In this blog post, we take a look at the long journey a cup of coffee must take before it reaches us, and the efforts of the people involved.
Few beverages are as familiar to us as coffee. When waking up in the morning, when drowsiness hits after lunch, or when working late into the evening, many people naturally reach for coffee. Even when planning to meet friends or colleagues, we casually exchange the phrase, “Shall we grab a cup of coffee?” But while drinking coffee all this time, have you ever wondered how that single cup before you came to be? People usually think of simple processes like brewing coffee beans or dissolving instant coffee mix in water. But the truth is, the journey of coffee isn’t that simple. It actually requires a very long time and involves numerous steps. The process of creating a single cup of coffee can be broadly divided into three main stages: coffee tree cultivation, roasting, and coffee extraction.
The first stage is cultivating the coffee plant. The coffee plant is a tropical plant that grows in the subtropical regions between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The seeds inside the fruit that grows on this coffee plant are called green beans, which are the raw material for coffee. Initially, coffee seeds are planted in pots. Once the shrub reaches about 60cm in height, it is transplanted to a cultivation field for full-scale growing. After another 3 to 4 years, the coffee plant matures sufficiently to bear fruit. A further 6 to 11 months later, the fruit ripens to a deep red color. This is called a coffee cherry. After harvesting the coffee cherries, the green beans must be separated from the fruit. There are three methods for this. The first is the natural drying method, a traditional approach where harvested cherries are sun-dried to remove moisture, and the fruit’s outer skin is cracked to extract the green beans. The second is the washed method, where the coffee cherries are placed in a water tank of a specially designed machine. The moving surface of the machine strips off the cherry’s skin. While this method is more expensive than the natural drying method in terms of cost, it preserves the inherent quality of the green beans, allowing them to be processed immediately. For this reason, it is highly valued for its quality. The last is the semi-dry method, which can be considered a compromise between the washed and dry methods. It involves mechanically removing the outer skin and then drying the beans in a drying room.
For the green beans obtained this way to become the ‘coffee beans’ we commonly think of, roasting is necessary. Today, this process is performed using roasting equipment. While the types of equipment vary, they all fundamentally rely on either the ‘drum roasting’ or ‘hot air roasting’ method. The drum method involves placing the green beans in a drum and applying heat to roast them; it is the most widely used method. A stirring device inside the drum ensures the beans receive even heat. Conversely, the hot air method involves injecting hot air into a chamber containing the beans to roast them. This method offers the advantage of supplying consistent heat, maintaining stable roasting conditions, and enabling large-scale production. However, it also has the disadvantage of making it harder to express individuality through roasting compared to the drum method.
The roasting process is not merely about cooking green beans; it is an art form that triggers various hidden chemical changes within them. As the diverse components inside the green beans react to heat, altering their color, aroma, and flavor, the roaster’s delicate senses and skill play a crucial role. Even using the same beans, the flavor profile of the coffee can vary dramatically depending on the roaster’s experience and intuition. This is precisely why coffee experts regard roasting as an art form. As such, roasting, the core stage determining coffee’s taste and aroma, is a process requiring deep research and experimentation in itself.
The final step in making coffee is extracting it from these roasted beans. Numerous extraction methods exist, with the most familiar today being drip filter brewing and espresso machine brewing. The drip filter method refers to the process seen when ordering hand-drip coffee at a cafe. The beans are ground to a medium coarseness, placed in a filter, and hot water is poured over them to extract the coffee. While the method itself is very simple, the taste of the coffee changes depending on the temperature and volume of the water poured, as well as the pouring speed. Therefore, achieving the best coffee flavor requires extensive experience and training. To make other common types of coffee besides hand-drip, an espresso machine is used. This device has a metal portafilter attached to it. Water is poured into the bottom of this portafilter, finely ground coffee beans are placed in the filter basket, and the assembly is attached to the machine. Boiling water is then forced through the coffee grounds as steam, extracting the coffee into the portafilter above. This process yields espresso, the concentrated essence of intensely flavored coffee. This concentrate can then be combined with other ingredients to create various coffee drinks like Americano, café latte, and café mocha.
The Americano we commonly order at cafes might seem like a simple drink that appears in under a minute after ordering. But in reality, nearly four years of waiting for the coffee tree to bear fruit are hidden behind it. Not only that, but separating the green beans from the fruit obtained from the coffee tree, carefully roasting the green beans to make roasted beans. Every single cup of Americano we drink now contains all those long and intricate processes. We usually drink coffee without a second thought. But doesn’t it strike you that this coffee required far too much time and effort to reach us to simply drink it thoughtlessly and move on? Next time you have coffee tomorrow morning, it might be nice to pause and consider the journey this single cup took to be born. And wouldn’t the time spent enjoying that coffee become a little more special?
