In a lot of countries, it is custom to offer visitors a cup of coffee, be it freshly brewed from ground coffee, instant coffee or made with one or the other (N)espresso machine. In some countries however, it's not the beverage, but the coffee beans that are offered. Before I came to work in China, I worked in Tanzania for three years, and it was there that I first came into contact with this habit of the Wahaya, one of the tribes in Kagera where I was located. Apparently the coffee beans are first boiled with grass or herbs and then dried. They then chew the coffee beans for family exchanges, ritual offerings and as snack, and they offer them to visitors. It's a habit I grew to like and I still do it at the office.
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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
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.
Now the harvest is in full swing in Yunnan, I figured it was time to pick up on a series of posts I had in mind for quite some time. About a year ago, I posted an article on harvesting methods used in this region. Within 8 hours after harvesting, the fresh cherries should be processed as otherwise unwanted fermentation can take place, which will adversely affect the coffee quality. There are three major methods for processing coffee: dry, semi-dry and wet, the latter being the method used in Yunnan. The objective of processing is to remove all the covering surrounding the beans, to lower the water contents of the fresh cherries to a level that allows preservation of the beans and to prepare the beans according to the market requirements. Source: www.dupuystorage.com/ A coffee cherry consists of an external skin (exocarp), which turns red or yellow when the cherry is ripe; the pulp and mucilage (mesocarp); and the bean (endosperm). Usually there are two coffee beans in each cherry and each bean is surrounded by parchment and a silverskin. Each layer covering the coffee beans is removed in one of the steps of the processing. In short, the external skin and pulp are removed during pulping, the mucilage during fermentation (or mechanical treatment), and the parchment and silverskin (after drying) during hulling and polishing. Add some grading of coffee beans by size and sorting of defects, and you end up with the green beans which serve as the raw material for your cup(s) of daily happiness. According to research coffee is not only good to get rid of a morning mood, it could also benefit our mood in the long run as caffeine supposedly works in a similar way as antidepressants. At least, that is what Harvard University scientists concluded after a 10-year study in which scientists compared the risk of depression with the coffee use of 51,000 women. The researchers found that women who consumed four or more cups of coffee a day had twenty percent less chance of a depression. Those who drank two to three cups a day saw their risk decrease with fifteen percent. The scientists think caffeine, just like antidepressants, inhibit the production of certain hormones. And men needn't to despair, last year Finnish researchers came to the same conclusion with male subjects.
Cultivating coffee, obtaining good quality green beans and making a nice cup of coffee, they are all an art in itself. But 38-year old Karen Eland has taken it to a higher level. This American artist uses coffee to paint. Often her work is based on existing paintings, with the drink not only being her paint, she also regularly adds a cup of coffee in each painting. Some might think it's a waste of good coffee, but the results are well worth a view. Lately I tend to come across a number of interesting coffee-related newspaper articles. Just the other day I read one about all the advantages linked to coffee at work. As it seems, coffee at work really does make a difference. An extract. Coffee is loved Nobody can live without it. 65% of the employees drink coffee at work, on average 3 cups a day. And given the current prices at coffee shops, it doesn't come as a surprise that employees appreciate it when their company offer this black gold for free. Coffee makes people work more efficiently Or at least, it keeps you awake so you can actually get some work done. Morning people may not need it all that much, but others need a daily dose of caffeine in order to survive the morning hours. Coffee improves the work atmosphere A coffee break brings colleagues closer together and companies can only benefit from them: 40% of the employees have had productive conversations about work at the coffee machine. Or at least, that's what they say... Coffee is good for the working moral Employees feel more validated when they receive free benefits from their employer. Even more so in times of crises, when everybody has to work harder. By keeping the coffee free, companies give the message that the situation isn't hopeless and everything will be ok. (source: businessinsider.com)
One of the most expensive and exclusive types of coffee is produced in Indonesia and the Philippines. It's probably also one of the most environmentally friendly processed coffees, but just as likely not to everyone's taste... Whereas normally machines are involved in processing coffee, in some parts of Indonesia and the Philippines civet cats take this role upon themselves. The pulp that surrounds the cherries is removed by the cats when they eat it and fermentation takes place in the stomach since the cats cannot digest the parchment beans. All one has to do afterwards, is collecting the coffee beans from the cat's faeces. And despite the cats doing all the hard work, one cup of this coffee can apparently cost up to 50$! Though I'll leave it up to you to discover whether or not it's worth it, I think I'll just stick to my daily cup of Yunnan coffee. If you're interested, you can find more info in this article.
The other day, the title of a newspaper article caught my eye: 'Coffee drinking women don't need to worry.'
Intrigued, I kept on reading. According to Professor Larsson, a Swedish researcher, some women avoid drinking coffee because they think it is bad for their health. The professor continues to say that this isn't the case, on the contrary. There is more and more evidence that moderate coffee consumption reduces the risk of diabetes, liver cancer and possibly even heart attacks. The latter was concluded from a research in which 35,000 women aged between 49 and 83 were followed during ten years. The reasons why coffee reduces the risk of heart attacks are still unclear and the research is still in its early stages, but Larsson advises women not to change their coffee drinking habits. 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.
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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
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