How Does Your Coffee Grow?

We all love coffee, but do you ever stop to think about where it came from? Do you know how it’s made? Do you know what the coffee plant looks like? Most of us take this delicious treat for granted. There is a large disconnect in our culture between what we consume and where it comes from. I was lucky enough to visit a small coffee farm in Costa Rica in 2012 and learn about the entire process. Below are my photos from that experience.

First, lets start with a little history. It is said that the coffee plant was first discovered by a goat herdsman named Kaldi. He noticed that his goats became excited and full of energy after eating the red berries of the coffee bush. Kaldi tried the berries himself and had a similar reaction from the caffeine in the fruit. The discovery was passed on to monks who then used it to stay awake and alert at night.

Peoples of the Arabian peninsula were the first to cultivate and trade coffee in the fifteenth century. They even had coffee houses where people gathered for social activities. Coffee made its way to Europe by the seventeenth century and to New Amsterdam, now New York, by the mid 1600’s. Tea was still more widely consumed until taxes on it caused the revolt by the Boston Tea Party. Since then, coffee has been our drink of choice. Now, New York is said to consume three times the national average.

Europeans began growing coffee on whomever’s land they could. In some cases, whole industries were started from transporting just one plant. The Dutch began on the island of Java (now Indonesia), then the French in the Caribbean, the Spanish in Central America and the Portuguese in Brasil.  

Now, according to the National Coffee Association, 54% of Americans over 18 drink coffee daily. In 2013 in New York City alone, there were at least 1770 coffee shops. We love our coffee.

Coffee is a huge industry now and like with most mass produced crops, growers are overworked and underpaid. The course I took in Costa Rica was through Community Agroecology Network, which works with small scale farmers to teach them sustainable growing practices and in turn connects them with consumers in the States. They call it  the Alternative Trade Model, which guarantees farmers get higher prices than they would through “Fair Trade”.

Photo by Dana

The coffee plant is a shrub. The coffee bean is the seed of the coffee berry.

Photo by Dana

The coffee fields

Photo by Dana

This is farmer Don Roberto explaining the process of harvesting and processing the coffee. When the berries turn red they are ripe and ready to pick. Don Roberto and his crew wear these baskets attached around their wastes and go into the fields and fill them with the ripe berries. 

Photo by Dana

Found one!

Hand by Dana

The coffee berry is full of antioxidants and is said to have many health benefits. 

Photo by Dana

After the berries are harvested they are set out to dry in the sun. They have to be raked through and turned to prevent them from spoiling. 

Photo by Dana

Once dried, Don Roberto hulls the berries.  

Photo by Dana

This process removes the outer shell around the bean.

Photo by Dana

Roasting the shelled coffee beans!

Photo by Dana

And viola! Coffee. 

Now you know the labor intensive process of what makes your cup of coffee possible. Next time you indulge, consider where your coffee is coming from and how was grown. Try to support small-scale farmers, like Don Roberto, when you can! 

Sources:

The Caffeinated History of Coffee- http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-coffee/

Coffee Consumption: London vs New York- https://www.finedininglovers.com/blog/food-drinks/coffee-consumption-london-new-york/
Coffee by The Numbers- http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/multimedia-article/facts/
The History of Coffee- http://www.ncausa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=68