Getting to know your coffee

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Avatar for Hanzell
4 years ago

I'm pretty sure almost everyone here can say that they love coffee since it's become a part of our mornings and even afternoons at times. It wakes us up and keeps us hyper for the day (or at least in my case XD ) but then, did you ever wonder about the types of coffee you're drinking? Brand aside, how much do you know about your coffee?

For starters, we should really get to know the beans. There are 4 main types of coffee beans used in the market but honestly, there are too many strains of coffee beans people make use of. Here, I'd like to focus on just 2 because I'll be focused on the manufacturing, really

So here we have Arabica and Robusta. these are ones that are fairly easy to differentiate. Robusta is round while arabica is long and a bit flat. As for market uses, Robusta is what you would find being used for brewed coffee shops (but it varies too, really. If you see cheap coffee shops, they'll mostly use this. Starbucks also uses these beans, that's why their coffee keeps me up for 2 days straight), mostly because it has a stronger scent and flavor but then Arabica is the one mostly used for instant coffee manufacturing.

Why? Well simply because they grow faster, the plant which these beans are gathered from only take 7-9 months to reach maturity compared to the robusta which takes around 11 months to mature and bloom. Another is that it's easier to grow. Almost 3/4 of the coffeee beans cultivated around the world is arabica because they don't require special environments like the robusta plants so it makes it easier for the beans to be gathered by machines.

Coffee processing

So this is one of the most basic flowcharts I could find (too lazy to make my own, sorry) that shows each step of coffee processing. What's fascinating about this particular product is that almost each step will have a marketable product of its own, it would just depend on the manufacturer whether they would make use of that or just sell their coffee as is.

From green beans treatment where the beans are washed (you see green coffee beans being sold too, right? either as whole beans, crushed beans or powdered) and if they need to be decaffeinated, that will be done so in either this step or later on. Nest on you'll go to roasting where they roast the coffee until it's brown. The temperature will vary per bean but usually, it will not pass 250 degrees else it will lose all its aroma and and it might burn (roasted coffee is also marketed as is XD).

If you can imagine the smell of that though- some manufacturers (specially the large scale ones) actually collect the steam/smoke generated from this step and use it later on in the process

Once the coffee is roasted, it gets ground to make it easier for flavor extraction (again, ground coffee beans is also sold but not much on extracts) then from extraction, they'll usually get a paste like item which can be decaffeinated, turned into the instant coffee in a can/bottle mix like what nescafe (the ones in the tetrapack box with the french vanilla and macchiatto flavors) and kopiko (kopiko brown, 78, black, blanca) do (these have better nutritional value than your instant coffee tbh and it explains why these drinks have a stronger buzz feeling than the instant ones), or they undergo further treatment either by drying

So we should know that there are 2 main types of drying. One's the spray drying then there's freeze drying. on a comparison, spray dried coffee is honestly the cheaper kind of coffee and the less nutritional one too if we're talking about that. Why so? because the extract from the previous step will have to undergo extreme heating just to get a powdery form like that. Under extreme heat, most of the nutrients will have already degraded. leaving you with the less satisfying coffee (this is what they use for the 3 in 1 mixes here. don't like those much though). Sometimes large manufacturers even use the steam/smoke collected from the roasting process to cheat the aroma into the powder but it's still not that satisfying to me. They can be further processed into agglomerates though but here in my country, this is not that popular an option.

These are the spray drying machines. I hope you notice that tube at the top, that's where the steam/hot air comes from

Then for freeze drying, this one is the healthier option on instant coffee because most of its nutrients is retained. The extracts gathered is placed in a freezers and cooled to -60 degrees. they will eventually form crystals but on the other end, it's also on the expensive end of the coffee product. Some of the brands that use this method is Folger's, Maxwell house (the first to introduce this method tbh) them there's Nescafe gold

Huge freeze dryer. They also use this for fruits though but then expensive instant coffee is collected from there
Here's what each of them looks like after drying. You can see how huge the differences are.

