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coffee growers: learn how coffee is grown and processed, and explore the major growing regions
Coffee Growers
Coffee Growing
The coffee beans you enjoy each day
are the seeds of the fruit of coffee trees, and these are typically
called
"cherries." These trees are evergreens that grow at elevations
from
2,000-6,000 feet in belts on either side of the equator.
Further down the page, you'll find short overviews of the countries
best known for producing extraordinary specialty coffee.
There are hundreds of species of
coffee found throughout the world, but the two that are consumed as a
beverage are Arabica (Coffea Arabica) and Robusta (Coffea
Canephora). Virtually all specialty coffee (the highest grades of
coffee) are Arabica, and the faster growing more bitter Robusta coffees
are sold more as commodities, with their main uses in low cost blends
and as instant coffee.
Coffee Processing
A major step in the progression
from the coffee grower to the roaster is the set of processing
steps. The first of these is the harvest of the cherries.
On the coffee tree, the cherries ripen at different rates, so ideally
all coffee will be picked by hand. However, this is a
labor intensive and more expensive process - and the larger, more
mechanized farms harvest by machine, then use sorting equipment to
remove green cherries from the mix.
From the harvest (done at the peak
of ripeness), the coffee moves to one of several styles of processing.
In the most common, "wet"
processing method, the skin of the fruit is mechanically removed, which
then reveals a thick, sticky fruit layer called mucilage. The
coffee is then soaked (fermented) in its own juices or a water bath
that loosens the mucilage so it can be removed. After this
final washing step, the beans are then dried, either in the sun or in
large mechanical driers.
In contrast, "dry" processing
leaves the coffee cherries intact to dry in the sun, and then the
raisin-like fruit is removed. This method yields much greater
body than wet processing methods, and the crema in a good espresso
blend is frequently enhanced throuugh the use of dry processed
coffees.
Following the processing stage, the
beans remain covered in a light yellow hull, which is kept on to
protect the coffee and maintain moisture content until shortly before
export. In preparation for shipping, this "parchment" coffee is
run through a hulling machine that strips this layer away, and the
coffee is packaged into 60 Kg (132 pound) bags and shipped to importers
in the US and other countries in this form.
Every stage of processing can
influence coffee quality. Meticulous picking yields cleaner
tasting coffee. Prompt processing avoids the sour tastes that
come with the fermenting of overripe fruit. Wet and dry
processing methods yield very different qualities, and every aspect of
processing can be varied to different effect. Fron that point
forward, the care given to moisture content, storage conditions and the
amount of time between harvest and roasting all impact cup quality.
Please visit this link for a
slide show of the steps in coffee processing.
Decaffeination:
For those who don’t handle caffeine
well, or who want to extend their coffee enjoyment into the evening,
decaf is often the answer. Yet, the limitations of decaffeinated
coffee are apparent at the first sip – the process of caffeine
extraction takes some flavor with it, and even the best decafs don't
compare to their caffeinated counterparts.
Producer countries typically ship
coffees directly to large decaffeination plants that use one of two
common methods. The most environmentally sound methods (and the
ones perceived to be most healthy) are via the “water process” in which
the green coffee is first soaked in very hot water to extract the
caffeine (and a good deal of the flavor). This water is then run
through a series of charcoal filters to remove the caffeine and the
remaining water (and flavor) is then introduced back into the beans.
The oldest family of decaffeination
processes is direct solvent methods. Here, the beans are
steamed to open their pores, bathed in a solvent that binds to the
caffeine, then steamed again to clean the solvent from the beans.
The first solvent used was trichloroethylene, which gave way to
methylene
chloride and ethyl acetate (which comes from fruit and therefore is
often referred to as “natural” decaffeination).
Of the two methods, those based on
solvents result in better tasting coffee – but fears over the effects
of the residual solvents remain. Water based methods are more in
favor among the health-conscious, but they are more costly because of
the steps involved and because the residual caffeine cannot be
captured for resale (in energy drinks, caffeinated gum, No-Doz, etc.).
