News / Coffee Info
April Bean Of The Month
Tasting Notes: Chocolate, Orange and Floral
April Announcements
Prices for "by the cup" coffee have gone up.
April 1
Happy April Fool's Day!!!
April 21
Easter
Coffee Fun Fact
If you think you’ve had the largest cup of coffee, think again. According to the Guinness World Records in 2012, the largest cup of coffee was 3,487 gallons and 9 feet tall! Imagine brewing all that coffee.
The Beginnings of Coffee
Typically there is one major harvest a year, and most coffee cherries are hand-picked. A good picker will pick an average of 100-200 pounds of coffee cherries a day, which will produce 20-40 pounds of coffee beans. There are two different methods for harvesting the coffee cherries. The first is, strip picking, this means all the cherries are picked regardless of how ripe they are. The second is, selective picking, the coffee cherries are only picked when they are at the peak of their ripeness. The coffee pickers will rotate among the trees every 8-10 days in order to pick only ripe coffee cherries.
After picking, the beans are processed. Typically there are two different ways coffee cherries are processed: natural, and washed. The natural process, the oldest method, is typically used in countries where water resources are limited. The coffee cherries are spread out on large surfaces to dry. The cherries are continually raked, to ensure the cherries dry evenly and to keep them from spoiling. The washed process coffees remove, or wash off, the cherry pulp after being harvested.
After being processed the beans are exported and shipped to coffee roasteries like us where the coffee will be roasted, brewed, and end up in your morning cup of coffee.
What is Micro-Lot Coffee?
Coffee Varietals
The Types of Coffee Processing
There are three different types of coffee processing: natural, washed, and honey. Coffee processing is how the coffee is treated after it is picked. The natural or dry process coffees are similar to a back-to-basics approach to processing. The style comes from Ethiopia and has been in use for hundreds of years. First the farmers wash the coffee cherries and then dry them in the sun. This can be difficult to do just about anywhere because the climate has to be just right to ensure the beans dry evenly and quickly while the cherries ferment. The risky part of the process is removing the green bean from the dried and fermented cherry. The most flavorful coffees are often naturally processed.
The wet or washed process coffees focus on the beans true flavor because the cherry is pulped from the coffee beans by a machine that removes the outer layer of skin. The bean still is covered with mucilage and is fermented in water for one to two days, or longer. After fermentation, the mucilage is washed from the coffee bean. The process creates a much fruitier flavor than the dry processed bean. The washed process is able to highlight the true character of single origin beans like no other process. This is why so many specialty coffees use the wet process. This method generally produces the highest quality coffees.
The honey coffee process tends to add sweet notes to the coffee because some of the mucilage of the fruit remains on the bean after the skin and pulp are removed through water and fermentation. The mucilage has the appearance of honey, thus the name. Sometimes this process is referred to as fully washed. This method is used for much Arabica coffee processing, including Costa Rican coffees.
What are the Crown Reserve Coffees?
