WE WISH COFFEE SIMPLER
sequence
Two ways to learn about coffee
Become a professional barista. On-the-job learning integration is established through self-study. The advantages are that the absorbed knowledge is relatively broad, the learning cost is low, the practical skills can be effectively exercised, and the deep memory is deep, but it takes a long time and is easy to take detours, the knowledge is difficult to systematize, and the identity aura added value is missing under the Chinese certificate education system.
Participate in skills training institutions to learn and grow. The advantage is systematic absorption of knowledge, rich theoretical knowledge, high efficiency in short learning time, and an identity aura. However, thinking and vision are more limited, practical skills are weak, learning costs are high, and shallow memories are easy to forget
Systematic learning of coffee knowledge to go through three links
60% upstream green bean planting + 30% midstream roasting + 10% downstream extraction = a good cup of coffee.
The four processes of a cup of coffee are the coffee trees growing the coffee fruit, which is initially processed into green beans in the processing plant, and the raw beans are roasted into mature beans, which are brewed to make a coffee. The definition of good coffee here is from the perspective of consumers, referring to a cup of their favorite coffee that has been carefully maintained and cultivated in any part of the industrial chain.
The decisive factors in the upstream planting process are the variety, origin and treatment, the different varieties of origin planted and the different treatments of coffee beans exhibit different characteristics. The so-called orange raw Huainan is only orange, and orange raw Huaibei is citrus.
The decisive factor in the midstream baking process is the degree of baking. The degree of roasting corresponds to the chemical reaction inside the coffee bean. In the early stage of roasting, the acidity of coffee beans is prominent, and with the development of time, it turns to scorched bitterness, and the control of the length of roasting time is obtained from sour sweet to burnt coffee beans with different flavors.
Under the premise that the quality of the upstream planting and midstream baking links is guaranteed, the downstream extraction links are divided into high-pressure extraction and low-pressure extraction
The concentration of the coffee liquid is changed by varying degrees of pressure and thus the taste of the coffee. However, whether it is high pressure or low pressure extraction, four major factors will affect the taste of coffee, namely water temperature, powder to water ratio, extraction time, and grinding degree. In addition, factors such as equipment, water quality, air pressure and temperature will also fine-tune the taste, but are not decisive factors that change the taste of coffee.
planting
Primary processing
Secondary processing baking
extraction
Coffee tree species and varieties SPECIES & VARIETIES
Establish the concept of coffee varieties and tree species
At present, there are three major tree species that have been planted in the production of human society among the huge coffee tree species, namely Arabica species, Robusta species and Liberian species. Commercial trade accounts for 70 per cent of production, 30 per cent and Liberian species are produced and sold in-house.
Different coffee tree species produce coffee cherries with different flavors, but even the same tree species produces fruits with different characteristics due to conditions such as origin, climate, and soil. Although there are different characteristics, it is not easy to distinguish the taste for people's intuitive feelings, after all, there are also midstream roasting links and downstream brewing links that affect the taste of coffee. Therefore, for the improvement of varieties, it almost tends to improve disease resistance and yield, followed by the pursuit of taste. The tool to assess yield and benefit effects uses the concept of yield yield, usually based on yields over 4 to 5 years of cultivation, which are converted into kilograms of green coffee beans from a coffee tree or a batch of fruit picked. In general, varieties under the Arabica line have an average yield of 18% to 20%, while varieties under the Robusta line have an average yield of 20% to 25%.
Basic characteristics of bean seeds
Arabica coffee beans are slender, oval, disease-resistant, and only suitable for cultivation at high altitudes, originating in Ethiopia. Robusta coffee beans are short, fat, semi-round, caffeine content is 2 times higher than Arabica coffee beans, mainly used for instant and canned ready-to-drink coffee, more resistant to disease and insect pests, originating in the Congo, Africa
Almost all Arabica coffee beans on the market are hybridized or naturally mutated from the two major breeding lines of the Arabica species, the IronPix and the Bourbon Breed, of which the Ironpia is the purest Arabica species, with a bronzed top lobe, but excluding the native species in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee.
