Coffee Plantations

I am not an expert, that is a warning, I am just writing what I remember from my visit to a few coffee plantations in Hawaii a few weeks ago. First off, the coffee is a seed inside of a cherry fruit. It takes five years for the trees to be ready for a harvest-able cherry, and then once the cherry appears it takes about five months to ripen, and to be ready for harvesting. Most coffee cherries are harvested by hand since each cherry ripens at different times even if it is on the same tree. One tree is responsible for only about a pound of coffee each cycle.

(This next part I am not positive on) After the cherries are harvested the bean is removed from the shell with a variety of possible methods... I am not going to list them because I do not know how true this is....

Then there is the roasting process-- different companies also use different methods here. I know a raw bean removed from the cherry shell is called a green bean, it tends to look as such, a pale green, or beige color. The temperature and time the that the beans are roasted determines the flavor and color of the bean. The lighter roasts are of a lower temperature and color and have less of a strong flavor. There are also flavor notes that the coffee companies take note of with each roasting level. A medium brown has caramel like notes, and a darker brown can taste chocolatey.

After roasting comes grinding the beans. This also has an effect on taste. There are coarse grinds and fine grinds... a really fine grind often yields itself to espresso (but espresso beans are also unique in the darkness of their roast).

....If there is anything further you are curious about regarding coffee feel free to ask, I have some resources available so I can find out and report the information back to you.