HOW COFFEE IS PROCESSED
The Beanhardi Process
First and foremost, I’m not going to go into any detail about the Beanhardi Process…yet. I’ve filed a patent for it because I think it’s special enough that it should be protected. Once you taste it, I think you will agree!
First, I’ll explain how other coffee is processed (as most people don’t really understand that goes into putting a cup of coffee in your mug) to frame a context for how I’ve done things differently.
Beans? Never Touched the Stuff!
Let’s start with the simple fact that coffee doesn’t come from beans. It’s from the seed inside a small, round, red fruit. This is why there’s always a bit of coffee debate around calling the fruit a cherry or a berry. I think either works, which is why I call them fruits.
From Tree to Cup – the Process
So how does it get from tree to cup? In a very simple summary, the fruits are picked (almost always by hand) so that only the ripe fruits are selected at any one time. Growers will go back to the coffee trees for further harvests over the space of 1 to 3 months, depending on where the coffee is being grown.
Fruit Processing
The fruit is separated from the trees typically in one of two ways. Either they are dried in the sun, or they go through a water intensive process in a machine called a depulper. Both techniques will influence the flavour.
Drying in the sun will put some of the sweetness of the fruit back into the seed. But, to do this, a dry climate without rain or humidity is needed to work effectively. Water will still be involved at the end, however, to wash the dried fruit off the seed.
A depulping process lumps all the fruits into something like a washing machine, where water is added and a light fermentation process is started. Fermenting softens the fruit and then the water loosens the fruit off the seed with mechanical movement.
Other Methods
I could get really nerdy about it and start taking about Honey Pulping, anaerobic, canonic maceration, and the old Indonesian Filing Basah, but let’s not make this all boring.
Drying The Seeds
After the fruit flesh is removed, the seeds are dried out. Then typically rested for a month or two to reduce the moisture content low enough to be able to store them without them rotting. Then, one final process will hull the seeds to remove the parchment layer, and then they are shipped to a roasting house.
The Roast
You are probably most familiar with the 3 main roasts: Light, medium and dark. There are others, but I’ll stick to these for now. All degrees are in Celsius (sorry, Americans).
Light roasts are between 185 – 210 degrees. Light roasts produce a more acidic coffee and preserves more of the coffee’s caffeine. It’s roasted until it “pops”, similar to popcorn popping. This is called the first crack and light roasts won’t go any further than this.
Medium roasts are between 210 – 230 degrees. This roast produces a good balance on body and flavours, but with less caffeine. Medium roasts are normally signified by the second crack of the seed.
Dark roasts are between 230-250 degrees, and these have a fuller body and flavour but with much less caffeine. They go well beyond the second crack and take the seed to literally a black colour.
Many people assume the darker the coffee, the more of a caffeine kick. Nope.
The GRIND
Once more, simplicity is the way. There are three main grinds: Course, medium, and fine, but we all know many others exist. Course works best with a French press, medium is more suitable to espresso, and fine lends itself well to the Turkish style.
Before any coffee nerds start slamming me about their own personal preferences, remember, I’m trying to keep this simple to help introduce new coffee drinkers to the big world of coffee . We don’t want to see anyone intimidated back to drinking tea!
THE PATENT
I’ve applied for a patent around the processing of coffee fruit seeds (commonly called coffee beans) that are ready to be ground. My intention is that I will simply publish this patent for anyone and everyone to use, royalty free.
Wait, so then why bother having a patent? My only reason is to stop some corporate coffee monster from wading in, creating their own patent, and making even more money than they already do. I feel they don’t deserve to profit from a massive enhancement in the flavour of coffee they could do in other ways, but choose not to.
Yes, I’ve been told it’s crazy, it’s stupid, it’s the loss of possibly a big stack of money in royalties. But so what? Money isn’t everything. I’ve got a good life. I’m happily married. I’ve got a couple of kids. We do okay. Sure, I don’t have a car that sounds like an artisanal latte, I don’t have designer suits or bling bling watches, but I never wanted those things anyway.
But that’s not to say I look down on those that do. It’s a free world, and we’re all entitled to define success however we want.
For me, I just want to make good coffee and perhaps grow this project into something a little bit more interesting. The next chapter in this story will be my efforts to actually grow coffee. But, let’s keep that all on the downlow until I have trees that have actually fruited.