EDUCATION: FROM BUSH TO BEAN
Note: This section, titled "Bush to Bean," may perhaps be misleading. The plant from which the coffee bean comes is actually a tree not a bush. In addition what are commonly termed coffee beans are actually the seeds of the coffee cherry. Bush to Bean just has a nicer flow. That said, on to the process...
Little beans
Like most plants on this planet, coffee begins its long and fruitful life as a little seed. In fact, the roasted coffee beans that you purchase are the seeds from which coffee grows. These little green beans start out in a nursery and are soon transplanted somewhere on the plantation where they will spend the next 20 or so years producing beans for your coffee.
 The cherry
After four or five years (if left unpruned), a coffee tree can reach a height of nine to fifteen feet tall. However, a quality coffee plantation will always prune back its coffee trees so that the bulk of its nutrients will go toward the fruit and not toward maintaining the trees height. [Information courtesy of: Drew Zent of the La Minita Plantation] It is at this point that the coffee plant will begin to produce what looks like a little cherry. The cherry consists of two little seeds that develop in the center enclosed in a silvery skin. There is a protective layer of mucilage and pulp that surround the silver skin. Finally, incasing the seeds, silver skin, mucilage, and pulp is the outer skin of the cherry. The coffee cherry is only ready for harvest when the outer skin is a bright red color. If the cherry is under developed or over-ripe, a bitter or sour coffee will be the result.
 Picking
Picking the coffee cherries is a demanding, labor intensive job. Because higher quality coffees grow at higher altitudes and usually in mountainous regions, coffee harvesting equipment is useless at best. Harvesters will go out in the early morning with baskets or bags and carefully pick only the ripest coffees that they can find. Many times, they will have to visit the same tree numerous times in order to get a quality harvest. The beans are brought back to a weighing station and the laborers are paid according to the weight of the coffee.
 Two Processing Methods
There are two methods used in separating the coffee beans from the fruit. The first method is the wet method. The coffee cherries are stripped of their outer skin by a machine and then soaked in water in large tanks for a day or two. This causes the fruit to ferment, making it easier to clean the beans. The beans are then either spread out on large concrete slabs in the sun or are put into drying ovens to dry. The wet method is used by a third of all coffee producers and adds acidity, depth and flavor to the coffee. The other method used is the dry method. Coffee cherries are laid out on large flats to be dried in the sun for two to three weeks. The beans are then milled to remove the outside layers. This process is used by approximately two thirds of coffee producing countries.
Sorting
The green coffee is then sorted by four main criteria: bean size, where it was grown, how it was processed, and how it tastes. Some countries use screens with different size holes to gauge bean quality others base it on the port it is shipped from.
 Bagging
The green coffee is then put into bags that hold about 120 pounds. You may have seen these bags hanging on coffee house walls. Bags are usually marked to indicate where the coffee came from, whether is a certain plantation, a region, or a country.
Shipping
Coffee is stored in warehouses in the country of origin until it is ready to be shipped. A large coffee company or a large coffee brokerage purchases it. It is then loaded into big containers and put on a ship to a warehouse somewhere else.
The Warehouse
The coffee sits in a warehouse after it clears customs, awaiting use or to be sold to various coffee companies.
The Futures Market
Coffee is the second most traded commodity it the world, after oil. It is here in the futures market that many large coffee companies and brokers purchase their green coffee. One futures contract for coffee is 37,500 lbs.
 Roasting
This is where we come in. The roasting process takes the coffee beans from its green state and transforms it into a brown bean that is double its green size and 80% its original weight. We search for the best beans that we can find, roast them to the time and temperature that brings out their individual qualities to the fullest measure, and deliver them with the best service we can muster.
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Bio Facts
Coffee is an evergreen tree. So buy a coffee tree and put some lights on it.
Coffee plants could not exist without lightning.
Robusta coffees have about 150 mg of caffeine per cup while arabica coffees have about 90 mg of caffeine per cup.
Coffee plants reproduce using a process called autogamy, or self-pollination.
Coffee only grows between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Coffee is one of the most complex of commonly consumed foods containing from 700 to 850 flavor constituents.
One coffee tree yields slightly less than 1 pound of coffee per year.
It takes about 2,000 coffee cherries to produce one pound of coffee beans.
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