Me and my team did it to inspire and, more importantly, to create the tactics and details around how you, your organization, your startup  can know more about start working on coffee business.

However this deck continues my tradition of training step-by-step guides that give you the exact information I’ve used to run my introduction to coffee class. That includes references like :

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The blending of coffee is as old as coffee itself. Although the techniques vary, blending is used to optimize aroma, body and flavour: the goal is to make a coffee that is higher in cup quality than any of the ingredients individually, and, extremely important, maintain consistency in the final roasted product.

Each batch has it own personality in terms of taste, smell, body, chemical resilience to the hydrolytic action of water, etc., and blending can complete it and round it up or level it off.

Most espresso blends are based on high quality Brazil arabicas, some washed, some dry-processed. They often involve some African coffees for winey acidity or flowery fruitiness, or a high-grown Central American for a clean acidity. Some roasters add a little robusta to increase body.

Dry-processed coffees are responsible for the attractive ‘crema’ on the cup, among other mechanical factors in the extraction process Wet- processed Central Americans add positive aromatic qualities. Robustas are used in cheaper blends to increase body and produce more foam.

Besides subjective quality , blending also assists in maintaining objective quality, because the more complex a blend, the easier it is to maintain constant quality when some ingredients change.

With the exception of a few countries that pay considerable attention to quality, the majority of producer countries often add up small batches produced by different growers to form larger ones of a size required by roasters. Although care is taken so that only batches of equivalent quality are blended, the result of this deplorable practice is often a quality downgrading to a level below that of the best fractions.

Coffee history records a number of popular blends that are published and available for public consumption. Other ‘proprietary’ blends tend to

be closely guarded, with the information staying within a company structure. Proprietary or signature blend leads consumers to equate a particular coffee profile with a particular brand image. Blending requires the expert skill of knowing each ingredient coffee, having in mind a clear cup profile as the goal, and knowing how to achieve it.

Blending may be done before or after roasting. Blending before roasting is traditionally used by retail and institutional roasters. In this method coffees with similar characteristics are combined and roasted to the same development. Generally, professional in-house ‘cuppers’ evaluate the results of the blend, adjusting components if necessary to satisfy taste requirements and standards.

Advantage: Consistency of product.
Disadvantage: Inability to optimize the character of each coffee.

Blending after roasting is the method traditionally used by many specialty coffee roasters. The flavour profile development requires that each individual coffee used in the blend be roasted separately to optimize flavour. In other words, each coffee will have a different time and temperature setting. Consequently, the final roast development will be different for each coffee used in the blend. After roasting, each component of the blend is individually tasted (cupped), as is the final blend composition.

part of ESPRESSO COFFEE book by Andrea illy

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When asked “what does caffeine look like?” most people tend to answer that they have not actually seen caffeine, but that it is probably a brown substance. This is understandable but this wrong assumption shows the association be- tween caffeine and coffee.

A handful of people may answer that they remember something in chemistry laboratory class in high school. That there was something about the term sublimation. Besides these aspects just about everybody knows that caffeine has a stimulating and awakening effect when consumed, well known not only from coffee and different teas but also from caffeinated soft drinks.

Summarizing, caffeine is a well-researched chemical substance with interesting properties and at least its name is widely known.

Caffeine was first isolated from coffee beans in 1820 by the chemist F. Runge at the request of the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. At room conditions, pure caffeine is a white, odorless crystalline powder bitter in taste. It exhibits two different crystal forms in pure state and when crystallized in presence of water very typical whiskers are formed.

shows caffeine crystals extracted from coffee. Caffeine crystals can also be found frequently as sediments in coffee pro- pressing factories especially around roasting machines.

This is due to the previously mentioned effect of sublimation: at elevated temperatures caffeine can change from the solid to the vapor state directly without liquefaction as intermediate step. The name caffeine does not give any information about the chemical nature of the substance. It belongs to the group of methyl xanthine’s and carries the name 1,3,7-trimethylpurine-2,6-dione. The chemical structure

shows the high content of nitrogen in the caffeine molecule. The physiological effects of caffeine have been investigated for a long time and research is ongoing. Simplifying matters, positive and negative health effects have been declared, obviously depending on individual condition and consumed quantities. Important is, that the US Department of Health and Human Services classifies caffeine as a GRAS substance (generally recognized as safe).

Recently, the European Food Safety Authority stated, that “habitual caffeine consumption of 400 mg/day does not give rise to safety concerns for non-pregnant adults” . This amount corresponds roughly to five cups of regular drip coffee. Nevertheless, consumed quantities must be observed as the lethal amount in man is estimated as 10 g. Further information on the effects of caffeine on health refer to Chapter 20 in this book.