Native species derivation
The two major strains spread to the world through a channel that distinguished them from the native species, the Ethiopian Arabica species. The traditional Ethiopian Arabica species, which we call the native species, is directly produced and spread from Ethiopia to various countries, but because it is the wild variety where the coffee originates, the number of wild varieties is too large to be clearly divided, resulting in a unified batch of coffee beans can not guarantee a unified variety.
The Tinpika and Bourbon strains migrated from Ethiopia to the Republic of Yemen due to political and economic influences, where they evolved into the largest range of Typica species, which are hardly resistant to leaf rust and are produced in high-altitude mountainous areas and in the climatic environment of the island.
Natural mutations in the tin pickup gene form bourbon species, and bourbon genes are susceptible to mutations in the influence of the cultivation environment. After the coffee fruit is ripe, the environment will show different colors such as: yellow bourbon, red bourbon, pink bourbon (yellow bourbon and red bourbon hybrid cultivation)
Digression: Arabica species can be traced back to the Qafa Forest in southwestern Ethiopia, and the evolution of tens of thousands of years is far from the huge gene pool of the varieties discovered and studied by humans, and the mystery and unknown of the Qafa Forest for species conservation and academic research have yet to be developed.
Hybridization
The Tin Pickup and Bourbon species are produced by single-gene natural variations
But in order to meet the developing market demand and deal with problems such as coffee plant pests and diseases. Hybridization of different genes often results in varieties with better disease resistance and higher yields
Of course, this also includes naturally occurring natural hybrids.
Yellow Bourbon
For example, Yellow Bourbon is a natural hybrid hybrid of the natural variant of tin pickup truck and red bourbon, which is different from other varieties of coffee beans ripening red fruits appear yellow, and it is not easy to distinguish the stage of fruit ripening.
Tim
Artificially bred self-pollinated hybrids such as Timor species. Tim was a fertile breed that was accidentally bred by hybridizing native and Robusta species, but was sparsely produced and genetically unstable.
Katim
The widely planted katim in Yunnan is a variety of artificial interference breeding between tim and kadura, which has the characteristics of strong disease resistance and high yield. And Kartim will have different flavors in different production countries, but it is cultivated by the Portuguese Leaf Rust Institute (CIFC) for the ability to resist leaf rust, so the most obvious manifestation of the Kardim germline is the ability to resist leaf rust.
At present, most coffee beans are marketed according to the variety or region. But in the consumer market, it is impossible to understand that most locally grown coffee is only grown in a single or small number of varieties, plus the roasting process changes the taste and form of the coffee beans through chemical reactions
So much so that the consumer market cannot experience the taste characteristics of different varieties grown in the same appellation.
With the development of the market, coffee cultivation will change from a single small number of varieties to multi-variety planting, and consumers in the same production area will feel the taste performance of different varieties in a unique geographical environment, planting technology and processing.
Seasonality of coffee
Factors that affect seasonality
The establishment of the coffee season is to ensure the freshness of the green beans, and the coffee fruit picking season cycle in different origins will set different seasons.
The factors affecting seasonality are not only the picking season of the planting link, but also the timeliness of the drying stage of the processing link and the transportation and storage conditions, these two factors need to ensure an absolute virtuous circle, so that the freshness of green beans can correspond to the different tastes of different periods, but also do not have to pay too much attention to and emphasize the freshness of green beans. If there is a problem in the transportation and storage process and the drying stage, then the freshness of the green beans cannot be discussed.
Coffee originates in tropical areas with high rainfall, and in order to avoid the risk of microbial growth and the negative impact of the drying phase in the humid environment, it is necessary to dry the green beans as soon as possible before the rainy season, which arrives a few months after the season. The transport costs of exporting foreign trade in the final stages of the season are high. Because the price of containers for export is very high and the capacity is very large, if the trade volume does not reach the container capacity, the time and cost will be increased. Therefore, the more unstable the quality of green coffee beans purchased at the end of the season and later.
