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Coffee is a cold or hot drink brewed from ground coffee beans. But although the coffee bean resembles a bean, it’s not actually a bean but rather the pit or seed inside a coffee cherry. This is the fruit produced by a coffee plant.
Coffee plants can live up to 100 years, with these trees producing the most coffee cherries between the ages of 7 and 20. Each year, a single coffee plant may produce about 10 pounds of coffee cherries, according to the National Coffee Association. The cherries turn bright red when ripe, at which point they are ready for harvesting.
What Is the History of Coffee?
An old legend states that coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia in A.D. 850 by a herdsman named Kaldi. While in his field one day, he caught sight of his goats acting excitedly near a bush. Upon further observation, he found the goats eating what appeared to be red berries (coffee cherries).
Kaldi also ate the berries. After experiencing a similar feeling of elation and energy, he brought the berries to local monks. They came up with the idea of drying and boiling the cherries to make a beverage, hence the birth of coffee.
From here, the energizing effects of coffee gradually become known around the world. It spread to Arabia and then Europe. Coffee reached North America in the mid-1600s, according to the National Coffee Association.
How Coffee Is Made
In its younger years, coffee was made by boiling coffee cherries. Today, the process is a bit more involved, as explained by the National Coffee Association:
Step 1: Planting Unprocessed coffee seeds are planted and grown into a coffee plant. It can take an average of three to four years for a newly planted tree to produce coffee cherries.
Step 2: Harvesting Young coffee cherries are green but turn bright red when ready for harvesting. Cherries can be picked by hand or machine. Harvesting takes place once a year.
Step 3: Processing, Fermenting, and Drying Coffee beans have a high moisture content and require drying to achieve an ideal moisture level of 11 percent. There are two methods for processing and drying the beans. The dry method is a four-week process where coffee cherries dry naturally in the sun. Cherries are scattered evenly on a surface with the skin layers still attached (pulp, mucilage, and parchment). The cherries are frequently raked or turned to ensure even drying.
The dry method doesn’t involve removal of the coffee cherry skin before drying, but the wet method does. During the wet method, the pulp is removed from the coffee cherry, revealing the coffee bean with the parchment skin still attached. The beans are also soaked in a water-filled fermentation tank for up to two days until the mucilage naturally dissolves. Fermentation — which is common with specialty coffees — breaks down the sugar in the mucilage to enhance the flavor and smell of the coffee beans. Once this process is complete, the beans are rinsed and either sun-dried or machine-dried.
Step 4: Milling A hulling machine removes the skin from dry-processed coffee and any remaining parchment from wet-processed coffee. Beans are then graded and sorted by size and weight, and checked for flaws. Defective coffee beans are removed by machine or hand. After milling, coffee beans are referred to as “green coffee.”
Step 5: Roasting This process turns green coffee beans into brown coffee beans. Coffee is roasted at about 550 degrees F.
Step 6: Grinding This process converts a coffee bean into coffee grounds, which are then brewed into a cup of coffee.
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