Caffeine content in green and roasted beans is roughly the same: mean values are 1.1 wt% for Arabica and 2.2 wt% for Robusta beans. It is often believed that caffeine content is reduced in roasted coffee due to sublimation. However, as weight of the bean decreases the total concentration in the bean remains roughly unchanged. Caffeine content in coffee beverages is dependent on the blend composition (% Robusta), the water to coffee ratio and extraction yields. Typical values (Arabica) are 80 , 120 mg per cup of drip coffee (150 mL) and 50,100 mg for espressos.

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Agricultural practices should preserve the soil fertility, which is the wealth of coffee growers.  If possible increase the organic matter in the soil to promote the microbial life and the exchange capacity.

Whenever a soil is destroy it, It is observed that the coffee quality is affected therefore by contrast coffee trees. It will be healthier on a soil rich in active organic matter. They will have a better leaf area-to-fruit ratio leading to a better quality.

Soil is the main reservoir of mineral nutrients for plants. Roots grow and absorb water and nutrients according to the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil .

For most regions worldwide where coffee is cultivated. the nutritional reservoirs in soil are not sufficient to completely cover the coffee plants’ demand.  it is necessary to continue ousel supply the soil in a balanced way with sufficient amounts of organic and inorganic fertilizers.

Fertilization and Coffee Quality

fertilization does influence this chemical effect and due to the final coffee quality in the cup. Among the macronutrients, those containing nitrogen and potassium are the most predominant in the bean, usually followed by calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and sulfur. The effect of iron and manganese make it to be higher than zinc.

Soil fertility

Possible effect on cup quality , Most acidic coffee are produced on  volcanic soils.

Fertilization

Reduction in percentage of hollowed fruits , Chemical fertilization does not affect  cup quality, Breaking down fertilization applications does not affect cup quality , Fertilization does not affect cup quality

Nitrogen fertilization

Fertilization with nitrocalcium and ammonium nitrate produced lower sensory quality. The higher dosage of ammonium sulfate had negative effects on chemical composition and bean quality , Nitrogen fertilization increased bean N content and affected negatively cup quality

Phosphorus fertilization

Cup quality was negatively affected by the omission of phosphor in the fertilization.

Potassium fertilization

High potassium-K dosage reduced boron and Zinc in the bean. Excessive dosage of that reduced quality in inconsistent manner. , Excess of potassium can induce Mg deficiencies and negatively affect coffee quality , Bean quality improved with dosage.

Micronutrients fertilization

Zinc supply positively affected bean quality in terms of less percentage of medium and small size beans. Lower CBB infestation, lower potassium leaching and electric conductivity.

Higher contents of zinc and Chlorogenic , higher antioxidant activities , Cup quality is not affected by using two sources of Micronutrients .

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There are many factors that make coffee valuable to consumers and one of them is shade effect of growing on coffee quality. Shade matters to some from an environmental perspective; others because they feel it influences the flavor. What I actually know about these important issues is :

The good news is, much research has been done on the ecological and economic impacts of shade-grown coffee. Sadly, there is far less information available on how this influences cup quality. When we hear the term “shade-grown” coffee we many imagine a pristine ecosystem where coffee just happens to be planted and coffee farmer happen to be walking around in the woods picking the beautifully ripe coffee they stumble upon. This romantic vision is rare in the coffee industry. There are, however, varying definitions and variations of forested coffee and agroforestry to consider when thinking of purchasing or promoting such a coffee.

Trees and agroforestry can provide environmental advantages to the planet, and simultaneously in coffee production. Trees act as carbon sinks in the landscape, make oxygen, save water, and provide a myriad of other benefits to the local microclimate and ecosystem. Trees provide the ecosystem with structural and chemical resources. Their roots help prevent erosion. They offer the soil much-needed nutrients from their fallen litter, and certain species can fix nitrogen from the air.

Trees act as buffers to the coffee microclimate. That means that they can act as insulators for the understory, where coffee grows. They can both protect coffee from frost as well as cool the microclimate during very warm weather. Another large way that trees regulate microclimate conditions is through holding moisture in the ecosystem, leaving more water in the soil and therefore theoretically available to coffee plants. There is also evidence that tree cover reduces the leaching of nitrogen from the coffee.

There is a large body of literature supporting the idea that when shade is added to a coffee-growing system, the biodiversity of the ecosystem increases. Here we should stop, and remember that biodiversity is an important intrinsic value. It is a choice to recognize and care about biodiversity. While many of us hold this value, the challenge is to quantify the value of it. How much “better” is a coffee that is produced in a highly diverse environment? Our community faces this challenge daily.

