Coffee Processing in Starbucks and Green Mountain - Essay Example

What you often fail to think about is where and how the delicious frappuccino you enjoy at Starbucks is made. Oftentimes, your main concern is consumption without a rigorous process. However, you will enjoy coffee more if you learn how to process it. It is even a good idea to process your coffee at home and indulge in your coffee creation. Though the process requires a lot of time, effort, and complicacies, it might be worth it. The basic steps in home coffee processing are picking, pulping, fermentation, drying, hulling, and roasting.

The first step in coffee processing is picking the ripe cherries. Before embarking on this task, you need to know to be able to identify and differentiate the ripe from the unripe berries. Ripe berries are deep red. The rationale for picking coffee cherries when they are ripe is their relatively higher aromatic oil, lower organic acid content, and more fragrant, smooth, and mellow. You must manually hand-pick the fruit to choose only the ripe ones. This is an essential step in coffee processing as the classification of the handpicked fruit often determines the quality of the end product.

The next step is known as defruiting or pulping which is done immediately after picking the cherries to preserve quality. In this stage, you now separate the coffee bean from the coffee cherry. This can be done in two ways: first, you can individually squeeze the berry by hand or you can use a piece of wood to compress the berries in the container until all the seeds are removed. Afterward, you need to fill the container with water for the seeds and the removed skin to float. The skin and the seed should be removed before they settle. You then repeat the process until all the seeds and skin are eliminated.

To test if the fermentation is complete, you should take a handful of beans and wash them with water. If the beans are already clean and not slippery, enough fermentation has already been achieved. You can now wash the beans in running water and drain them, repeating the process until the water becomes clear.

Drying is the process wherein the coffee beans are spread out on a wide concrete or rock and exposed to air or sunlight to eliminate excess moisture. You can either sun dry or use a home food dehydrator to adequately remove the moisture. To enhance effectiveness, you should see to it that the beans are stirred three times a day in the entire process.
Before roasting, hulling should be done to remove the tough thin parchment from the beans. You can do this by placing the beans, a small quantity at a time, in a food processor with plastic blades. You need to blend the coffee beans at a slow speed for about thirty minutes. A hairdryer can also be utilized to blow away the unwanted lighter parchment from the beans. After hulling, you can now store in store the beans in jars as they are now ready for roasting.

Roasting is one integral step in attaining a savory coffee. You can roast the coffee beans by baking them in the oven. Spread the coffee beans thinly in a large baking, ensuring to stir frequently to prevent burning and facilitate an even roast. It is estimated that a single layer of beans will roast in 12 minutes at 230-250ºC. Your personal preference should be your guide in coffee roasting. The stronger flavor is achieved by roasting a little longer than usual.

After the aforementioned processes, the coffee is now ready for grinding, brewing, and storage. You can now use your creativity to come up with an aromatic and flavorful coffee. Enjoy! Read More