360 degree planing of green coffee beans
A coffee fruit contains two seeds, the core. However, when the soil nutrients of the coffee tree grow change and lead to unsound development, the seeds in the coffee fruit of the coffee tree part of the coffee tree will change to form a whole core, which is called a round bean.
Arabica tree species have a tendency to produce round beans because of their single-fertilized plant, but they are generally classified in the market as defective beans. Due to the unclear translation at home and the commercial booing of some foreign countries, it will also be described as a public bean. Two relatively normally developed cores are called flat beans or mother beans. It does not mean that coffee made from round beans is necessarily worse than coffee made from flat beans. Scarce round beans are often sold in the market at a higher price than flat beans.
Emphasis: Because coffee trees are hermaphrodite self-pollinating madder plants, there are both pistils and stamens in coffee pollen, so there is no male and female distinction.
The Arabica species is tetraploid autophany, while Robusta is diploid allogeneic pollination, so each green bean is developed from autobred or allogeneic hybridization with neighboring coffee trees. Diploid or tetraploid refers to having two or four sets of chromosomes.
Typically, any species requires the same number of chromosomes to reproduce successfully. All species on Earth have two chromosomes, but the Arabica species uniquely has 44 chromosomes and the Robusta species has 22 chromosomes.
Elephant beans
Another irregularly shaped coffee bean formed by the development of more than two independent endosperms in the fruit is called multi-embryonic beans (elephant beans), which are usually almost destroyed and crushed during the drying process. Elephant beans do not have a nutritional advantage in taste due to multiple embryos, which is no different from normally developed coffee beans. The scientific name with hype is Maragogype, which is 2 to 3 times larger than 16 mesh flat beans. Academically, it is a variant of the tin card species, also known as giant beans, which grow at low altitudes of 700 to 800 meters
Elephant beans were crossed with the Bourbon variant Pacas to obtain the now famous Pacamara variety, which is currently the best tasting variety in Central America, the size of the bean species is close to the size of the elephant bean up to 21 to 22 orders, and the best quality comes from Guatemala and El Salvador.
Nutrients in green coffee beans
Green coffee beans are coffee beans that have been processed but not roasted. It has a natural fruity aroma, the color of the original treatment is blue-green, and the moisture contained will be lost over time
Nutrients include, but are not limited to, sugar hydrates, proteins, organic acids, cellulose, fats, and caffeine. The carbohydrates provide sweetness and acidity after baking, the protein and the sugar in the carbohydrates undergo a Merlard chemical reaction to release different tastes and tastes and are reflected in the color, the highest content of organic acids is chlorogenic acid, and the sour and bitter taste are changed during the baking process. Caffeine is an alkaloid, and the roasting process also chemically reacts to change the bitter taste.
Coffee cooked beans refer to the coffee beans that should be obtained after a series of chemical hair occurrences of green coffee beans, which are divided into seasonal beans, new beans, old beans, old beans, old beans and so on in the green bean trading market according to the harvesting period and storage time. Aged beans are not equal to old beans, old beans refer to the unsalable coffee beans after picking in the season, aged beans are wrapped in the seed shell, that is, the inner peel of the long-term storage in the place of origin, and regular maintenance of coffee beans.
Old beans
Aged beans
Planting and picking
The World Coffee Belt is centered on the equator, between 25 degrees north and south latitudes around the earth's tropical and subtropical regions, most of the tropical rainforests in the World Coffee Belt have different species of coffee trees
A coffee tree usually has a reduced yield after 20 years of growth, has an economic lifespan of less than 30 years, and is constantly pruned during the growth process to maintain a high degree of fruit picking and care.
