Types
of Coffee Beans
 First
of all, coffee beans are not actually beans, but the seed
of a cherry from a coffee tree. These trees grow in subtropical
climates from sea level to around 6000 feet.
Harvesting
Coffee Beans
Coffee
is a very labor intensive commodity. The cherries ripen
at different times so they must be picked by hand. Since
there are about 4000 coffee beans in a pound, 2000 cherries
must be hand picked (there are two beans per cherry). The
average coffee tree will produce only about 2 pounds of
roasted coffee per year.
Next,
the fruit of the cherry needs to be removed from the seeds.
This is accomplished by either of 2 ways, the dry process
or the wet process.
The
dry process is to let the cherries dry out in the sun or
in dryers and then use machines to strip the dried fruit
off of the coffee beans.
The
wet process uses a soaking method to make the fruit come
off and produces coffee which is referred to as washed coffee.
These
green coffee beans are then sent to be dried. After drying,
they are sorted by size and graded (usually by hand). Then
they are bagged and sent to the roasters. The beans will
remain green until roasted.
It
is important to note that green coffee will stay fresh for
a very long time. When freshness is talked about in coffee,
it means from date that the green beans have been roasted.
You can read more about this on our roasting page.
Now
that you a little about the process, there are 2 species
of coffee, robusta and arabica.
Robusta:
Robusta
coffee is a lower grade of coffee that is typically grown
at lower elevations. It has more of an astringent flavor
and contains a higher amount of caffeine.
The
robusta trees are easier to grow and maintain. They are
also more disease resistant and produce a higher yield.
This type of coffee is typically used to achieve a lower
price.
Arabica:
Arabica
coffee is the superior grade of coffee that most people
usually refer to as gourmet coffee. They contain about half
of the caffeine of robusta and have more desirable flavors
and aromatic properties.
Much
of the coffee grown world wide is of the arabica species,
but only a fraction meets standard set by the Specialty
Coffee Association of America.
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