Coffee Beans to Tasty Brew: The Process of a Cup of Joe
What helps you to wake up in the morning? Is it a splash of cold water, a loud alarm, or the smell of a caffeinated beverage? If the latter, what’s your preference? Do you choose the gentler tea leaf or matcha powder, or are you partial to coffee beans? In today’s blog, we’re following the journey of a cup of morning joe — from roasting to brewing.
From Coffee Beans
Coffee is brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans — the seeds of berries from certain Coffea species. From the coffee fruit, manufacturers separate these seeds to produce a stable, raw product: un-roasted green coffee. Once roasted, the seeds transform into a consumable product. Then, they are ground into a powder for brewing.
Coffee is a major export for numerous countries: over 70 countries cultivate it. Because of concerns over environmental costs and wage disparity of famers, the market for fair trade and organic coffee beans continues to expand.
The accounts of Ahed al-Ghaffar in Yemen in the middle of the 15th century are the earliest evidence of coffee drinking. Here, drink-makers roasted and brewed coffee beans like we do today. Sufi circles consumed the beverage to stay awake for their religious rituals. By the 16th century, coffee reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. Later, by 1600, it spread to Italy and then the rest of Europe, Indonesia, and the Americas.
Step 1: Processing
Selectively picked by hand, manufactures process coffee beans by one of two ways:
- Dry Process: often simple and less labour-intensive.
- Wet Process: incorporates batch fermentation (thus using larger amount of water), and yields a milder coffee.
Step 2: Roasting
Coffee beans are sold in a roasted state. This process influences the taste of the brew by changing the bean both physically and chemically. Beans are roasted at a temperate of about 200 °C (392 °F). During roasting, starches break down to simple sugars that begin to brown — also known as caramelisation and also the reason for the change in colour. There are different types of roasts that exist of a spectrum. The two end points are:
- Darker: generally bolder because they have less finer content and more sugary flavour.
- Lighter: more complex and have a stronger flavour from aromatic oils and acids otherwise destroyed by a longer roasting time.
To Tasty Brew
With the coffee beans prepared, it is time to brew.
Step 3: Brewing
Coffee beans must be ground and brewed in order to create a beverage. Brewing considerations include the:
- fineness of the grind
- way in which the water is used to extract the flavour
- ratio of coffee grounds to water
- additional flavourings such as sugar, milk, and spices
- technique used to separate the spent grounds
No matter what device you use, the principle of coffee-making is the same. The coffee steeps in water (either or hot or cold depending on the method), and, when ready, the grounds are typically removed before drinking.
Different Kinds of Coffee
Coffee has a darkly coloured, bitter, slight acidic taste, and has a stimulating effect in humans due to its caffeine content. Not only does the coffee bean alter the brew, but it can also be prepared in a number of different ways.
- Black Coffee. A straight up cup of joe made from plain coffee beans brewed hot.
- Decaf. Almost all of the caffeine is removed from these beans.
- Espresso. Although this type taste stronger, cafe-workers use the same amount of coffee as well as the same type of bean. Instead, the grind is finer and brewed with a higher grounds-to-water ratio.
- Latte. Typically 1/3 espresso and 2/3 steamed milk. Topped with a thin layer of foam, this beverage is additionally flavoured with a variety of different syrups.
- Cappuccino. Similar to a latte for the frothy layer is thicker.
- Macchiato. Italian for “stained” it refer to coffee that is stain with a bit of bit.
- Americano. Espresso diluted with hot water.
- Cortado. Hailing from Spain, it consists of half espresso, half steamed milk, and no foam.
- Cold Brew. Made from slowly steeping coffee bean grounds over cool water, it taste smoother and less bitter than regular ice coffee.
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