The journey of the bean

Have you ever really thought about your coffee? We make a pot, pour a cup, maybe drink part of it, it gets cold, we pour it out and pour some more. Coffee is relatively inexpensive and readily available. Even fresh roasted specialty coffee (Arabica) is only pennies per cup when prepared at home. We pretty much take it for granted.But let’s stop and ponder the life cycle of the almighty bean and those involved along the way to your palate.

How many hands have touched your coffee on its journey to your cup? The farmer plants the seedling when it is seven to fifteen month old. High quality coffee plants can take up to five years to produce a viable harvest. During this time the plants must be cared for, wild animals can trample them, weeds compete for nutrients and disease can also attack.

Once mature the coffee plants produce one crop per year. As the coffee cherries turn red they are hand picked. It can take several pickings to get all of the fruit. Because harvesting is so labor-intensive, it’s one of the most expensive steps in coffee processing.

Processing must occur quickly after the cherry has been picked in order to extract the seed which is the green coffee bean.

Depending on the processing method, the fruit is dried in the sun and put through a mechanical husking device (unwashed method) or de-pulped, fermented, washed and then dried (washed method).

In either process the coffee is continually raked by hand while it dries. After it has dried it has to be sorted; in many places this is done by hand also. Once it has been bagged, it makes its way to the ships to be loaded and then unloaded at our ports. From the docks, it moves to the Green Room to be stored until it moves to the roaster!

Each coffee has its own flavor depending on growing region, processing method, soil, altitude and even the weather of the growing season. It is the roasters job to roast each coffee until just the right roast is achieved to best highlight that particular coffee bean.

Once that is done, the coffee is handed over to the barista or you to carefully prepare that which has taken several years, traveled thousands of miles and been touched by many hands to reach your cup.

If you are one of the many millions of coffee lovers in this state, you can now share a deeper appreciation for the almighty bean, which helps put that bounce in your step and maybe even the smile on your face!

Dan and Cindy Ouellette own Zojo Coffee Roasting and Tasting Room in Longview, Washington. They offer fresh roasted coffee and an artisan drink menu with a variety of brewing methods.
You can discover them at 1335 14th Ave, Tues. – Thurs 8:00am to 2:00pm, Fri. until 7:00pm and Sat. 9:00am – 2:00pm, Phone 442-4111 or online: www.zojocoffee.com