Coffee - from the seed to the cup

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Coffee represents 25% of Gatemala´s exports and one in four Guatemalians work on coffee plantations during harvesting. Given the significance of coffee to the nation we couldn´t help but visit a coffee plantation. Whilst we went into this more with the mind of something to do it was one of the most incredible learning experiences of the trip - despite the fact that neither of us drink coffee. So to all you coffee drinkers.... here is where you coffee comes from.

Internationally there are five types of coffee plants (Dont ask us what they are). As coffee is not native to Guatemala they imported the plants originally for the purpose of decoration as they are very beuatiful. Coffee plants however did not initially survive as the conditions and some of the local pests in Guatemala were not conjusive to growth. To overcome this two varieties of coffee plant are grafter together at germination - literally the roots of one and the top of the other to get one plant that will grow in Guatemala.

Interestingly it takes 12 months for a plant to grow from seed to 25cm when it is planted.

The plantation we visited was 280 acres and employed over 200 people. The plantation was the first in Guatemala and started producing coffee in 1886. The plantation is now being run by the same family and 4th generation coffee producers.

Once the plants have matured and the coffee beans are ripe 200 people normally families including parents and kids pick the ripe berries and are paid by the pound of berries picked. At this point the berries are placed in water to be washed and also to seperate the good berries which sink and the bad berries which float. The berries normally take 6- months to grow and ripen however the Guatamalians slow this process down giving the plants 40% sun and 60% shade to 8-9 months which creates berries with more flavour.

The bad berries are used to make instant coffee however here´s something you didn´t know.... Instant coffee only contains 10% of actual coffee beans and this is to give you the aroma of coffee. The remaining 90% is made up of chick peas, Avacado pip and dried corn cernals..... makes you think twice. Not that I can comment but if I ever drink coffee again it wont be Nescafe.

Coffee beans have four layers which must be removed. The first is the outer skin of the berry. Nothing in this process is wasted and the skins are used in jams, marmalade or compost production. This is removed by hand litterally by squezing the berry out.

The second layer is a very sugary slime. The bean is placed in a controlled environment where the sugar ferments for a couple of days leaving the bean clean.

Next the berries are dried in the sun. This process takes 10 days and the beans are ready when they smell like cornflakes. The beans are turned every 45 minutes and during this process the next layer dries and cracks however it is not removed until the beans are nearly ready for export as this protects and proseves the flavour and the bean. Heres an interesting fact... the bean turners cannot weigh more than 65kgs. This is to ensure that they do not damage the benas as they are walking over them to turn them. Lets hope the bottoms of their shoes are also clean.

The next step of the process occurs once the beans are ready for use. The beans are placed in a "crusher" which removes the third layer that was cracked in the sun. The final layer is a silver coating over the bean which is removed by scratching it of. This is scratched off in the crusher mostly by the shell when it is taken off however the bean is not damaged in this process.

Next the beans are placed in a gravity seperator. In a nutshell a pipe with a whole lotta air being blown up it. Logically the bigger beans that weigh more stay nearer the bottom, the lighter beans that weigh less rise to the top and the medium beans stay in the middle. Sounds simple to me. Heres where we are at.... the biggest beans are called elephants for the obvious reason. These beans are the ones that were closest to the step on the plant and received the most nutrients plus have the strongest flavour. The smallest beans are called peanuts again for the obvious reason however were the furtherest from the stem and are the most bitter. The ones in the middle... wait for it... are called medium beans and have just the right size and amount of flavour. Medium beans are the prized beans which reild the most in price.

There is always room for error though. So the plantation we visited also employs 21 ladies who in front of a conveyor belt and manually check every bean to make sure it is graded correctly. But theres still a margin of error right? Of course there is so there 21 ladies have the same pile of beans run by them three times to make sure they dont miss anything. Despite the international standard the plantation we were at aims for an error rate of 0-3.

So now the beans have been graded and are ready for either export or roasting. If they are exported the quality of the beans is directly related to the price they are sold for. The best quality bean is referred to as "class 1". Once the beans are packed and ready for export an independant tester takes a 300gm sample from every ton which equates to around 400 beans from any combination of bags in the shipment. Once the sample is taken each bean is individually inspected. Here is how important this is. The international standard for class 1 stipulates that only up to 5 beans per ton may contain a defect. If between 6 and 10 beans contain defects the grading is reduced to premium and the export price reduces by 25%. So when youre drinking that premium coffee just remember its only second best. Anything over 10 starts reducing again.

If the beans are roasted before export they are roasted in a tumbler at 300 deg F for 30 minutes. After this they are tumbled in room temp air for 12 hours to call and rest.

If the beans are roasted as per above medium beans create the best coffee. Full stop there is no argument here. The elephants and the peanuts are used in blends. Here is where it gets dodgy though...... if blends are used you can see the different colours of the beans in the coffee... therefor many suppliers overroast the blends to do two things..... make the ground coffee the same colour and remove the worst of the bad flavours from the cheap beans replacing it with a consistent "burnt" flavor. The key message was avoid blends and only drink medium roasts.

Interesting facts to finnish...

It takes around 180 beans to make one cup of coffee.

Expresso i.e a short black has the least amount of caffine with around 40gm however perculated coffee has the most caffine and 2nd most is filter (drip coffee) machines have the second most amount of caffine. So if youre being caffine conciuos go to your local cafe.

We also concluded our tour with a cup of coffee. Seemed like a good idea at the time however I didnt sleep till one. That sounds insane however for someone who doesnt drink coffee 40mg of caffine is clearly enough to send me to the moon. What was interesting though was that coffee is not consumed as a national culture rather an art. We cleansed our pallets with sparkling water and ensured that we slurped to take in air at the same time. The resulting flavour and aftertaste was that of dark chocolate and a great social experience.

Advice from the experts....

Drink no more than 3-4 cups of coffee per day.

Drink 2 glasses of water for every cup of coffee.

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