Growth of a Coffee Bean

Growth of a Coffee Bean

I”m pretty sure we all already know by now that coffee beans are grown from a plant!? What we may know as a coffee bean, which can be misleading, is really a seed. These coffee beans A.K.A seeds are developed inside a fruit, a cherry.

Once the cherries become rip enough that is when they are carefully picked from the branches. Then, “coffee beans” are extracted from the cherries.  

The color of the cherries will affect the taste of the coffee bean. The fruit will be either yellow or red. 

It takes the plant 3-5 years of growing to fully develop. A small white fragrant flower (like a Jasmine flower) will blossom where the leaves and the stem meet. 

Giving it about another 6 more weeks after the flowers have pollinated the cherries will start to grow where the flowers were. 

This will take up to 7-9 months for the cherries to mature. 

As much as us Floridians LOVE baking in the sunlight, Coffee plants would have to disagree. Although, they do need to be in an area where there is lots of sunlight but with the avoidance of direct sunlight contact to keep the leaves from browning. 

Once the cherries are mature enough to be pick it goes through three processing stages:

• Wet Processing
• Dry Processing
• Semi-dry Processing

From there the coffee bean will be roasted. Depending on what the environment is like where the bean was grown and the moisture level, and as well as the processing procedure will dictate the flavor. 

During the roasting process the bean will receive it’s final color. The longer the bean is roasting the darker it will become. The bean absorbs the heat from the roasting process and from there you will have what is known as 3 different levels of roast:

• Light Roast
• Medium Roast
• Dark Roast 

Which the levels will be explained more in a future blog. 

The coffee beans are roasted anywhere from 8-15 minutes. Once they are removed from roasting although it is very rare that a bean receives it’s full flavor within a few hours of the roasting process it is suggested to give 1-3 days of resting before the coffee bean reaches its full flavor and ready to package. 

Wowizer, who would of thought coffee beans took so much work for its full beautiful potential here on this earth!