Growing Regions
The best specialty coffees are
grown in four distinct regions – Central America, South America, East Africa, and
Indonesia – with other important contributions coming from Hawaii,
Jamaica and India. Shown below are capsule descriptions of the most
important coffee countries, and please visit this link
to see a map and statistics for these areas.
CENTRAL
AMERICA
Costa Rica
Costa Rica is known as a producer
of meticulously clean, balanced coffees that reflect the most
environmentally sound production methods in the world. The
majority of the country’s coffee comes from smallholders (very small
farmers) who then work through a system of beneficios (processing
stations) to bring their coffee to market.
The strict environmental laws for
which Costa Rica has become famous are applied to coffee production,
and the beneficios use a variety of recycling techniques to avoid
dumping the substantial waste (skin, pulp and parchment) from coffee
processing into the country's beautiful rivers.
The main coffee-growing regions are
the high volcanic mountains in the center of the country, the most
famous being Tarrazu, Herediá and Tres Rios.
Costa Rican coffees are clean and
balanced, and are often used in blends and for French Roasts.
Guatemala
Coffees from the highland regions
of Guatemala command respect, with a range of flavors that reflect a
longstanding commitment to growing techniques, processing quality, and
adapting to the country’s many microclimates.
The mountainous Panchoy Valley
region (near the colonial city of Antigua) produces complex, often
powerful coffees, while the coastal regions of Cobán,
Huehuetenango and San Marcos offer more balanced, traditional Central
American qualities.
The many smallholder cooperatives
around Lake Atitlan in the south of the country offer wonderful
examples of sustainable farming techniques and attention to
detail. Atitlan coffees are lighter in body, fragrant and complex.
Mexico
As the closest coffee growing
region to the continental United States, Mexico has been a major
supplier to American coffee consumers, though mainly via low grown
coffees used as blenders and instant coffee.
The specialty coffee boom is now
being driven by the newly formed Amecafe (Asociación Mexicana de
la Cadena Productiva del Café), an alliance of growers,
processors and roasters, which replaced the old Mexican Coffee Council
after they folded as a result of a corruption scandal. Chief among the
missions of Amecafe are the replacement of older, lower yield coffee
plants, adding new production areas and increasing coffee consumption
inside the country.
Mexico is emerging as a leader in
the production of fairly traded and organic coffees (the largest
producer in the world, by some measures), much of which is exported to
the US. The better Mexican coffee comes from the higher
elevations of the states of Oaxaca (in the southwest corner) and
Chiapas (to the extreme south bordering Guatemala). Unlike the
light-bodied, mild coffees from the interior, those from these regions
are comparable to other fine, higher grown Central American coffees
from Guatemala and Panama.
Panama
With the intense publicity accorded
to the high ($130/pound!) auction price paid in 2007 for the Hacienda
La
Esmerelda’s Gesha cultivar, Panama has been revealed as one of the
emerging stars of coffee-producing countries. The best Panamanian
coffees are shade grown, wet processed origins from family owned farms
(estates) in the Boquete and Volcan regions, and in the cup, they are
mildly bright, nuanced coffees that are unique in their own right and
that don’t come off as just another lively Central American coffee.
The next few years in Panama will
be interesting to watch. The success of Hacienda La Esmerelda has
spawned widespread planting of the Gesha cultivar (in contrast to the
more common Bourbon, Catuai and Typica varieties), and it remains to be
seen whether the rugged individuality of Gesha can be domesticated.
SOUTH
AMERICA
Brazil
No history of coffee goes very far
without describing the impact of Brazil on the politics, economics and
quality of coffee. Its commanding market share (over 40% of the
world’s output in 2007) has allowed Brazil to have an influence over
the baseline commodity prices that influence what most coffee producers
are paid – and when the forces of nature hit Brazilian coffee farms
with frost or natural enemies (pests and diseases) of coffee, the world
markets respond, for better or worse. Brazil is first and foremost a
producer of very large quantities of mild coffees that are grown at low
elevations using the farming and harvesting methods of big agriculture.
