From Seed to Cup: Small Batch Coffee Company

Whether you drink instant coffee at home, frequent a chain store or seek out an independent, the coffee you eventually drink has undergone a incredibly long journey through many different hands and countries to find its way from seed to cup.

The product we know as coffee beans begin life as the seed of a coffee tree in any number of coffee producing countries. Ethiopia is the only place on earth that coffee grew indigenously but from its origins in East Africa it has travelled the globe through trade and commerce. A staple product of the old European empires, coffee was transported form colony to colony by merchant tradesman. Indeed every coffee tree in modern day Indonesia can trace its roots to a single plant brought there by a Dutch merchant in the nineteenth century.

From the seed grows the coffee tree and when in season they produce cherries. It is the seeds of these cherries that eventually become coffee as we know it. These cherries grow in many different hues of red or yellow depending on the varietal of bean; yellow bourbon, red bourbon, catimor, typica, icatu, catuai to name but a few.

Once the cherries are ready to harvest the grower really starts to influence the final taste of the coffee. The best farms hand pick the cherries to ensure they are only harvested when perfectly ripe. On bigger farms and for more commercial grade coffee the harvesting is often done mechanically for higher and quicker yields.

Once harvested the seeds must be removed from the cherries and then dried before they are shipped around the world. There are a variety of processing methods, which vary depending on the local facilities.

Once the beans are dried they are packed into 60kg jute bags and shipped to coffee roasters around the globe. Just as farms vary hugely in size, quality and means of production, so too do the roasters from the industrial factory roasteries of the multinationals to the small artisan independent roasters.

Finally we have a coffee beans as they appear to the consumer: large, brittle and deep mahogany in colour. Most importantly they now have the delicate aroma of freshly roasted coffee and are nearly ready to be consumed. Freshly roasted beans need to be rested before they are drunk as they release so much Carbon Dioxide after roasting that they do not show all of their flavour immediately. It is a bone of contention between coffee roasters as to how long they should be rested with some arguing as little as 24 hours and others a maximum of two weeks.

Once rested the beans are finally ready, after journeying around the world to be made into coffee. Whether they are destined for a bag on a supermarket shelf, a jar of instant coffee, a cafetiere or an espresso machine, all the many millions of beans that are consumed every day have undergone a massive journey and employed the skills and expertise of many people to reach their final cup.

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