - which is an accusation felt by some of the Second Wave guys. The key question, they might ask, is not whether or not a particular coffee is 100% Pacamara varietal, or miel processed, or harvested on such-and-such a date... the key question is, does it taste amazing? I think this is a great question in an industry so rife with fads and phases. --- I'd definitely rate this book highly and recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about coffee. To those in the industry, I think it should be required reading!