What about flavor: can we taste shade-grown coffee?How does it impact the coffee quality? The answer varies depending on the individual situation. What we do know is that generally, the smaller coffee yield under shading leads to fewer, larger coffee fruits. Also, there is evidence that shade-grown coffee seeds have higher sugar and lipid contents than sun-grown coffee, which may increase the cup quality of coffees. Multiple studies have found that the acidity and body of brewed low-altitude coffee was improved by shading. They suggested that a lower growing temperature (provided by shade) produced a more uniform ripening of berries, which led a better quality cup. However, there are also conflicting studies that have found no perceivable difference in quality. What is the problem here? In the end, unless we understand the biochemistry of fruit ripening time and how this directly affects the chemical composition of coffee seeds and link this to repeatable and consistent flavor differences, it is impossible to say with certainty what is going on. That’s right folks—here is another example of why we reach this same conclusion again and again: more research is needed to help fully understand why coffee tastes the way it does!

Unfortunately, there can also be true drawbacks to shade-grown coffee. In many situations, shade lowers coffee yield, delays ripening, and is more labor-intensive to harvest. These are luxuries that not all producers, as people who must balance costs and benefits, can choose. Any value or perception thereof must make business sense. Fortunately, some farms that use agroforestry can benefit from pricing incentives offered by certification programs. However, the reality is, that the value of shade coffee is not always translated into farmer benefit.

How does it impact the coffee quality?

Where does this leave us? Certainly, flavor alone is not an indicator of whether or not a coffee was shade-grown. Great-tasting specialty coffee can be produced using many/any/all/unknown production strategies. There are real ecological benefits of shade-growing coffee, and there may be quality benefits too. However, if we seek to support this method of coffee growing, we must recognize and value it for its own sake.

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Identified by a team of University of Miami researchers in 1996, umami is our fifth taste — the long-lost counterpart of four other tastes with which we are far more familiar, sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Since the research team published its findings in 2000, umami has seized the interest of other scientists, health professionals, food manufacturers and chefs around the world. Many people struggle to define umami, often calling it savory, meaty or rich. They try to explain it by referring to food examples of umami: a golden chicken soup, roasted shiitake mushrooms or navy beans simmered with the bone of a well-cured ham. Even though it wouldn’t be any easier to describe salty or sweet without referring to the way those tastes are represented in certain foods, umami comes off as somehow more exotic. That explains why some consumers are compelled and others leery about the sudden wave of interest in all things umami. “Some people think of umami as a newfangled, overly scientific term that they don’t need,” says Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Land of Plenty (W. W. Norton, 2003) — a Sichuan cookbook — and an expert on both cooking and current events in China. “But I think it’s tremendously useful because it explains so much of what we already know about traditional cooking. We’re just using the Japanese word for it. That makes it sound foreign, but it’s not foreign at all.”

What Is Umami?

As far back as 3,000 years ago, Greeks and Romans were carefully boosting what we now know as the umami in their foods by using a condiment made from fermented fish sauce. In 1825, in his famous treatise The Physiology of Taste, French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin offered the word “osmasome” for rich, meaty tastes, and he predicted that future chemists would probably figure out what triggered it. Finally, in the 20th century, Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda hung a lasting moniker on the taste and determined its source. In 1908, Ikeda began trying to replicate the flavor of a traditional soup he made from boiled kombu (one of the sea vegetables often called seaweed) and dried tuna. He mixed together salty, sweet, bitter and sour, but it was something altogether different. In his lab, he finally managed to isolate the substance that gave the broth its distinctive taste: glutamate, the most plentiful of the 20 amino acids that make up proteins. Ikeda named the taste of glutamate “umami,” most simply translated as “delicious.” (The flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamate. Comprising water, sodium and glutamate, MSG acts on the same receptors as glutamate. For more, see “MSG: Cooks’ Cocaine?” in the sidebar.) Other scientists soon built upon Ikeda’s discovery with new revelations. Not only do other amino acids trigger this deliciousness, but there is also a second group of compounds that build the effect. These are nucleotides, the molecular building blocks of RNA and DNA, found in a wide range of foods, including shellfish, pork and mushrooms. They impart some umami on their own, but more important, they magnify the umami of foods rich in glutamates and other amino acids — foods like chicken, tomatoes, aged cheeses, fresh corn and almonds. When nucleotide-rich foods are added to foods rich in amino acids, the result is a flavorful synergy that heightens the drama. “That’s the key to umami cooking,” says chef David Kasabian, coauthor with his wife, Anna, of The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami (Universe, 2005), a virtual umami bible with scientific explanations, recipes from America’s top chefs, and the Kasabians’ own umami-accelerated versions of classics like meatloaf and chicken in wine. “When you put the basic umami and the synergizing umami together, the effect isn’t just additive — it’s multiplied. A basic tomato sauce has lots of umami, but when you add mushrooms, it has considerably more.”

