Specialty Coffee Bulletin Board :: View topic - C-Member Homecoming and Open House (#)

  „Chuck takes "civilians" there on coffee plantation tours and has them pick their own coffee cherries before their first breakfast. He says picking the ripe cherries from the unripe ones on the same branch is a skilled task, and no one ever looks at a cup of coffee the same way after doing this. One of his best quotes came when someone asked what ha“

http://www.scaa.org/.../ viewtopic.php?p=280&sid=1711e5ad3a2523b9f03e3129a54899b3 - Cached

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Some slightly related:

Harvesting Coffee

  „To maximize the amount of ripe coffee harvested it is necessary to selectively pick the ripe beans from the tree by hand and leave behind unripe, green beans to be harvested at a later time.  In Brazil, harvesting the same tree several times is more cost prohibitive than separating and discarding the unripe or overripe cherries.  Therefore, Brazil typically harvests using the stripping method when 75% of the crop is perfectly ripe.  Stripping is feasible and cost effective in Brazil due to the uniform maturation of Brazilian coffees.  In stripping the beans are pulled from the tree and fall to the ground where they are caught by sheets.  The beans are removed from tree debris by tossing the coffee in the air allowing the wind to carry away sticks and leaves.  The coffee is then put in 60 L green baskets, which is the tool are measurement used by coffee producers to determine wages.  Some estates, such as Fazenda Monte Alegre in Sul de Minas Brazil, have a computerized system to determine wages, which accounts for the amount of coffee collected from each person, the difficulty of the harvesting conditions, and the production of the region being harvested.“

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/ harvesting.htm - Cached

Processing Coffee

  „Irrespective of the harvesting method, green coffee beans and overripe coffee cherries inevitably end up mixed with the perfectly ripe cherries and must be separated.  Overripe coffee cherries, undeveloped coffee cherries, sticks and leaves float in water.  Ripe coffee beans and green coffee cherries are dense and sink.  Therefore, the first separation step takes place by separating the floaters from the sinkers.  The floaters are usually sent directly to the patio to be dried and are then slated for internal consumption.  The ripe and green cherries can be sent to the patios to be dried using the natural (dry) process or can be sent to the pulping machines.“

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/ processing.htm - Cached

Arabica vs Robusta: No Contest (INeedCoffee.com)

  „These trees grow in semitropical climates near the equator, both in the western and eastern hemispheres, at high altitudes. Because ripe Arabica cherries (unroasted beans) fall to the ground and spoil, they must be carefully monitored and picked at intervals, which increases production costs.“

http://www.ineedcoffee.com/02/06/arabica/ - Cached

Coffee Growing at Home

  „Ripe cherries should be harvested and picked from trees with a high production and without any disease or other affliction.  Pulp the cherry by hand, wash with water, and ferment in a small container until the pulp falls off.  This can be determined simply by rubbing the bean in you hands during the fermentation process.  Wash again with fresh water.  Any coffee beans that float at any stage of washing should be discarded.  The beans must then be dried to about 20% moisture content on mesh screen in open and dry air, but not in direct sunlight.  After pulping a coffee will have between 60-70% moisture content so you can determine the appropriate stopping point simply by weighing the beans.  Otherwise, you can bite the bean open to ensure that it is dry on the outside and slightly soft and moist on the inside.  Alternatively, a pulped bean can be used immediately for planting and in some areas this is considered advantageous.“

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/ homegrowing.htm - Cached

Coffee History - Learn about coffee...

  „SINKERS The cherries which sink are excellent and ripe, perfect for processing into high quality coffee Our mill works on a binary system which processes the sinkers along a totally different path than the floaters. The cherries are then passed through a pulping machine which squishes out two coffee seeds. Each cherry has two coffee beans inside. This process exposes a sticky inner protective coat which surrounds the parchment.“

http://www.javacafe.com/cofhistory02.htm - Cached

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