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The green bean is one of two seeds from the cherry of a coffee tree. A coffee tree takes several years to mature. After four or five years of constant tending, the tree will bear its first fruit. It quickly reaches its productive peak within a couple of years, but if well tended will yield fruit for about twenty to twenty-five years.
The most prized coffee species is coffea arabica. Arabica grows at altitudes over 1500 feet above sea level. Arabica beans possess the greatest aroma and flavour.
Coffea canephora, commonly called robusta, is the other main coffee species. Robusta is more resistant to disease and grows at lower altitudes than arabica. It has higher levels of caffeine. Cheap robustas are a common ingredient in instant coffees.
All Caffe L’affare retail coffees are 100% Arabica.
We have recently been attracted to a very high grade Robusta from Java. We are using this Javanese Robusta in a new blend Toro that is only available at the College Street beanstore, Shaky Isles in Kingsland, Auckland and online.
Toro is 6% Robusta and has great body, crema and kick from its addition. |
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The fruit on a coffee tree will be at various stages of maturity at one time. Thus cherries are largely picked by hand selecting the ripest fruit first. There may be several harvests in one season. The harvest is sorted many times to ensure it gets a high grading and a high price. |
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The next step after harvesting is to remove the green beans from the surrounding fruit pulp of the cherry. This is done by either the wet or dry process.
- Dry processing usually occurs in regions with a shortage of water. The cherries are spread out to dry in the sun. They are turned several times to prevent fermentation. The pulp eventually dries out and is removed. Dry processed beans can have a sweeter flavour because of the extra time they have spent attached to the fruit pulp.
- Wet processing is more expensive due to greater requirements of equipment, water and time. The cherries are soaked and rinsed in several different vats with screens, sieves and natural enzymes which break down the pulp. Wet processed beans are usually more expensive because there is more opportunity to remove inferior beans.
Whether dry or wet processed the beans are then polished, screened and sorted. They are then packed in large hessian sacks ready for exporting. |
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Each country has its own grading system, but will usually give a quality rating according to appearance (bean size, uniformity and colour), number of defective beans per sample, cup quality, and whether the beans roast well and evenly.
Caffe L’affare import only the top graded green beans from a variety of countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, India and Honduras. | |
