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Grinding Up the Basics

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What is coffee? Coffee is made from the seed of a small red (sometimes yellow) fruit found on a tree that grows in a narrow subtropical belt around the world. Because the fruits ripen at different times, coffee is primarily picked by hand. This makes the coffee process time-consuming and sometimes strenuous. Coffee is perhaps the most involved process connected with any beverage.

It takes an average of six to nine months for the small green fruit to ripen from green to red and then black. Once the coffee is picked, it is then shipped for processing. Usually a second party purchases the fruit and removes the fruity part from the seeds and then dries what is from here on out called the “bean”. The removal and drying of the fruit is extremely critical to the overall taste of the coffee.

Once the beans are dried, sorted, and graded, they are bagged and sold to a third party known as the exporter. The coffee can then be imported into another consuming country or simply sold to a roaster. There are very few products bought by consumers that go through such a complex process.

The process of roasting perhaps has the most influential affect upon the coffee. The roaster can blend coffee from a variety of different regions and crops. After the coffee is roasted, the retailer finally has the finished product. It is then the retailers responsibility to make sure the coffee is sold fresh to consumers.

By the time the consumer actually purchases the coffee, it has gone through numerous processes, which at this point still are not yet finished. The consumer then determines if he will buy coffee that is already ground or buy whole bean that he will grind himself. Coffee can then be even further handled by adding a variety of different ingredients from cream to sugar or flavoring to syrup. By the time coffee is consumed it has been picked, dried, sorted, graded, roasted, and dressed up or simply stripped bare.

Next Page: Fresh-Brewed Taste

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