From coffee berries to roasted coffee bean
Before we can drink a nice cup of coffee, the coffee bean has gone through a long process. Each part of that process partly determines the taste and price of the coffee. It all starts as a coffee berry on a coffee plant in countries far away.
Coffee berries
When the coffee berry has been harvested from the coffee plant, it is still a long way from coffee berry to coffee bean to eventually become a nice cup of coffee.
Coffee cherries are harvested by hand or by machine. Because the coffee plant flowers several times a year, they can be harvested several times. That is when the coffee cherries are picked by hand. In mechanical picking, all coffee berries are removed from the plant, and the unripe berries must be separated from the ripe ones later. Manual picking produces a better quality coffee but is more expensive than the machine picking system.
Coffee beans
After picking, the coffee beans must be removed from the coffee cherry. Two methods are used for this. The so-called wet method and the dry method. In the wet method, the beans undergo fermentation. According to the experts, this improves the taste of the coffee. But because this method takes more time, it also increases the price of the coffee.
The beans must be dried when the coffee beans have been extracted from the berry using one of the above methods. After drying, the still green coffee bean is ready to be roasted. This roasting is also called roasting coffee. A dried unroasted coffee bean has a very long shelf life, a roasted coffee bean loses its flavor fairly quickly. The roasting of the coffee beans usually does not occur in the country of origin of the coffee but in the country where the coffee will eventually be drunk.
Roasting coffee
The roasting of the coffee determines a large part of the taste of the coffee. Every country has its taste and, therefore, its way of roasting. The duration of roasting is the most critical factor in the taste differences.
The coffee bean undergoes an enormous change through roasting. Coffee made from green unroasted coffee beans tastes very bitter and sour. The roasting of the coffee ensures that the aromas are formed. Part of the natural sugars of the coffee bean are converted into CO2 gas during roasting, and part is caramelized, which ensures a delicious coffee taste.
In the past, when drinking coffee was still a great luxury, the users themselves roasted the coffee beans. With the advent of large coffee factories, home roasting has virtually disappeared. Nowadays, a growing group of coffee lovers roast their coffee to drink super fresh coffee that has had a roasting time precisely tailored to their taste.
Roasting coffee is not easy and can quickly fail. You will have to prepare for a learning process before you master this art.
How to roast your coffee
To properly roast coffee beans, the following rules apply:
- The beans must be heated to a temperature between 200° and 230° Celsius.
- The coffee beans must be in continuous motion. Otherwise, one bean will be roasted faster and more.
- Keep in mind that roasting coffee produces quite a bit of smoke, so make sure you have good ventilation.
- When roasting, the outer membrane of the bean comes off; if you’re not careful it will spread throughout your kitchen.
- After roasting, the beans must be cooled as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will continue to cook.
In principle, you can roast coffee beans in a frying pan, but it is then very difficult to determine the right temperature to keep the beans moving well and evenly and to catch the flying membrane. For roasting coffee at home, there are various devices for sale that make roasting a bit easier. The price of these devices is mainly determined by the number of beans that can be roasted at once and whether the machine does the roasting fully automatically or not.
Grind coffee
After roasting and cooling, the coffee can be ground. There are also various coffee grinders for sale for this. The quality of these grinders varies quite a bit, sometimes not really but they more or less crush the beans, which does not benefit the taste. It is therefore recommended to look for a good quality coffee grinder to allow the coffee bean to reach its full aroma.