But if you are a lover of good
coffee, this isn’t the Brazil you want to know. Your Brazil is
the producer of the “base” coffee in a large percentage of premium
espresso blends. The consistent, predictable heat of the growing
regions in Brazil allows a large output of dry processed coffees,
meaning that the coffee beans are dried in the coffee cherries – in
contrast to “wet” methods where the fruit is stripped away just after
harvesting. This yields the thick body and delicious crema prized
by espresso lovers – and to the Brazils, other coffees are added for
flavor, acidity and sharpness.
Look deeper in Brazil, and you will
find some true innovation at play. Creative producers are now
developing cutting edge methods to sort out defective coffee beans, and
new vacuum packing methods allow the freshness of just-processed coffee
to be maintained for much longer than the traditional jute and burlap
coffee bags allow. In addition, careful blending schemes are
being developed at the coffee origin that helps to ensure true
consistency of flavor for coffee buyers from year to year.
Colombia
Colombia is now second to Brazil in
the global ranking of coffee-producing countries – and a large
percentage of the beans they export are commodity-grade coffee labeled
with the elegant-sounding Excelso and Supreme designations (the words
mean “medium” and “large” respectively in coffeespeak).
But, dig deeper and you will find a
tremendous number of smallholder coffee farmers whose great work has
been blunted by the Coffee Federation’s practice of “pooling” coffee
from all the farmers in the region. The good combines with the bad and
the result is only average.
In recent years, as the popularity
of specialty coffee has increased, efforts have been made by producer
cooperatives, private estates and the Federation itself to bring forth
the best coffees and allow them to shine in the own right. There
are truly excellent coffees coming out of individual farms and regions
– but this is a relatively new approach, and you may have to do some
searching to find one you like. Colombians are a great alternative for
those wanting lighter body and more restrained, bright, fruity flavors.
Peru
Peruvian coffees are grown high in
the Andes mountains, and the most notable growing regions are the
Chanchamayo Valley (east of Lima), and Norte and Cuzco, to the
south. In the cup, you’ll find these coffees to have a nice
flavor similar to other mild South American origins, and a light
body. The Peruvian coffee industry has jumped onto the organic
bandwagon with a vengeance, and you will see a lot of inexpensive
organics from this region. This isn’t to say there aren’t some
great organics coming from Peru, but beware of the cheap ones.
NORTH
AMERICA
Hawaii
In the eight islands of Hawaii,
coffee is grown on the big island (Hawaii), Maui, Molokai, and Kauai.
These typically low-grown coffees are very mild and are usually roasted
on the lighter side. Their character is that of a nice, clean
traditional coffee – and you won’t find any surprises in the cup.
The most famous Hawaiian coffee
comes from the Kona district of the big island, and true Kona coffee is
so prized that it is one of the most expensive coffees in the
world. The Kona label is also one of the most misused, as the
expression “Kona Blend” is applied to combinations containing as little
as 5% of the real thing.
Jamaica
Long before the Cup of Excellence
auctions that brought truly deserved higher priced coffees to the
masses, the most expensive coffees in the world were the genuine
Hawaiian Konas and those from the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica.
Genuine Blue Mountain coffees from
Moy Hall, Mavis Bank, Old Tavern Estate, and Wallenford estates are
packaged green in beautiful wood barrels and are exported through a
careful certification program intended to ensure that only the real
thing is sold as such. Nonetheless, as with Kona coffees, blends
using terms like JBM, Jamaica Mountain, etc. attempt to capitalize on
this popularity.
The price point for Jamaica Blue
Mountain comes from an era gone by, when the clean processing, mild,
lower grown flavors and rigid quality control (coupled with expert
branding) could justify the much higher price commanded by these
coffees.
EAST
AFRICA
Ethiopia
Many in the coffee industry would
call Ethiopia their favorite coffee-growing region. The country is
acknowledged by most as being the birthplace of coffee, and true to its
roots, there is a great appreciation there for coffee as a beverage,
and much of the crop is consumed locally (in contrast to many exporting
countries where tea or other beverages lead the way).
Ethiopia’s most popular coffees are
from the Harrar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe regions. These are so
popular worldwide that the country’s intellectual property office has
embarked on a widespread campaign to trademark the names.