So now that you know a bit about your coffee, tell me which ones you guys usually drink

@charmingcherry08 I hope this satisfies your need to know more about coffee? Though a bit late


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Avatar for Hanzell
4 years ago

Comments

I need your help pls reply

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4 years ago

With what?

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4 years ago

In story series page.... There saying that i can not post in that communit... I Don't know why.. But i Don't get any notification about begin ban or something

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4 years ago

Really? We never banned anyone though. Or at least i didn't. I'm not sure about @Ozzyy though but i saw that you were also writing a series

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4 years ago

I Don't know about the competitions.. So i publish another story.. I think that's why.. I am new in here.. I Don't know that much

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4 years ago

That's fine but hopefully you could check in on the community for some updates. You can still continue your series though. We'd still love to read it

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4 years ago

Thanks... I will be very glad to write in there.. ☺☺

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4 years ago

You're welcome and i hope to see you finish it soon!

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4 years ago

Wow Thanks man.. Moderator I still can't believe it.. Can i get the telegram id..??

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4 years ago

Oh sorry but don't enjoy giving private accounts away

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4 years ago

No no iam asking for telegram grp or fb grp or page..

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4 years ago

We don't have a group of sorts

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4 years ago

Ohh ok ☺☺🤗

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4 years ago

Wow.!! Really this is a good post and good Article brother

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4 years ago

I love coffee 😍 and my previous job is a waitress in coffee shop and we served robusta coffee thats why i love robusta for my black / cappucino coffee 👍👍

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4 years ago

I'm more of a liberica kind of person because it tastes unusual but it must have bern heaven to work in a coffee shop ❤ i can imagine all that aroma omg

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4 years ago

Really 😯 the way you describe it the more i want to taste it too haha

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4 years ago

I think they sell the beans in stores? I mostly buy those when i go home to tagaytay because they have a few plantations there

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4 years ago

Woow tagaytay .. okey ill check in some stores here in cavite maybe they have.

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4 years ago

Ohh cav! There should be stores that sell beans there, it's close to tagaytay and batangas na

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4 years ago

I never knew that this is the process of coffee making. I think the sprayed dried is commonly used in what I drink.

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4 years ago

If you drink the 3 in .1mixes then most probably it is because the powdered ones make it easier for packaging and for weight distribution in factories

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4 years ago

I can only tell you that I like my country's coffee. I know the plant, I have harvested the red beans from the plant. I ran them through the machine that separates the skin from the pimple. Then I dried these beans in the sun, in a daily process and for several days. And then I sold them to the place where they do the final process. Until there and then to consumption and I love it.

You did a great job of research.

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4 years ago

I only see that in the provinces here but i never got to stick around to see the entire process. Venezuela is also under the coffee belt so I'm pretty sure that there would be large coffee bean plantations there. Would be cool to see more pictures of the plant itself though. And I'm curious, do they sell the berries too? I've never seen that happen here

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4 years ago

With the trouble of the Venezuelan economy, many people are planting, harvesting and preparing their own coffee beans at home. Since coffee is very expensive. If processed at home, it helps the economy.

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4 years ago

It would lessen the expenditure too of those that need coffee on a regular basis to function. Wish that was applicable in my country too but the coffee plant here mainly grows down south

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4 years ago

I drink instant coffee :D But I used to drink Nescafe which was the spray dried kind. I am not into coffee but I do enjoy drinking it, not too much of it because I will stay awake the whole night.

Thank you for this. This is the most detailed write-up I have ever read about coffee, and that is because it came from you :) I wouldn't have read about it otherwise hehe.

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4 years ago

Ohh so you also get hyperactive with coffee 😂😂😂 i can't drink regularly because it keeps me awake for almost 2 days but i do enjoy it

This was actually from manufacturing experience 😂 i had a bit of experience in handling coffee manufacturing in my internships before so i know the processes, can't say it was ever good to my poor heart but i loved the unli coffee from the rejected batches

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4 years ago

Yaaa! My eyes will be wide awake, staring at the ceiling in darkness, although not so dark once the eyes adjusted itself :D

Aah... internships were fun, weren't they? I missed mine. Oh handling coffee is not good for heart?