Umami Flavor

Over the course of the past decade, scientists have discovered receptors housed in our taste buds that respond specifically to umami, just as there are receptors for sweet, salty, sour and bitter. When these receptors bind to glutamates and certain other amino acids and nucleotides, they send a signal to the brain. That signal combines with signals triggered by savory aromas to create a highly pleasant sensation concentrated in the orbitofrontal cortex, the section of the brain right above the eyes. “Umami is a separate taste quality mediated by separate receptors, “And we like the taste. It’s a savory, yummy quality.” The fact that our bodies are designed to recognize and enjoy umami tells us that foods with naturally occurring umami are good for us. “There aren’t that many taste receptors in the mouth, so one has to assume that there’s a long-term biological interest in detecting umami, Our sense of taste is a highly evolved mechanism that signals what we should and should not eat. All humans respond positively to the taste of sweets because sweet foods are a reliable source of calories. We may wish we could turn off this particular mechanism when coworkers leave a platter of brownies near the coffeemaker, but our foraging forebears relied on the instinctual preference for sweets to identify good sources of food energy.

We respond positively to the taste for salt because it contains minerals that help our bodies maintain a proper electrolyte balance.

We respond negatively — at least as infants — to bitter and sour, because those tastes warned early humans that something might be poisonous, unripe or spoiled. As adults, most of us enjoy bitter and sour flavors in small quantities that help heighten or highlight other flavors and aromas. Many researchers now believe that humans developed a taste for umami because it signals the presence of protein. The foods packing the greatest umami punch are the ones that provide proteins broken down into free amino acids. These “free” glutamates and other amino acids are created by fermenting, aging, toasting, roasting, braising, stewing — any process that breaks complete proteins into their constituent parts. Thus, an aged steak has more umami than a fresh one; raw eggs have umami but considerably more when cooked; winter squash goes wild with umami when slowly roasted. But some foods such as corn and peas are packed with umami when fresh. (For more foods teeming with umami, see “Umami Shopping List,” in the sidebar.) When we eat whole proteins, our digestive systems burn a lot of energy breaking them down into amino acids. The amino acids in umami-rich foods are already in a free state, so they are more quickly and easily digested than complete proteins. As the Kasabians put it, “Umami is the taste of amino acids that are ready for our bodies to use.” The free glutamates are immediately put to work in the intestines, where they fuel the overall digestive process.

Mindful Eating and Umami

Understanding these umami mechanisms isn’t just interesting — it’s useful, says Edmund Rolls, DSc, a professor at the Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience, who researches taste mechanisms and the brain. “Many people are interested in knowing what makes food palatable,” says Rolls, in part because this helps “promote the eating of good food at the expense of unhealthy foods.” Understanding the science of cuisine is important in this regard, he explains, because it helps us develop food preparations that are appropriate. “For instance,” he says, “some people don’t like the taste of nutritionally good foods like green vegetables, but you can enhance the flavor of these foods by adding umami.” By choosing foods that taste good — and understanding how to make them taste even better — we’re simply relying on the body’s basic wisdom to maintain a balanced diet and a healthy weight. Jacqueline Marcus, RD, a nutritionist who practices in Northfield, Ill., points out that we are born with basic instincts telling us which foods are good for us and how much we need to eat of them. Just watch how a baby gulps umami-rich breast milk, then pushes away from the mother when full. “The umami taste helps provide you with the sensation of being fed,” says Marcus, who’s been researching and working with umami for 12 years. “That’s essential in weight management. Foods with umami flavor are satisfying to the palate and support satiety, or fullness.” In a culture looking for ways to amplify eating pleasures without amplifying its already significant weight problems, that’s umami wisdom worth trying. This article has been updated. It originally appeared in the May 2012 issue of Experience Life magazine.

