Hometown Coffee

The Coffee | Process

The Company

The Coffee

The Beans

In a sentence, coffee is a beverage prepared by adding boiling water to the ground, roasted seeds of the fruit of tropical evergreen trees of the Coffee family. There are three species of coffee grown for commerce, but only two of worldwide importance: Coffea Arabica and Coffee Robusta. While Robusta is of growing importance as a source of cheap blending coffee and because it is valuable in the manufacturing of instant coffees, Arabica remains the sole source of fine coffee, as it has been throughout the history of the beverage. Coffea Liberica is grown in West Africa and considered to produce poor coffee.

Here are some differences between the two main varieties:

Arabica (pronounced ah-ra'-bee-kah or ah-rah-bee'-kah)

These coffee beans are grown at high altitudes near 6,000 feet above sea level. The high elevation prduces a more tropical climate which slows down growth of the coffee tree and results in a richer more full flavored coffee bean.
Arabica beans are handpicked only when ripe. Each coffee tree produces clusters of cherries, the fruit of the coffee tree. Each cherry contains two coffee beans. The cherries on each tree ripen at different times. Handpicked ensures that only the ripe cherries are picked and the remaining cherries are left to ripen.
Arabica coffee beans are primarily used for Gourmet coffee production. It is the cost of handpicked along with the limited acreage available for Arabica harvesting that increases the retail cost to the consumer.

Robusta (pronounced ro-bust'-a)

Robusta coffee beans are grown at lower altitudes. The warmer weather stimulates abundant growth, but poor quality beans.
These coffee beans are strip harvested by machine. Machines harvetsing not only picks the ripe and non-ripe cherries, but it also removes leaves, twigs and bark. The foreign objects must be removed later. Robusta coffee beans are used as a component in the cheapest commercial coffees, especially instant coffee. When comparing a high quality gourmet coffee to a lesser expensive coffee consult the packaging to see if it explains what variety of coffee beans are enclosed. Some inexpensive coffees also, add fillers to their coffees such as chickory.

Agriculture

Our travels have taken us to farms throughout the world's coffee-growing regions. Every farm's coffee cherry quality is different. The variations are caused as much by social-economic conditions as by soil, altitude and cultivation methods.

On smaller farms, modern equipment, fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides are almost nonexistent. Without modern farming techniques, coffee crops often succumb to pests like aphids, nematodes, mealy bugs and thrips, which feed on roots or leaves of coffee plants. Micro organisms that cause leaf rust and coffee berry disease are also common.

Most specialty coffees come from smaller farms, which are characteristically 5 to 10 acre plots owned by native families, who tend the farms in much the same fashion as their ancestors did. More progressive farms, on the other hand, have taken the influence of their European founders and adopted modern farming techniques. While those plantations account for only 5 percent of all coffee farms, they regularly accomplish more consistent quality cherry ouput than smaller farms.

While coffee trees in the wild may grow as tall as 15 feet high and 10 feet across, trees on farms are generally trimmed to eight feet high and six feet across. Typically 2,500 to 3,000 coffee plants grow per hectare. Trees produce 7 to 10 pounds of cherries, yielding about 1/2 pound of roasted coffee beans. Cherries do not ripen at the same time, so trees must be picked several times during the harvest season. Highest-growth trees produce the best cup quality, yet higher altitudes mean more difficult cultivation and lower yields.

Processing

Coffee beans are actually not beans at all, but rather one of two seeds growing inside the fruit of the coffee tree. This fruit, the coffee cherry, is slightly larger than a cranberry, with a similar shape.

To yield the best cup flavor, coffee cherries must be harvested at the peak of ripeness. But coffee cherries do not evenly tree-ripen, which means multiple pickings over months may be necessary.

Once harvested, cherries must be processed to yield beans which will be roasted for coffee. During processing, the pulp of the cherry is separated from its seeds.

Cherries must be processed soon after picking so that fermentation cannot begin. Fermentation taints the seeds of the cherries and takes brightness out of the coffee's eventual cup flavor. To ensure that we have the best-tasting specialty coffee available for roasting, HOMETOWN COFFEE strives to purchase cherries from farms that process their cherries within hours of harvesting, before fermentation negatively affects cup quality. The cherries are processed by one of two methods dry or wet.

THE DRY PROCESSING METHOD is used primarily where water is in short supply, or when wet processing equipment is unavailable. Coffee cherries are laid out to dry on large flat "patios", made from cement or packed earth. Cherries must be protected from precipitation and mold growths. Molds that occur during the drying process will diminish cup quality.

Once dried, cherries are transported in 100 pound bags to mills and hulling plants in larger metropolitan areas. There, machines remove dried cherry pulp and other seed coverings and screen for defects according to processors' priorities.

THE WET PROCESSING METHOD allows freshly picked coffee cherries to be fed through "pulping" machines, immediately separating cherry pulp from seeds. This climinates the danger of rotting and mold growth which can taint the flavor of dry-processed coffees.

Following pulping, seeds are covered with a slippery mucilage and are fermented for at least 48 hours before final washing and drying. During this stage, beans will take on foul or unfavorable flavors if they are; 1) damaged during pulping, 2) fermented unevenly or too much time, 3) contain too much alkaline, or 4) if there was organic matter in the water used for fermentation.

After fermentation, coffee seeds (beans) are dried from a 50 percent moisture content level to 10 to 12 percent moisture. The coffee seed actually shrinks as it dries inside a heavy, paper-like outer shell called parchment. The parchment coffee, or "pergumino" can be stored to await orders for export.

Roasting

The best coffee roasting machines in the world blend radiant and convention heat into one machine, allowing the roastmaster to make adjustments during pyrolsis to bring out the best flavors in each unique coffee. The coffee bean weight loss in roasting consists of about 12 percent free moisture, 5 percent moisture generated from pyrolysis and 2 to 5 percent dry-matter loss (depending on the degree of roast). The vast majority of coffee roasters in the world use a fine spray of water, or water quench, to cool their coffee after roasting. The coffee beans must be cooled at precisely the right moment to obtain the flavor and roast desired.

True flavor development occurs through artful adjustments of temperature and airflow during the pyrolysis stage of roasting. The color of roasted coffee comes from caramelized natural sugars. When heated, a darker coffee will develop--but each heating technique creates different positive and negative tastes in the cup. Cup quality, therefore, cannot be determined by roast darkness. High-quality, high growth arabica coffees should have flavor brightness and dimension, without sour, grassy, burnt or carbony flavor characteristics.