Dry-processed Harrar coffees are known for their rustic, unpredictable
character, and tasters will often identify blueberry notes in the cup.
Washed Sidamos have a soft, citrus-like elegance, while Yirgacheffes
resound with floral and fruit essences.
One of the most beautiful and
interesting rituals
in all of coffee is the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony. Offered to
honored guests, the ceremony involves the roasting of green coffee
beans over a small fire, pulverizing the roasted coffee in a mortar and
pestle, brewing cowboy coffee-style in an earthen pot called a jebena
and finally serving in small china cups.
Rwanda
Rwanda is a shining example of how
a coffee industry can be brought back to life and how grower education
can dramatically influence coffee quality and with it, the fortunes of
coffee farmers. The war and genocide of the 1990’s ruined much of
the coffee growing and processing infrastructure and left the country
in dire need of economic stimulus. An intense effort of
rebuilding and education followed, and the influence of large scale
NGOs (such as USAID) and a set of high-end US coffee roasters both
rekindled the industry and did so with very high standards of
quality. The results have been spectacular, with the country
generating very high quality export-grade coffees and by showcasing the
effectiveness of a diverse set of rebuilding influences.
Rwandan coffee is at once spicy and
nutty – and it is a cleaner cup than the rugged tastes of other East
African coffees.
Tanzania
For most people, Tanzanian coffee
is associated with the “peaberry,” an anomaly in some coffee cherries
that causes a single rounded bean (pit) to develop, rather than the set
of two (aka “flatberries”) found in most coffee fruit. Because
roasted peaberry coffee is beautiful to behold in its unique rounded
shape, it has become a product unto itself in US markets – and this
attractiveness can at times take precedence over taste!
As an aside, the marketing of
Tanzania Peaberry in the United States is really the result of the
traditional flatberry coffees from Tanzania being so popular in
Japan. The peaberries, which are sorted out in the screening
(sizing) process are not so popular there.
Coffee is grown in Tanzania on the
north slopes of beautiful Mount Kilimanjaro in the shade of banana
trees (it is VERY hot there). Growers are typically small
farmers, and the processing and exporting infrastructure is not very
well developed. Hence, the quality of coffee from Tanzania is
quite variable – and it pays to be selective.
The best Tanzania Peaberry is
wonderful in the way great Kenyan coffees are – very clean (this is a
“washed” or wet-processed coffee), with a complex citrus-like taste.
Yemen
Your reference to Yemen coffees may
have come through the word “mocha”, as in the café mocha
beverage
(espresso with cocoa or chocolate syrup) or via the popular Mocha Java
blend (traditionally a fruity Yemen or Ethiopian Harrar paired with a
mild, heavier bodied coffee from Java or Sumatra).
The mocha reference actually comes
from the ancient Yemen port of Al-Makha, and it was here that trading
ships loaded their wares during the earliest recorded days of
coffee. Both Yemen and Ethiopia (across the Red Sea) lay claim to
being the birthplace of the coffee plant.
Yemen coffee farmers grow their
crops under shade trees (often poplars), which are used to shield the
delicate plants from the hot sun and provide a symbiotic form of
nourishment. Coffee from Yemen is processed as it was ages ago,
with whole coffee cherries dried on roofs and stone terraces (the
country is quite mountainous) until dry, and then fed through
traditional millstones to remove the outer layers of the fruit.
The leftover husks are mixed with sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom
to make a drink called quishr – and this is more popular than brewed
coffee in that country.
The best Yemen coffees are rugged
and wild in the manner of Harrars and other great east African
coffees. The millstone processing causes there to be a great
irregularity in
the sizes of the beans. Properly roasted, this causes
some beans to be roasted darker than others – which results in a flavor
similar to a blend of dark and light roasted coffees.
Yemen is a good example of an
origin where many coffees are truly grown organically (due in part
because of the high cost of fertilizer and pesticides), but where the
formal organic certification is not affordable for many farmers.