The seed germination period is about 1 to 2 months to germinate, 3 to 4 months coffee bean seed shell breaks through the soil to continue to grow, after 4 months the first 2 leaves grow out with the shell but also fall off the seedling tree in the later stage, and then four months the seedling tree begins to grow into a prototype coffee tree, about 4 to 5 years can grow into a mature coffee tree for the first time to flower.
Coffee trees to open white flowers after 3 to 5 years of time, emitting a jasmine-like floral fragrance, the flowering period of about 3 days will wither and then produce green coffee fruit, different varieties of coffee flowers have different shapes, but they are similar to cylinders or columns, the flower body is slender, the central part is anthers protruding. Flowering time is generally in the first quarter of each year, fruit to maturity to take 9 to 11 months, the higher the altitude, the longer the fruit needs to mature.
The best altitude growth environment for coffee trees is a wet environment at an altitude of 1000 meters to 2000 meters, and the higher the altitude, the more frost risk there will be.
High altitude, growing on steep slopes, artificial picking is the premise of most coffee producing areas of high-quality coffee beans, but whether it is hand-picked or shaken to the ground in the collection, will inevitably mixed with unripe fruit or over-ripe fruit, of which the more special place of origin is Brazil, with the increase in commercial coffee bean exports, Brazil's picking use of large machinery to unripe fruit and ripe fruit with branches and leaves together to collect together to cause mixed quality.
Shading system for coffee growing
Coffee trees are evergreen trees that grow under the canopy of forests and are shielded by hillsides to absorb short periods of sunlight, so growing in shrubland under high-density trees is the most natural adaptation of Arabica tree species in the original ecosystem.
People imitate forest ecosystems to plant coffee trees in the shade and support a variety of animals and plants but can not return to the original state, in the coffee planting estate interspersed with the planting of shade trees, small farmers manor due to market supply and demand more dependent on the planting of shade trees diversified planting to maximize the use of land resources, large estates will focus time and energy on increasing production, scale and daily management and neglect to plant shade trees, the coffee trees are completely exposed to the sun, Relying on shade prevents leaves from stopping growth due to sun exposure and inability to absorb carbon dioxide, blocking the flow of cold air from high altitudes to avoid frost, reducing changes in temperature over-tolerated temperatures and reducing yields. The largest tolerance temperature difference for Arabica coffee trees is 19 degrees, and the maximum tolerance temperature difference for Robusta coffee trees is 14 degrees. Moreover, the soil under the shade tree is neutral, controlling the soil nutrient imbalance caused by soil erosion, inhibiting weeds from competing for water and nutrients, and regulating the microclimate and diverse microbial environment for the growth of coffee trees.
Generally, the coffee fruit with higher sugar content and larger particles but the slow and long yield of the mature period rarely can not produce enough benefits, but there are exceptions, in the warm and cloudy climate conditions, the yield of coffee trees under the shade tree is higher, and at this stage, market scientists have studied and cultivated tree species without shade.
There is an argument that the canopy of coffee trees has the function of self-shading, so much so that it is considered unnecessary to plant shade trees, so modern coffee plantations are usually built in direct sunlight.
Shade trees are chosen based on four factors: growth rate, survival lifespan, root development, and wind resistance. While establishing a shading system helps with the growth of coffee trees, there are undeniable drawbacks that coexist.
Some marketing, trade strategies and academic research have described shading systems as the best coffee growing environment, which is one-sided. First, it is possible to generate income by providing tourism projects by praising its commercial value and environmental protection, and second, to stimulate consumption through the authorization of government-approved organizations, which leads to the transformation of primary forests and the reduction of production due to shading systems, thereby reducing the living conditions of coffee farmers, and whether it is appropriate or not also needs to measure the actual environment of farmers in the production areas.
Climatic conditions
Humid and warm climate, moderately less intense light, and moderate rainfall are the most basic conditions in ensuring frost-free conditions.
Climate and altitude are the key factors in determining the growth life and sustainable development of coffee trees, the most suitable growth temperature for Arabica coffee trees is between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius, and the most suitable growth temperature for Robusta coffee trees is between 24 and 30 degrees Celsius.
