From the Cherry to the Cup

An idea popped in my head. How many people have the opportunity to walk out in their backyard, pick coffee, process it, and drink the freshest coffee possible? The answer is, not many. Being presented with such an opportunity, I felt compelled to give it a try. I documented the little experiment and thought I would share it with you here. Enjoy!

It all starts with the picking. Drew loves picking coffee and I find it very therapeutic. It is monotonous and labor intensive, but that is nothing that an ipod full of good material can't fix.

Here is what we hauled home. Not alot, but maybe thirty minutes worth of picking.

I made a drying pan out of some old zinc roofing and here it is in the pan on the day it was picked. As you can see, the berries are supposed to be red when they are picked. I picked all of these berries off of the same tree that is under full shade.
After sitting for a day, it is "floated." Floating determines if the beans are good or bad. The good beans sink and the bad beans float. As you can see, there were only a few bad beans that floated. From the outside, it is impossible to tell, but the test sorts the "sheep from the goats." Yea, I think that will preach.

Maybe day 3. The beans are drying in the pan. As you can see, they are losing their color. As they dry, they turn black.
Day 14. It is hard to get good information on home processing coffee. The best I could come up with on recommended time for drying is 14 days. It may been a bit "wet," as compared to more commercial processes, but I was getting impatient. Here, I am "hulling" the coffee, taking off the skin. There are several layers to the bean, but at this point most of it has dried against the bean or against the skin.

Here is half way through the "hulling" process. The skins are on the left and the dried coffee beans ready to be hulled are in the corner on the right. In the middle of the pan is the beans that have been hulled. This was a ridiculously labor intensive process. Commercially, it is done by machine, and it took me a couple of hours to work through the beans. I had a second set of beans drying at this time, but after hulling these I decided to throw out the other beans.

After hulling, they are ready for roasting. Here they are in the roaster ready for around 400+ degree heat.


About 10 minutes later, they are roasted. They go from smelling like wet grass, to burnt wet grass, and eventually to smelling a little more like coffee.

Off to the grinder. They roasted pretty light, I think due to their wetness, and therefore I tried to grind the coffee pretty fine as to get a little stronger taste.


Ready for brew. Into the basket waiting for the cup.


Ahh, a thing of beauty. Here it is in the cup. Approx. 17 days after being picked. It would be hard to get a fresher cup of coffee anywhere in the world.

This was the freshest cup of coffee I have ever drank, but was it the best? No! Freshness in coffee generally refers to the length of time after it was roasted and not how long after it is picked. Green coffee can be stored for a long period of time. Anyways, they say there is over 700 flavor characteristics in coffee that can be affected by where it is grown, how it is grown, and processing. So, I have no idea how my processing affected the coffee. It was drinkable and I finished the cup and brew all of the coffee I processed. But, it wasnt the best.


Was it worth it? Yes! Would I do it again? Maybe next year. Once for this year was enough. As the kids get older, maybe they can start doing more of the work and then it may be worth it. It was fun and educational. And, it added an educational aspect to this blog which we hope is becoming more well rounded by the day. Thanks for checking this out and let me know if you have any suggestions.