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Wednesday, November 30, 2005 -----

Coffee Bean Processing

Coffee beans or seeds, as most know, come from the berry of coffee trees. There are typically two beans per berry but this is not always the case-every now and then three beans can be found in one berry and sometimes by design in certain coffee trees there is only one bean this is called a pea-berry. Getting to this bean can at times be a strenuous process. The outer skin of the berry is generally tough with a mushy inner pulp that surrounds the bean itself. Sometimes this pulp is more valuable than the bean due to its high sugar content that can be used in making coffee liquor or tea.

I had never thought about this before but did you know that in addition to having different sizes, shapes, colors, and tastes; different coffee trees produce different amounts of caffeine in their beans. The coffee berry is either picked right off the tree or up off the ground depending on the value of the particular bean on the world market. Generally they are hand picked however; some machines are used in the process. The berries are then sorted usually by hand according to color, size, and looks. Theoretically if the berry is ripe then the bean is easily extracted by simply squeezing. There are simple machines that can do this, one in particular is called a spinning drum it squeezes the berry until the bean pops out after which the beans are washed and dried. Afterward it is put through another machine that removes the thin parchment and mucilage around the bean by means of scraping the bean. Then the coffee beans are washed and dried again. After going through this process they are packaged and sent all over the world for home and commercial roasting and brewing. It takes about five pounds of coffee berries to produce one pound of coffee beans; on average a single tree will produce one to two pounds of coffee beans. Seems like a lot of work to get that sweet smelling cup of coffee every morning but I sure am thankful for it!

For free email and a discount on fresh roasted coffee visit JetBean.com

::  Posted by: JetBean  at 2:34 PM
  

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