For Arabica species to meet the temperature suitability needs high altitude, low dimension, between 23 degrees north and south latitudes of the equator. High-quality coffee beans are grown at high altitudes, Arabica tree species generally grow at altitudes of 600 to 2000 meters, and Robusta tree species generally grow at altitudes of about 600 meters above sea level and below.
Rainfall and light
The general difference between non-equatorial and equatorial regions is that the rainy season varies, while the equatorial region has double-peaked rainfall all year round. In non-equatorial areas, due to irregular rainfall, it is necessary to rely on irrigation to ensure that coffee trees absorb soil moisture, rainfall means water resources and atmospheric humidity, and the reference factor is the total annual rainfall
It takes 2 to 3 months of little or no rain in the period when coffee trees induce concentrated flowering, and the total annual rainfall suitable for Arabica coffee trees is between 1400 and 2000 mm, and the total annual rainfall of Robusta coffee trees is between 2000 and 2500 mm. Excessive rainfall requires proper drainage to avoid harm to the production area, but more than 3000 mm is considered unsuitable for economic cultivation, and the period of cultivation and harvesting is arranged through the analysis of the distribution of rainfall time
Light conditions, reduced light is more intense than photosynthesis of sufficient light.
Soil conditions
Meet the requirements of loose soil and good drainage.
More demanding volcanic soil rich in organic matter is the condition that can cultivate high-quality coffee beans, all plants need to absorb nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and other trace elements from the soil, if you want coffee trees to maintain health and fruit production, you need to supplement the nutrients lost due to the absorption of the fruit through compound fertilizer or organic fertilizer to the soil.
Soils that are not suitable for growing coffee trees, such as those with a depth of no more than 2 meters and no necessary water supply, or a hard dish layer with a high density and thickness that makes the coffee tree roots impenetrable, and the hard dish layer is lava, calcareous tuff or mudstone formation.
The most suitable terrain for planting coffee plantations is flat land or hills with small slopes, which can also be planted on steep slopes, but the relative cost of planting is relatively high and it is not easy to mechanize. Yields of coffee tree species can be below average due to conditions built on unsuitable soil conditions
Under the original ecology, wild coffee trees and dwarf shrub plants grow naturally under the forest canopy, do not need to use drugs and artificial inputs, so the yield is low, the system improvement and increase the use of resources are integrated into other plants that can create economic benefits to cultivate together, catering to the market demand to develop and gradually increase the yield with the use of pesticides and fertilizers, to ensure the natural ecological balance in the soil and maintain the law and sustainability of soil nutrient input.
At present, most of the production areas in the market stage do not have forest canopy conditions can only be exposed to direct sunlight, can only invest a large amount of fertilizers and pesticides for artificial management, although the yield is high relatively low in quality and once excessive, it is easy to damage the environment, in the economic and environmental protection point of view, the most suitable for coffee trees to provide nutrients is soil organic fertilization, organic fertilization to cover plants, shade, fertilizer and processing residues.
Pest
Leaf rust
A fungus that parasitizes on coffee tree species and corrodes leaves and causes shedding, with corrosive brown spots on the back, mainly in Arabica coffee trees with weak disease resistance. First seen in 1861 and spread between coffee plant species, leaf rust in 2014 in a global warming environment directly affected the economic turmoil in coffee-producing countries.
The solution is to use fungicides for prevention, but the cost of fungicides is high and harmful to the soil, and the other is to isolate and burn infected coffee trees, but the surrounding coffee trees must also be treated with agents, these two measures are indeed indicators that are not curative, and long-term agents will also accelerate the evolution of the virus. Arabica species due to its high genetic similarity caused by natural mutations of the variety has disease resistance, but the ability is weak can not resist the evolution of leaf rust virus, can only rely on artificial breeding of Katim species as representative of the strong leaf rust resistance and high yield of varieties.
