Seed to Cup
The coffee you enjoy each day has taken a long journey to arrive in your cup.
Between the time they’re planted, picked and purchased, coffee beans go through a typical series of steps to bring out their best.
Seed to Cup
BENEFITS OF ROASTING AT SOURCE
Roasting and packaging coffee at the source has numerous benefits for both consumers and businesses.
Roasting and packaging coffee at the source provides a fresher and more authentic coffee experience for consumers. It preserves the unique flavors and aromas of the region where the coffee is grown, and ensures that the coffee is delivered to customers at peak freshness. Additionally, it provides greater traceability and transparency for consumers, who increasingly prioritize knowing where their coffee comes from and how it was produced.
From a business perspective, roasting and packaging coffee at the source can provide a competitive advantage and higher profit margins. It allows businesses to offer unique and exclusive coffees that cannot be found elsewhere, which can help build a loyal customer base. Additionally, it can be more sustainable because it reduces the carbon footprint associated with transportation.
In contrast, roasting green beans far away from the source can lead to lower quality coffee due to the longer transport times and exposure to potential damage during shipping. It can also limit traceability and transparency for consumers.
Planting:
Coffee seeds are generally planted in large beds in shaded nurseries. The seedlings will be watered frequently and shaded from bright sunlight until they are hearty enough to be permanently planted. Planting often takes place during the wet season, so that the soil remains moist while the roots become firmly established.
Harvesting the Cherries:
Depending on the variety, it will take approximately 3 to 4 years for the newly planted coffee trees to bear fruit. The fruit is called the coffee cherry.
Selectively Picked:
Only the ripe cherries are harvested, and they are picked individually by hand. Pickers rotate among the trees every eight to 10 days, choosing only the cherries which are at the peak of ripeness. Because this kind of harvest is labor intensive it is used primarily to harvest the finer specialty grade Arabica beans. All Noble Farm coffees are hand-picked. A good picker averages approximately 100 to 200 pounds of coffee cherries a day, which will produce 20 to 40 pounds of coffee beans.
Processing the Cherries:
Once the coffee has been picked, processing must begin as quickly as possible to prevent fruit spoilage. Depending on location and local resources, coffee is processed in either the old or dry or the wet processes.
Drying the Beans:
If the beans have been processed by the wet method, the pulped and fermented beans must now be dried to approximately 11% moisture to properly prepare them for storage. Milling the Beans Before being exported, parchment coffee is processed in the following manner:
Hulling machinery removes the parchment layer (endocarp) from wet processed coffee. Hulling dry processed coffee refers to removing the entire dried husk — the exocarp, mesocarp and endocarp — of the dried cherries.
Grading and Sorting :
It is done by size and weight, and beans are also reviewed for color flaws or other imperfections. Beans are sized by being passed through a series of screens. They are also sorted pneumatically by using an air jet to separate heavy from light beans. Typically, the bean size is represented on a scale of 10 to 20. The number represents the size of a round hole’s diameter in terms of 1/64’s of an inch. A number 10 bean would be the approximate size of a hole in a diameter of 10/64 of an inch, and a number 15 bean, 15/64 of an inch.
Finally, defective beans are removed either by hand or by machinery. Beans that are unsatisfactory due to deficiencies (unacceptable size or color, over-fermented beans, insect-damaged, unhulled) are removed. In many countries, this process is done both by machine and by hand, ensuring that only the finest quality coffee beans are exported. The milled beans, now referred to as green coffee, are loaded onto ships in either jute or sisal bags loaded in shipping containers, or bulk-shipped inside plastic-lined containers. The work of roasting cupping blending packaging completes the full cycle, needless to mention storage is equally important. Then of course the Baristas do their job of delivering an Exquisite cup for you to enjoy.