Umami Foods

Umami-rich foods are delicious on their own and can also make healthy foods like basic vegetables and legumes taste more enticing. In The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami (Universe, 2005), chef David Kasabian and his journalist wife, Anna, break down umami ingredients into two groups: basic umami (foods that impart umami through amino acids like glutamates) and synergizing umami (foods that add some umami and, especially, amplify the umami taste of the first group). Many foods have both basic and synergizing umami compounds. Here are a few examples:

Basic Umami

Corn, peas, tomatoes, red bell peppers, winter squash Almonds, walnuts and other tree nuts Sea vegetables, Duck, turkey, chicken (especially mature birds and dark meat), fresh and cured pork products (which are also synergizing), aged steaks, Aged and blue-veined cheeses, Fin fish (especially smoked, dried or pickled), fish sauce, and shellfish (which are also synergizing)

Fermented soy products like

soy sauce, tempeh and miso, Legumes, Black olives, Pickled plums (ume) and many other pickled vegetables and fruits

Synergizing Umami

Mushrooms, truffles and other fungi — the darker, the better, Pork, beef, lamb, turkey and chicken, Shellfish, especially oysters and uni (sea urchin), Darker-fleshed fin fish such as tuna, mackerel and salmon, Many sea vegetables, including nori and wakame

MSG: Cooks’ Cocaine?

Monosodium glutamate (MSG), the much-maligned flavor additive, has been at the center of a food controversy for years. Here’s what you need to know to make up your own mind about whether to enjoy MSG or avoid it. Shortly after chemist Kikunae Ikeda discovered that glutamates were the source of the deliciousness — what he dubbed the umami — in his soup, a Japanese company used his patent to manufacture a substance that would change cuisines around the world: monosodium glutamate. U.S. food manufacturers began incorporating MSG into a wide variety of processed foods in the 1930s and ’40s. Restaurants and home cooks also sprinkled it liberally. Then, in the 1960s, MSG experienced a public-relations disaster. The New England Journal of Medicine printed a letter from a physician who said that he and his friends felt dizzy and headachy after eating in Chinese restaurants and suggested that MSG might be the cause. Subsequent studies supported this conjecture, but most involved injecting rats with massive doses of MSG — far more than a person would ever eat. Some studies have not found any evidence that MSG poses a problem to most people who eat normally. Scientists who study umami insist that MSG is the same as the naturally occurring free glutamates that are found in food. Still, many health-conscious and food-sensitive individuals remain wary of MSG, noting that eating it makes them feel dehydrated, brain fogged, puffy or headachy. Those who suffer from migraines, chemical sensitivities or ADD/ADHD are often counseled by their health professionals to stay away from MSG at all costs. And many culinary experts see MSG as a cheap stand-in for high-quality ingredients and good preparation — the mark of a compromised food product or dish. “MSG is a shortcut to good taste,” says Chinese cooking expert Fuchsia Dunlop. “People often take greasy, junky food and add MSG to make it appealing. I call it the ‘cook’s cocaine.” Some processed foods that don’t contain MSG are full of other substances that deliver free glutamates: textured protein, sodium caseinate, hydrolyzed yeast and many more. Like MSG, the presence of such ingredients may indicate that whatever natural flavor these foods might once have had can no longer stand on their own. “Processed food is so handled and heated and stored that the natural amino acids are gone,” says David Kasabian, who with his wife, Anna, wrote The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami (Universe, 2005). “They have to include these ingredients to compensate for that loss.” Maggie Ward, RD, nutrition director of the UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Mass., says it’s best to get your umami from natural ingredients. “My preference is that people eat whole foods for health and healing,” Ward says. “The glutamates in MSG are not the way nature presented them, and I think people are much better off enjoying umami from natural sources like fish sauce, seaweed and shiitake mushrooms.”

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Coffee from Al-Mokha began to be referred to simply as Mocha coffee, a name originally having little to do with the chocolatey coffee drink you can buy today. (Mocha is also used to refer to a coffee varietyoriginating from Yemen, one that the SCA describes as “genetically very close to Bourbon.”)

Yemen coffee has a distinct flavor and aroma. It’s complex earthiness often holds tones of dried fruit, partly due to being dried with the fruit husk. This Arabian Yemen coffee also carries notes of chocolate, cinnamon, cardamom or tobacco. The strongest of these notes is chocolate, which might account for the modern use of the word “Mocha” in association with Yemen coffee.

How It’ Grown ?

Yemen coffee farms are typically small and on the wilder side, with farmers hand-picking the coffee cherries from ancient varieties of Arabica plants growing on gorgeous, terraced mountainsides.

The microclimate has produced drought-resistant coffee plantsthat create very unique, complex-tasting coffee beans with that iconic chocolate flavor The coffee is typically harvested between November and December and is sun-dried, often right on the rooftops of the farmers’ houses! It’s an easy process in the bright and hot Yemeni climate. The leftover cherry husks are also used to create qishr(the local brand of cascara)

Sanani Coffee

First, we have the Sanani variety, which comes from various coffee plants grown in the regions west of the capital city of Sana’a. This region tends to include some crops grown at lower altitudes, and can, therefore, be of lower quality. Beans from this region have a balanced and fruity flavor profile, a medium body, and typically exhibit less acidity than other Yemeni coffees.