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4 years ago

As for me... i stay hyperactive until the caffeine is honestly digested up, that's why my bf always tells me off whrn i get tempted to buy coffee

I palpitate just from the smell so handling it is bad for my heart

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4 years ago

I am lucky to live in a country where coffee and cocoa are produced, I have seen the process of production of coffee in an artisanal way and it is quite amazing everything that is done to have this delicious drink at our fingertips ... This others To say that coffee is my favorite drink par excellence, my mornings without coffee are horrible, I also wrote an article about coffee curiosities, here is the link for you to read it and tell me what you think 👉🏼 https://read.cash/@aleja/curiosities-about-coffee-47b7868e

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4 years ago

Yess your country is part of the coffee belt! So is mine but production isn't as large as yours I've also seen your article on coffee before though and i didn't want to incorporate much of that here, thus why i focused on the manufacturing

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4 years ago

Your article is excellent too

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4 years ago

I drink agglomerated coffee. . though I didn't know it before 😜 thank you for posting this with picture ! 🥰

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4 years ago

Ohh so it's common there because here, they mostly sell the spray dried ones. The pictures were needed else i don't think people would get the flow of it

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4 years ago

Yes! The picture is so helpful to understand!

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4 years ago

Woooooowwww girl... this post is lit😍😍

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4 years ago

YA GIRL IS BACK, BOIIIIII 😂😂😂😂😂

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4 years ago

I missed your science articles. But where did you get that idea😍😍 how come it came to your mind😍😍

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4 years ago

I told you about my reserves though. It's been on my list for a while now so i thought i needed to finish the rest of my science reserves when i made a comeback as the nerdy cience girl UwU

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4 years ago

I like your this side moree😍😍😍. then the art part😘😘😘

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4 years ago

You just missed your discussion buddy ❤❤❤ but inktober is coming! I'll do that next to science

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4 years ago

Mention me😭😭😭😭

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4 years ago

You're gonna do inktober too???

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4 years ago

Our coffee in our house is spray dry. Its nescafe haha but when my aunt has a package, our coffee is agglomerated. The Maxwell coffee hehe.

How about the kapeng barako?

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User's avatar Yen
4 years ago

Wow it's very new information to me I have no idea about coffee but I am know it I am very grateful to your article thanks for sharing this

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4 years ago

I hope this can help you in choosing the kind of coffee you drink? Though nothing beats brewed coffee though

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4 years ago

You're indeed a coffee lover. 😅 I love coffee before when I was still a student, i can't have breakfast without coffee. But now I prefer tea coz it's healthier for me. But i really do love the aroma of it. I just deprived myself coz i can't drink too much caffeine

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4 years ago

I just like it, can't have it much because i care for my weakling heart that palpitates when i drink coffee though. But i love the processing of it. It's cool in a sense that you can sell every product it has 😂

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4 years ago

That's one of the reason why I stopped drinking coffee, I'm palpitating everytime i drink coffee.

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4 years ago

Lol we're both weaklings 😂😂😂 no more coffee, i guess. Just every now and then when people offer to treat you

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4 years ago

It's actually normal to have reaction like that, but some doesn't mind that. lol. My mother runs a store and not earning profit from selling coffee because of my siblings and my father who loves coffee.. lol

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4 years ago

Ohh that's really bad for her business then 😂😂😂😂 coffee shop should never be a business if everyone in a family loves coffee

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4 years ago

Lol.. i agree, it will go bankrupt in just few months.. lol

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4 years ago

So that happened to her business too? 😂😂😂 I've bern talking my mom into making lugawan when we move out tbh. They say it's very profitable

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4 years ago

Yes it is. My grandmother have that lugawan before, and many were buying her porridge with different flavors on it. But don't know why she stopped it

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4 years ago

There's actually barely any Arabica beans that have not been hybridized with robusta to some extent to invoke hybrid vigor. This is due to an outbreak of Hemileia vastatrix that has been a problem since the early 1800s. Due to the Arabica requiring shady tropical conditions its extremely susceptible to fungus infection. So for the most part all coffee is part robusta in order to be mass produced. Love the article enjoyed the different drying methods didn't know freez drying gave it a richer flavor. Im not trying to be offensive in any way I just happened to be interested in coffee and its history .