Don’t let the words “wild” and
“rugged” scare you away. Yemen coffees are revered for their complex
and exotic flavor – and many aficionados would call this their favorite
coffee origin.
SOUTHEAST
ASIA/INDIA
India
India is not often mentioned in the
list of principal coffee-growing regions, though by volume it ranks
second in Asia and eighth in the world.
The country has been growing coffee
since the mid 17th century, when it is said that a saint (Baba Budan)
was taken with the beverage on a trip to Yemen, and then smuggled a
small number (7!) of beans back to his homeland under his tunic.
The Indian coffee you may have
encountered is the famed Monsooned Malabar, the result of Arabica beans
being stored in open-walled warehouses during the monsoon season.
The warm, humid winds cause the beans to yellow and swell, imparting a
unique deep (and some say musty) flavor. It is more commonly found as
an ingredient in espresso blends (including that of Seattle’s famed
Vivace) than as a single origin.
This is not, however, the best
India has to offer: The better coffees from the Mysore, Malabar and
Madras growing regions can have wonderful body, low acidity and a clean
spiciness reminiscent of better Indonesian origins.
Sumatra
Coffees from Sumatra are perhaps
the best known of those from the Southeast Asia region – though
certainly Vietnam far exceeds them in terms of production. If you
are looking for it on a map, you’ll find Sumatra to be the largest
island in the Indonesian archipelago and furthest to the west (south of
Malaysia). It is the sixth largest island in the world.
Sumatra coffees are grown primarily
by very small-scale farmers living in the mountainous regions in the
north part of the country. In most cases, the coffees are
naturally organic, as growers can neither afford nor practically
transport fertilizers or insecticides. Coffee cherries are
processed using funky, handmade depulping machines, then dried directly
on the ground or on sheets before being carried to market on foot.
It is this earthy beginning that is
both a blessing and a curse to Sumatra coffees. The best Sumatras
have rich, full body and a complex smoothness, combined with a rustic
character that works well as a single origin coffee or as a component
of espresso or dark roasted blends. But at the other end of the
spectrum, the worst Sumatras are just downright dirty tasting.
Often you’ll see Sumatra coffee
marketed as “double pick” or “triple pick,” with the number referring
to successive hand sortings that remove defective beans and debris of
various kinds. But, people then complain that the result is a
coffee with none of the origin character for which Sumatras are famous.
The descriptors you will hear most
often for Sumatra coffees are Lintong and Mandheling. Lintong
coffees come from a region south of the amazing Lake Toba (formed by
the largest ever recorded volcanic eruption), and Mandheling refers to
one of the larger Indonesian ethnic groups and is used widely to
describe coffees coming from a large area including Lintong. Gayo
Mountain – a wonderful washed coffee from the Aceh region to the north
– is another popular Sumatra coffee.
Among the more outlandish coffee
stories out there is that of the palm civet, a catlike creature living
in Sumatra that loves nice fresh coffee cherries. The
“byproducts” (without getting too graphic) of the creature’s dining are
coffee beans that are gathered by villagers and sold as Kopi Luak
coffee – a delicacy that garners $300/pound (roasted) in western
markets. The coffee is said to taste pleasant, though sadly we don’t
have any to offer here at Freeport Coffee roasting as of this writing.
Vietnam
At present, it is hard to commend
the Vietnamese coffee industry for anything more than roaring out of
nowhere to become the world’s #2 producing country (after
Brazil). The country’s two-hundred-year-old coffee industry was
decimated by the Vietnam War, but in the last twenty years, high volume
production of commodity grade coffees for export has resulted in a
reputation for inferior quality in the west. But, the many
microclimates of the Buon Me Thot region are generating some Arabicas
of very high quality, most of which are sold to the other countries of
Southeast Asia.
If you have the opportunity to
visit a traditional Vietnamese restaurant, order a coffee. You’ll
be presented with a water glass of ice filled halfway with sweetened
condensed milk and topped with a small metal drip filter. Be
patient, as the coffee is ground very fine, and you may be waiting a
while for the coffee to drop into the cup. This is a nice
alternative to the American way of preparing iced coffee.
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