Hirazi Coffee

Hirazi coffee also comes from the western regions of the nation, located a couple mountain ranges west of the capital of Sana’a. This coffee tends to be light and fruity, with a winey acidity.

Ismaili Coffee

One of the few categorized ancient coffee tree varieties of Yemen, Ismaili is the name of a coffee plant varietal. Typically grown in central Yemen, it yields a unique, high-quality, pea-like coffee bean that tends to be bright and berryish, though this brightness can be muted. This tree/region name overlap can lead to some confusion regarding whether a particular coffee with this name comes from the region itself, or from a tree of that variety

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Coffee trees are pruned short to conserve their energy and aid in harvesting, but can grow to more than 30 feet (9 meters) high. Each tree is covered with green, waxy leaves growing opposite each other in pairs. Coffee cherries grow along the branches. Because it grows in a continuous cycle, it’s not unusual to see flowers, green fruit and ripe fruit simultaneously on a single tree. It takes nearly a year for a cherry to mature after first flowering, and about 5 years of growth to reach full fruit production. While coffee plants can live up to 100 years, they are generally the most productive between the ages of 7 and 20. Proper care can maintain and even increase their output over the years, depending on the variety. The average coffee tree produces 10 pounds of coffee cherry per year, or 2 pounds of green beans. All commercially grown coffee is from a region of the world called the Coffee Belt. The trees grow best in rich soil, with mild temperatures, frequent rain and shaded sun.

Botanical classification

Coffee traces its origin to a genus of plants known as Coffea.  Within the genus there are over 500 genera and 6,000 species of tropical trees and shrubs. Experts estimate that there are anywhere from 25 to 100 species of coffee plants. The genus was first described in the 18th century by the Swedish botanist. Botanists have disagreed ever since on the exact classification, since coffee plants can range widely. They can be small shrubs to tall trees, with leaves from one to 16 inches in size, and in colors from purple or yellow to the predominant dark green.

In the commercial coffee industry, there are two important coffee species — Arabica and Robusta.

Coffea Arabica — C. Arabica

Varieties: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Mundo Novo, Tico, San Ramon, Jamaican Blue Mountain

Coffea Arabica is descended from the original coffee trees discovered in Ethiopia.  These trees produce a fine, mild, aromatic coffee and represent approximately 70% of the world’s coffee production. The beans are flatter and more elongated than Robusta and lower in caffeine.

On the world market, Arabica coffees bring the highest prices.  The better Arabicas are high grown coffees — generally grown between 2,000 to 6,000 feet (610 to 1830 meters) above sea level — though optimal altitude varies with proximity to the equator. The most important factor is that temperatures must remain mild, ideally between 59 – 75 degrees Fahrenheit, with about 60 inches of rainfall a year. The trees are hearty, but a heavy frost will kill them. Arabica trees are costly to cultivate because the ideal terrain tends to be steep and access is difficult. Also, because the trees are more disease-prone than Robusta, they require additional care and attention.

Coffea canephora — C. canephora var. Robusta

Variety: Robusta is a one canphora variety

Most of the world’s Robusta is grown in Central and Western Africa, parts of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Vietnam, and in Brazil. Production of Robusta is increasing, though it accounts for only about 30% of the world market. Robusta is primarily used in blends and for instant coffees. The Robusta bean itself tends to be slightly rounder and smaller than an Arabica bean. The Robusta tree is heartier and more resistant to disease and parasites, which makes it easier and cheaper to cultivate. It also has the advantage of being able to withstand warmer climates, preferring constant temperatures between 75 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which enables it to grow at far lower altitudes than Arabica. It requires about 60 inches of rainfall a year, and cannot withstand frost. Compared with Arabica, Robusta beans produce a coffee which has a distinctive taste and about 50-60% more caffeine.

The Anatomy of a Coffee Cherry

The beans you brew are actually the processed and roasted seeds from a fruit, which is called a coffee cherry. The coffee cherry’s outer skin is called the exocarp. Beneath it is the mesocarp, a thin layer of pulp, followed by a slimy layer called the parenchyma.  The beans themselves are covered in a paper-like envelope named the endocarp, more commonly referred to as the parchment. Inside the parchment, side-by-side, lie two beans, each covered separately by yet another thin membrane. The biological name for this seed skin is the spermoderm, but it is generally referred to in the coffee trade as the silver skin.

In about 5% of the world’s coffee, there is only one bean inside the cherry. This is called a peaberry (or a caracol, or “snail” in Spanish), and it is a natural mutation. Some people believe that peaberries are actually sweeter and more flavorful than standard beans, so they are sometimes manually sorted out for special sale.