Crustacean borer
Small flying insects like to burrow into the coffee fruit to build nests and incubate eggs, and can adapt to caffeine, the solution is the use of insecticides, which also endangers the soil environment, and the other is to use the ecological chain to introduce another insect, but the prevention of flooding still needs pesticide assistance.
Tiger Sky Bull
Moth-based pests, moths eat wood such as tree trunks. The solution can only be manual hunting and timely pruning of the affected branches or injecting medicine into the worm hole.
Small black-branched silverfish
Moth holes in the branches lead to dead branches and leaves, and the solution measures are timely pruning and burning the affected branches, spraying insecticides and cleaning weeds and shrubs.
Leopard-grain wood beetle moth
The larvae will lodge in the branches and feed on them, and solutions include wire piercing into wormholes, injecting medicine, pruning and burning branches.
Green scabies
The larvae and adults feed on the young tissues, suck the sap, causing the young fruits to shrink and fall off, and the solution measures are: pruning and shearing, appropriate spraying of insecticides, and burning of the affected branches.
Coffee cherries
The structure of the fruit can first look at the cross-section: the middle S-shaped yellow is the silver skin wrapped in raw beans from the inside to the outside, and the silver skin and pectin are seed shells, also known as the skin and flesh on the right side of the parchment shell are integrated, and some individual varieties of flesh are compared to a little more. Coffee beans are also coffee seeds, academically called endosperm, wrapped in silver skin, and the academic name of silver skin is seed coat. The outer layer is the seed shell, also called the parchment paper shell, the academic name of the seed shell is the inner peel, and then the outer layer is the colloidal and flesh, and finally the red or yellow outer peel is often seen.
Coffee fruit is different from other fruits to abandon the peel and pulp, the seed processing roasting grinding brewing and drinking, although similar to beans, but its structure is a fruit, coffee is not directly cultivated with green bean seeds, but wrapped in the inner peel for planting can germinate, mature fruit without treatment for a short time will begin to ferment and rot inside.
Fruit picking
When the fruit ripens, it needs to be picked from the tree and transported to the treatment plant for processing. There are two ways to pick: hand picking and mechanical picking. Small and micro plantations will use hand-picked picking methods, and mechanical picking will use mobile or standing equipment to blow off foreign objects such as leaves and sticks through the wind to complete the initial screening. Some large picking equipment will blow off foreign bodies while vibrating by gravity, sifting out foreign bodies that weigh more than or less than coffee cherries, and further screening at the same time as picking.
Whether it is before picking or during the picking process to contact the ground of the fruit is called the ground fruit, and the fruit can not be collected and used, they will greatly affect the taste and taste of coffee products to reduce the quality, the presence of foreign matter and impurities will first be easy to breed microorganisms, followed by damage to the subsequent use of mechanical life.
Hand-picked
Mechanical picking
The best way to pick for quality is to pick ripe whole red fruits by hand
It is necessary to control the proportion of unripe fruit and dried hanging fruit that has been ripe but has not been picked for a long time in the whole red fruit and cannot be collected, and these three inferior fruits will eventually affect the taste and texture of coffee. The picked coffee cherries are generally stored in sacks or silos for transport. If the storage time exceeds 8 hours, the internal temperature of the concentrated coffee cherries begins to rise to 40 degrees Celsius, and defective beans such as capers and mold beans will be produced. If it must be stored for a long time, it must be soaked in clean water to slow down the risk of fungal microorganisms.
The water, composition and structure of the coffee cherries in the ripening process are different, and the higher the consistency of the maturity of the coffee cherries picked in the same batch, the higher the quality of the performance in the cup after post-processing and roasting
The choice of raw bean treatment method directly affects the supply and demand relationship of the market, and it is necessary to consider the actual geographical and economic environmental factors of the estate, such as climate, scale, equipment input, water resource utilization and treatment capacity, corresponding to the cost profit margin, environmental protection and sewage requirements, and the balance of output and quality.
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