I wish everybody a very Happy New Year and hope 2011 may be everything you want it to be.
Another year has flown past and the next one is almost ready to be discovered.
I wish everybody a very Happy New Year and hope 2011 may be everything you want it to be.
0 Comments
Coffee prices are going through the roof at the moment, so claiming it is pretty busy at the Buying Station right now would be an understatement. And it sure looks like we're in for an original Christmas Eve, one that consists of one extended coffee tasting session.
It's already over 5 years ago since we came to Pu'er and a lot of things have changed over this period. For starters, the name. When we arrived, the city was still called Simao, but in April 2007, the name was changed to the ancient name of Pu'er, which actually dates back to 1729. We've also seen the city expanding quite a bit. As you might have guessed from the city's name, it's history is closely interwoven with the cultivation of the famous Pu'er tea. The city is also located along the ancient Tea Horse Trail, part of which is still accessible from town and makes for a nice hike through lush forests.
The harvest in the region started last October (September in some warmer areas) and lasts until February, with a peak around this time of year. Even though the harvesting process can be mechanised under certain conditions, coffee cherries are still picked by hand in most countries. There are two major ways to pick the cherries. The first is strip picking in which all the cherries, ripe and unripe, are harvested at once by stripping them off the branches. This can be done manually or mechanically. Selective hand picking in Yunnan The second one is selective picking, which can only be done by hand picking. The pickers return to the same trees several times during the harvesting season, once about every 8 to 10 days, and pick only the ripe cherries. At the end of the season there is one final collection of all cherries left on the trees, regardless of the degree of maturation, the so-called sanitary harvest. Selective picking is much more labour-intensive and hence more costly. As a result it is primarily used to harvest the finer Arabica beans. For this type of coffee it is a first step in the process of producing a high quality coffee. It's also the way coffee is harvested in this region.
|
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
Categories
All
|