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The beans we roast, grind, and brew to make coffee are the seeds of a fruit. The coffee plant produces coffee cherries, and the beans are the seeds inside. Coffee trees can naturally grow to over 30 ft/9 m. But producers prune and stump plants short to conserve the plants’ energy and to help harvesting. Smaller trees have better yield and quality in a limited space. Each tree is covered with green, waxy leaves that grow in pairs and coffee cherries grow along its branches. Depending on the variety, it takes three to four years for a coffee plant to produce fruit. The National Coffee Association USA states that the average coffee tree produces 10 lbs. of coffee cherry per year, which results in around 2 lbs of green beans. But there are different varieties of coffee and their beans have many different characteristics. Size, flavor, and disease resistance vary, among other factors. beans, which are the unroasted seeds from inside the ripe coffee cherry. Beneath the cherry skin is a thin layer called the mesocarp, more commonly known as the pulp. Mucilage is the inner layer of the pulp. There’s also a layer of pectin underneath the mucilage. These layers are full of sugars, which are important during the fermentation process. Then we reach the coffee seeds, which are technically called the endosperm but that we know better as beans. There are usually two beans in a coffee cherry, each of which is covered by a thin epidermis known as the silver skin and a papery hull that we call parchment (technically the endocarp). The parchment is usually removed in hulling, which is the first step in the dry milling process. Machines or millstones are used to remove any remaining fruit and the dried parchment from the beans. But sometimes green beans are sold with this layer intact as parchment coffee. The silver skin is a group of sclerenchyma cells that are strongly attached to the beans. These cells form to support and protect the seed. They come off during roasting, when they are known as chaff.

A coffee cherry’s skin is called the exocarp. It is green until it ripens to a bright red, yellow, orange, or even pink, depending on variety. Green coffee cherries shouldn’t be confused with green coffee.

Sometimes there is just one seed inside a coffee cherry and it is rounder and larger that usual. This happens in about 5% of coffee cherries and the beans are known as peaberries. Peaberries can be an anatomical variation of the plant or they can form when there is insufficient pollination and one ovule isn’t fertilized. Sometimes the seed simply fails to grow, whether due to genetic causes or environmental conditions. Peaberries usually occur in the parts of the coffee plant that are exposed to severe weather conditions. There is some debate over whether peaberries have a sweeter and more desirable flavor and they are sometimes sold at a premium. Regardless of whether you think they taste different, their rounded shape allows for better rolling in the roasting drum. So it’s best to keep them apart from other beans to avoid an inconsistent roast. Coffee cherry skin and fruit is usually discarded, but sometimes they are dried to make cascara for tea and other products. It is difficult to remove skin and mucilage from coffee beans and different processing methods have developed to do so. Each method has an effect on the flavor and profile of the final coffee. For example, washed coffee has all of the fruit flesh removed before drying. But in natural coffee the fruit flesh is removed after drying. In honey and pulped natural processing, the skin and sometimes part of the mucilage is removed before drying but the remaining mucilage and other layers are removed after. Leaving the mucilage on results in sweeter coffee with more body. It’s easier to understand why if we compare both dry and wet post-harvest processes. When coffee cherries are taken from the branch, they start to germinate. This uses the sugar in the seed. Germination stops when drying begins. Natural processed coffees go to the drying terrace earlier than pulped naturals or washed coffees. Because of this, more sugars remain in the naturals and you end up with a sweeter bean. Washed coffees have clean, more consistent flavors that can show off a lot of acidity. Natural coffees have a lot more fruitiness, sweetness, and body. The sugars of the mucilage also ferment during both dry and wet processing, and this has an impact on the final flavor. Without careful monitoring and consistent drying, the unpredictable process of fermentation can undesirable qualities. Understanding the basics of the coffee cherry can help you better understand production, processing, and roasting. Next time you are choosing between a natural processed and washed coffee, you can have more confidence in knowing what that means and its impact on your cup.

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Finding the good green coffee in any field (specialty or non) is always my concern and also I had problem always for finding what I need but the answer is so simple , I didn’t know what I need , first decided about price, cup profile and target market, then start sending email to all the coffee importers and take their price list and find what you like.

Purchasing coffee is no easy task – although it’s certainly an exciting one. From selecting your origins to managing inventory, there are endless considerations. But your green coffee importer doesn’t just have to be your supplier. They could also be an important resource as you brand yourself and grow as a business. How do you build your partnership with a green coffee importer? What questions should you be asking them? And what do they need to know about you? This is other point of view.

