From Bean to Brew: How Coffee Is Made

Where does your coffee come from?

If you’re an avid coffee-lover, then you’re probably already familiar with your favorite type of roast, grind and origin of coffee. But even then, how do we know how our cup of bean juice — honestly, that’s what it is, right? — even gets from bean to brew?

Just like we know about different kinds of teas and how they’re made, we also know how coffee is made and how it gets that delicious, aromatic mouth-feel we all know and love!

How is coffee made?

On the coffee farms

Growing the coffee cherries

Coffee beans start their lives as greenish-pinkish-reddish cherries on fully-grown coffee trees.

Weird, huh? Not what we’d expect from our favorite dark, strong drink.

The majority of the world’s coffee comes from the Coffea arabica or the Coffea canephora trees — two species of evergreen shrubs that grow in between the equator and the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer.

It’s believed that the very first coffee trees were cultivated in Ethiopia and the drink itself perfected in Yemen. And, considering the fact that Yemen was the world’s sole producer of coffee until as recently as the 18th century, the theory makes sense!

Today, coffee is grown on farms all over the world, with high concentrations of farms in the tropical regions of Central and South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Coffee trees need at least 3-5 years of growth before they can start flowering. Clusters of small, white flowers will start growing all along the long, thin branches of the tree and, after pollination occurs (yes, you can thank the bees for your coffee, too!) cherries begin to form from the flowers. 

Those cherry-like fruits vary in color, but all of them contain two small seeds within which, eventually, become a part of your morning brew!

Harvesting the cherries

A mature coffee tree can produce up to 10 pounds of cherries per year, and since the cherries don't all ripen at the same time, each one of those beans needs to be picked by hand to ensure they’re only picked when they’re ready. An experienced picker can harvest anywhere between 100 and 200 pounds of coffee cherries per day!

Of course, some coffee plantations strip the cherries from the branches all at once — either by machine or by hand — but selectively hand-picking the cherries generally results in higher-quality harvests. 

Processing, fermenting and drying the coffee beans

Getting the two coffee seeds — generally known as “beans” — dry is the next step in the process. The layer of moist fruit around the beans isn’t very thick, so getting rid of it can be done in one of two ways.

The first technique involves sun-drying the cherries on a large surface, while the second involves passing the cherries through a system of pulping machines to separate the beans from the pulp.

Once the cherries are completely dry, they are separated by size and the larger beans are sent to a fermentation tank to remove the final few layers of skin and pulp

After two to four days of fermentation, the beans are rinsed and cleaned and sent off to be properly dried. A properly-dried bean will be dry enough to store safely, but still just moist enough to keep some flavor. That ideal moisture content hovers around 11%, which is what the coffee processors look for in a dried bean. 

Preparing the beans for shipment

After the beans are done drying to about an 11% moisture content, they are milled and polished to remove the fine layer of parchment that surrounds each bean. Further sorting is done to remove any imperfect beans, over-fermented beans, discolored beans and beans too small to roast.

By the end of the milling and sorting process, the beans are considered ready for shipping as “green coffee” — as in, coffee that hasn’t been roasted. From here, coffee beans get shipped to coffee roasters, coffee shops and coffee drinkers all over the world!

Making the coffee

Once the coffee beans leave the farms, it’s up to the buyers to decide how they want to roast, grind, package and brew the coffee. 

Roasting

Green coffee beans need to be roasted before they’re fit for consumption — or, at least, before they resemble what we think of as coffee. 

Coffee beans contain an oil called caffeol, which gives coffee that signature fragrant scent we all associate with the brew. That oil only comes out of the bean when the bean reaches a temperature of about 400° Fahrenheit, so it’s important to monitor the beans closely so that they not only reach that perfect temperature, but also that they don’t get hotter than that and burn

Grinding

Grinding is the next step in the process and is up to the roaster as to how it’s ground. 

Different coffee grind sizes are used for different brewing methods, and you can get the most out of your coffee by using the correct method of brewing for the grind that you have. It all boils down to how much surface area is exposed to the hot water which, in turn, affects how bitter the drink is going to be.  

Here’s an in-depth look at different coffee grinds and how to use them!

Brewing

Finally, the coffee beans are ready to brew! 

It’s been a long process from tree to cherry to bean to brew, but in the end, we all get to enjoy our cuppa joe from our favorite cafe, our office break room and our living rooms.

So, next time you’re sipping a latte, an Irish coffee or a mocha, thank a coffee bean farmer from the tropics for all the labor and love that goes into your coffee!

Cheers!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/gedsarts