Do you have any idea how coffee grows? What does it actually look like before we buy it? Also, do you know where it comes from?

Coffee plants grow near the equator. To give you an idea, a top four most producing coffee countries
:nr1: Brazilr2
: VietnamNr3
: Colombianr4
: Indonesia



It all starts with a small white flower that smells very much like Jasmine. From this flower grows a berry that is initially green in color. The berry changes color (in most varieties) as it grows from green to dark red until it is ripe enough to be harvested.
Each berry contains basically two coffee beans with the flat side against each other and the convex side outward.

A coffee plant begins to bear berries after about three years. Depending on the type of plant, it can reach a height of 10 to 15 meters. However, on coffee plantations they are pruned to about 3 meters, which makes harvesting easier!
Generally, there is only one harvest per year with the exception of countries close to the equator where there is little to no difference in wet and dry seasons.

Did you know that a coffee bean is green/grey in color when it comes out of the berry? Only when you start roasting the bean does it get the specific coffee color and smell. If you put the unroasted bean in your mouth you will notice that it is rock hard and does not taste like coffee at all.

The most common coffee plants are Arabica and Robusta. Two different types of plants that grow differently, look different and produce very different coffee beans. Within the Arabica and the Robusta there are an awful lot of varieties, each with a different taste.

The great thing about coffee is that, like grapes, it has specific flavor characteristics of where it comes from. For example, coffee from Brazil tastes very different from coffee from Kenya and Kenyan coffee, in turn, is not comparable to coffee from Indonesia.
In general, you can say that coffee from Asia is more spicy and coffee from Africa has more fruit and flower flavors.






After picking, the coffee berries are dried. This can be done in several ways.
The most common technique is the washed variety. The coffee berries go through the pulper to remove the skin from the coffee bean. Then the coffee beans are washed and laid out to dry on a concrete patio. It is then important to regularly turn the coffee beans for optimal drying.

Once the desired moisture content has been achieved, the coffee beans are stored in sacks with the horn skin around them. This is an important step because it allows the flavors in the coffee to develop properly. Resting the coffee is usually done for a period of one to three months.
When the coffee has rested long enough, the bags are opened and the parchment is removed. The husk is a protective layer around the coffee bean.
It is then sorted by size and defects are removed.



When the beans are dried they are roasted. In this process, the sugars in the bean are caramelized, creating the aroma and flavor of the bean. There are different degrees of roasting, from light to very dark.