Most of our suppliers are smallholders who deliver their coffee with their small hand tractors. Many of them are very loyal suppliers we meet again every year. One of them had a bit of a surprise for me this year. He owns a coffee base of 1.3 ha, which yield him about 3 tons of green beans each year. He has been delivering to us for as long as I have been here (and probably longer), making the trip of about 100 km with his hand tractor several times each buying season. This year however, he showed up at our office with a big smile on his face, and his coffee in a small truck.
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This week we received a remarkable request from the local government. They asked for 2 kg of seeds of our improved coffee varieties, to be sent to space as part of a research program! Maybe a few years from now we get to drink some of this space coffee or else future space travellers might be able to enjoy a cup of Yunnan coffee far away from home.
Studies have shown that coffee holds a wide range of beneficial effects on your health. Just the smell of coffee is supposedly good for the brain, while it can also help resist succumbing to stress due to sleep deprivation. Other positive effects include keeping your skin healthy. There are lots of different ways in which coffee can care for your skin. It can help preventing skin cancer, melanoma-related diseases, and it contains powerful anti-oxidants that can help prevent acne, eczema, rashes and other skin diseases.Coffee is often used in spa treatments to improve the flow of micro-cellulars (circulation) in the skin and break up fatty deposits which cause cellulite, and it has been proven to provide tightening benefits when applied to the skin. In order to benefit from these effects, you could go to a spa that offers coffee treatments, but it won't come as a surprise that the internet holds many recipes for how to make your own home-made coffee skin care treatment. From the looks of it, especially (used) ground coffee is one of the basic ingredients for facial masks, exfoliating scrubs and body wraps. Women in Russia, Hawaii, Bali and South America have been using coffee as an ingredient in their skin care products for years already, maybe now it's time for the rest of the world to follow? Source: ezinearticles.com
Today I would like to kick off a new section of my blog, one all about recipes with coffee as one of the ingredients. And on a day like today, on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards or exchanging gifts in many parts of the world, what could be better than to start with a cup of love. Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you can enjoy it with your loved one.
With the harvesting season nearing its end, we have a bit of catching up to do with our series about processing. This time I want to take about the step following the harvest, in Yunnan being wet processing. Siphon tank with cherries (water is recycled) After harvesting, the cherries either go directly to the pulper (when the harvest is well done) or they are collected in a siphon tank filled with water. In this siphon tank the cherries are cleaned and separated. Stones sink to the bottom of the tank and are removed manually when the tank is emptied. The lighter cherries will float on top of the water and are removed through a weir along with leaves and twigs. The cherries which are suspended in the water column are recovered by a siphon and moved towards the pulper. Pulper (back) and fermentation tanks The objective of pulping is to separate the pulp from the parchment beans. This pulp is torn off by squeezing the cherries. As ripe cherries contain a lot of water, the parchment beans will pop out easily when the cherries are squeezed. The next step is to remove the mucilage, which aims at removing the residual part of the mesocarp that remains stuck to the endocarp after pulping (also see this post on the parts of a coffee cherry). As the mucilage is insoluble in water and clings to the parchment too strongly to be removed by simple washing, it is removed by either fermentation followed by washing or by strong friction in so-called mucilage removers. Fermentation of parchment coffee In Yunnan this process mainly takes place through natural fermentation. The term fermentation is not 100% correct as no biochemical reaction takes place inside the coffee bean. It would be more correct to refer to the process as removal by means of biochemical reaction or hydrolysis of the mucilage. This reaction is caused by enzymes which are naturally present in the coffee cherries. The duration of fermentation can vary from 6 to up to 72 hours, depending on the temperature, the amount of mucilage, and the concentration of peptic enzymes. The coffee is kept in the fermentation tanks until the mucilage is completely digested and the beans are ready for washing. It is critical for coffee quality to stop the fermentation at the right time as over-fermentation causes the formation of so-called stinkers. If fermentation is deficient or too slow, butyric acid or propionic acid can develop, both of which have an undesirable effect on coffee quality. The fermented parchment coffee has to be washed immediately after the fermentation process is completed in order to stop this process. It is however possible to soak the parchment coffee in clean water for 12 to 24 hours after removing the mucilage and before washing, in order to reduce the bitterness and harshness of the beverage.
Here I already explained how this blog got its name. As it happens, there is also a story about how Yunnan got its name. A few weeks ago, my wife came across a book called 'The Exploration of Yunnan' by Jim Goodman. A rather interesting read about the history and people of this province. It also contains an short story about the possible origin of the name Yunnan. In the north, Yunnan borders Sichuan, a province in which the weather apparently is dominated by rain and clouds. The story goes that one of the Nanzhao princes of Dali (in Yunnan) visited the court of the Tang emperor, and told the emperor his land was south of the rainy weather, after which the Chinese emperor dubbed said territory Yunnan, or South of the Clouds.
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AuthorI wouldn't be surprised to find out I was born with a passion for coffee. For the life of me, I can't remember not loving coffee. And by that, I don't just mean drinking it, but everything involved from its cultivation over the processing to the final product that is my loyal companion throughout the day. Archives
February 2014
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