The cuping way is so important.  Cupping: it’s how you decide if a coffee is worth adding to your profile and it’s how the importer determines its cupping score, flavor notes, and ultimately, price. However, not everyone cups in the same way. “It is important to rule out any variable that makes the experience of tasting coffee different from importer versus customers. So, it’s a good idea to understand how your importer is cupping in order to replicate that yourself and to get an idea of what they are tasting under the same conditions,” says Caitlin. Additionally, you should ask about the kind of cupping feedback the importer provides. Will you just get a number or do you receive more information about the coffee? “Not every coffee is going to be a 90+ Geisha, but that doesn’t mean that the coffee is not a really good representative of a certain region or a certain profile. So, what we try to do when we communicate with our clients is go a little past the number score and more about what may be the use for this coffee. Is it going to be a pour over or is it going to be a piece of a blend?”

Servicing Provide is really important for keeping the quality, Don’t make assumptions: a lot of importers will do more than just sell you their coffee. Find out about the scope of services that they offer. Do they provide logistical support? Are freight costs included? Do they have a warehouse facility where you can store your coffees and, if so, for how long? Do they offer financing options? “It’s an absolutely important question, For Royal, for example, if customers pay up front for their coffee, we offer five months of free storage in the warehouse. Some of these options may be included in the pricing while some might be extra. Make sure you understand exactly what everything costs – and how that might vary as your purchases change in the future. you can also offer financing options that will depend on the pricing of coffee and the nature of the account. These services can potentially save you money and help you have better cash flow, so it’s good to understand exactly what you get”. Other issue is about asking the right questions (and at the right time).

As a roaster, your business identity – and your customer’s loyalty – will often revolve around which kinds of coffee you provide. You don’t want to lose customers who love your coffee’s flavor, only because can’t provide them with a suitable replacement when it goes out of season. So, ask your importer about seasonality and coffee substitutions. What are some origins that you can purchase all year round, and what are their unique characteristics? How should you organize your purchases from your favorite origin, depending on the seasonality? When you start to run out of a particular component coffee for a blend, can they offer you a suitable substitute? I recommend  asking these questions in the planning stage of your roastery, even before your roastery is open. If you tell an importer that you’re “looking to open a roaster in six months or eight months,” he tells me, they can recommend origins that are going to be in season in that period. They can also walk you through the timeline of how and when to start purchasing coffee. Another thing that you can ask your importer is how they source. Do they buy from single farms, cooperatives, or both? What kind of impact will your purchasing decision have in the coffee-farming communities? You can ask these questions is vital for building your brand identity and mission, especially if ethically sourced coffees and sustainability feature in that. Yet it’s not always as simple as single origins are better. He says that while a single farm may offer traceability, buying from cooperatives could help hundreds of community members. He recommends having a conversation with your importer to gain a bigger picture of the effect of your purchasing decision.your Purchasing Options & The Receiving Process is about If you know the kind of coffee you want to buy and the origin, how should you move forward? Is spot purchasing an option? What about forward contracts? Is it possible to benefit through your importer trading in futures contracts?

This is an important question,particularly for roasters that are starting out.while various importers offer different buying options, the one you should pick will depend on your roastery and its size. if you’re just starting out, he explains,you can start spot purchases from a warehouse at that time and, as you grow, you might say, ‘I want to do forward contracts.’… That can be beneficial to having a more long-term sense of what your cost may be for a coffee, but keeping in mind that your cash flow and working capital are very important as you grow then nnce you have decided on the coffee and the contract, you should ask your importer about the receiving process. Check the available freight options, as well as how long it will take from the moment you place an order until you receive it. Knowing this will make inventory management easier. Now you can ask importers for the realistic time from the date of order to delivery to your door, and then “backtrack when you need to place the order, and add a few more days to that, just to be sure. additionally, roasters can treat importers as a source of knowledge. Think about us as a resource not just for the green bean itself, but sometimes to give you a picture of any other aspect of the market that may affect the transit time for origins and may affect pricing for certain origins, whether it’s port strikes, currency movements, or unexpected weather, importers keep close tabs on anything that could affect the coffee trade. As a result, they can be a valuable aid when you’re trying to plan ahead. No-one knows more about these coffees than the importer themselves.Finally find out what services they offer. Ask them about these basics and figure out what you need. And make sure they also know a bit about you.

This will help you to select the right green bean supplier and then build a strong relationship with them, one that will support you in making the best purchasing decisions, managing your cash flow, and reinforcing your brand. For traders, it’s their job to sell coffee, But at the same time, I want to have anyone that I work with and their business to succeed.

Saeed abdinasab

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