How Do They Do It: Green Coffee - the art of cultivation

Cultivating coffee is an art and the beginning of everything coffee-related. Join us for a read in our "How Do They Do It: Green Coffee" essay?

Fruit, just like a tomato

As end-users, most people know "coffee" as roasted coffee beans, a term that is, in fact, incorrectly used. It is more accurate to say "roasted coffee seeds or pits," because in reality, coffee beans are the seeds from the coffee cherry. And that is a piece of fruit, closely related to cherries or peaches – coffee beans are like the tomatoes among natural raw materials for typical popular hot beverages.

The Origin (of Species)

Now, to achieve quality green coffee, you need to know that many parameters influence what the coffee farmer will ultimately deliver as a raw product. Everything begins with the time-intensive cultivation of the coffee plant, which thrives best and thanks to the right climatic conditions for an optimal harvest.

For this reason, almost all coffee is grown in the tropical regions around the equator - also known as the "Coffee Belt," with Brazil as the largest producer, followed by Vietnam and Colombia. These areas have mineral-rich soil, the necessary altitude (usually in mountainous regions, where cooler temperatures slow down the ripening of the fruit), and no frost.

"Climatically, the coffee plant thrives best around the equator, the Coffee Belt"

It all starts with planting the seeds and allowing the young shoots to grow in a shady spot - watering them regularly shows the intensive care even before there is any talk of a harvest. After a few months, they can be transplanted into the ground on the plantation - here too, taller trees provide the necessary shade to protect the plants from intense sunlight - where it will take another three years before there is a yield. Eventually, the blossoms will grow into a coffee cherry, which then needs a few more months to ripen from green to deep red, purple, or even yellow berries - depending on the variety of the plant.

Harvesting and processing

Once the coffee cherries are sufficiently ripe on the bush, they are harvested, and this can be done in two ways: manual picking or mechanical; both methods, of course, have their advantages and disadvantages.

• Hand-picked: selective picking of only the ripest berries by coffee pickers. Not only due to the manual process, but also because the entire harvest is spread over several rounds, this is very time-consuming. Additionally, the mechanical method is simply not feasible on many plantations due to the steep hills. The quality, of course, is commensurate.
  
  
• Mechanical: on larger (commercial) plantations, farmers use machines to strip the bush of all berries: this means that ripe, but also unripe and overripe berries are harvested together. This is quite impactful for the bush, and it shows. Mechanical harvesting saves a lot of time, yet a selection still needs to be made on the farm afterwards - this is usually done mechanically as well - resulting in a difference in quality in the harvest.

Harvesting usually takes 3 to 6 months, as the berries do not all ripen at the same time. The exact harvest period depends on the origin, for example, April to May for South America and November to February for Ethiopia.

"Process and fermentation are often confused with each other"

Of course, after harvesting, the coffee cherry still needs further processing - which we call process - to get to the beans that we at Drip Coffee use. For this, the skin and pulp must be removed, and this can be done in three ways:

• Natural process (dry): the picked coffee cherry is dried in the sun for several weeks from harvest - this can be on the ground or on African Beds - after which the seeds are extracted.
  
  
• Washed process (wet): the skin and pulp are immediately removed, the beans are, as it were, washed, after which they are also dried.
  
  
• Honey process (pulped natural): this sits between natural and washed, where some pulp remains attached to the beans and they are dried in that state. Within honey process, there are also different methods such as red honey, yellow honey or black honey.

In all processes, fermentation also takes place, but different fermentation techniques can be used during the processing of coffee beans - such as aerobic/anaerobic fermentation or carbonic maceration, koji/yeast inoculated. Post-harvest fermentation is applied for further aroma development of the coffee, something we choose and work with.

Measuring is knowing

As we already mentioned, many parameters influence the quality of the coffee even before it arrives at our roastery. Fortunately, there is data that indicates certain quality, ranging from physical elements (size, damage) to internal properties (moisture percentage, water activity) - these are determined through quality control at the origin as well as by ourselves. The data we receive and that we can measure ourselves are, in addition to actually tasting the coffee, important indicators of value.

"at Drip Coffee, we are strict when it comes to moisture percentage and water activity data"

Green coffee is very moist after harvest - hence the drying of the coffee - but must still contain a moisture percentage between 9% and 12% to ensure optimal roasting. Water activity tells us how the water in the bean behaves and also partly influences the roasting process. Both parameters also have a significant impact on the storage life of the coffee after it has been fully processed and packaged. Coffee that is too moist or coffee with high water activity can taste very good in the cup, but carries a greater risk of mold developing during longer storage. That's why at Drip Coffee, we are quite strict when it comes to moisture percentage and water activity data.

Conclusion

To cultivate high-quality green coffee, there is a lot involved for the producer. Every farm must deal with the challenges that this entails in its own way. But let there be no doubt: every origin is undeniably the beginning of every coffee we roast and you drink.