P.S new to read.cash and really could use a sponsorship im an avid writer full of fun facts.

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4 years ago

I wasn't even planning on including hybridization here because that honestly makes things harder for the users that don't really fancy genetics much. It's the same as wht they do to almost every fruit and vegetable for higher yield anyway so it's in no way offensive to me, if anything, i appreciate the adage 😊 i can see that you are a facts fan and I'll go check out your stuff later. I hope to read your articles soon, okay?

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4 years ago

I am a certified coffe addict. In the morning consumed 2 packs of coffee, 1 pack in the noon, 1 pack in the afternoon and 2 packs again in the evening. That is why maybe i can't sleep during the night 😝

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4 years ago

Lol don't take coffee in the afternoon, you're lucky enough that you don't palpitate like I do if i drank that much

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4 years ago

What does palpitate means? What is that?

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4 years ago

When you get irregular heart constrictions. It gets painful if your body is sensitive to caffeine

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4 years ago

My body does not. But I exhaust easily even just using small amount of strengths.

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4 years ago

There's something called a burn out after you've digested all that caffeine so i can see why 😂

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4 years ago

Hahahaha it really hurts 🤞😚

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4 years ago

Wow! You still remembered, aww. 😍🙃 Yes yes, I really am satisfied. Now I know how it has been processed. And, I already had the idea upto why Kopiko 78 was that strong. Since you mentioned that freeze dried coffee are more nutritional, I wanna tell you that I told my Mom to buy a coffee just like that. And yes the coffee looked exactly like what is on the picture above.

Thank you so much for sharing this and for remembering what I told you before. I reall appreciate that. Have a blast!

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4 years ago

Ohh you took the freeze dried coffee advice? So now that you've tasted both, can you tell the difference in taste of the 3 in 1 kind and the freeze dried kind?

I'm happy that this gave you an idea on the coffee you love so much 😊😊😊

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4 years ago

I like the taste of it. It's better and since you mentioned it has more nutrients, I'll continue having it though.

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4 years ago

Brewed ones are still the best because lesser processing but let's go with something more affordable 😂😂 glad you enjoyed my coffee recommendation

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4 years ago

And I am more than happy that u recommended it.

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4 years ago

Absolutely good post that you got very feminine by telling us about these interesting things and you also told the benefits of them.

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4 years ago

There wasn't much benefits in them but i just wanted to show people how each process differs

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4 years ago

Ooh.. Now i know. 😁 But i'm using great taste choco.. Before i used great taste granules which i found out fall under agglomerated. Thank you for sharing this information.

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4 years ago

The agglomerated ones taste so weird to me and those usually get steamed up again to get a bit of moistures just so they'd get their chunk shapes

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4 years ago

That 'instant' coffee is not so instant afterall. hahahahah for me, coffee is just coffee but for some people, every detail matters. :>

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4 years ago

Well i was in the manufacturing part of food so now you'll see why those details matter but yeah, some people will make do as long as coffee is coffee

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4 years ago

Wow do you get tired of the smell though? Coz it is addicting for most people like me

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4 years ago

Hmm.. it gives me palpitations and doesn't make me sleep for days, that's why i left coffee manufacturing 😂😂😂😂

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4 years ago

Ohh well too much of everything is bad. Good thing you quit for your health. :>

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4 years ago

Yeah, my poor heart can't take that much palpitations

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4 years ago