From bean to cup
Find out more about the journey of a coffee bean from a farm to cup.
Paulig coffee origin
Paulig buys green coffee from 10-15 different countries of origin. Our coffee comes from Latin American countries – Brazil, Colombia or Peru. In addition, our coffee also comes from African countries, for example – Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. And also some Asian countries – Vietnam, India and Papua New Guinea.
KEY KNOWLEDGE
What affects coffee taste?
Coffee taste depends on many factors. In addition to the variety or sort of coffee, coffee taste is affected by the altitude, climate, soil, temperature, fertilization, coffee picking (hand picking or mechanic picking), processing (natural or washed) and roasting. A big role for the coffee taste is of course on the barista and their skills.
Get to know more and train your staff with our full coffee solutions.
Our coffee sustainability
As one of the first large roasteries in the world, all of our coffee beans come from sources that have been verified sustainable. This means that all our coffee is sourced through verified sustainable partnership programmes or certified sustainable sources.
- Nursery
Coffee trees are grown from the coffee cherry's seeds (=beans) and young coffee trees are in a nursery before they are planted to their final destination.
- Blooming
Each flower in a coffee tree is a sign of a future coffee cherry in few months. Flowering starts the coffee tree's crop season.
- Coffee cherries
About two months after the flowering, green coffee cherries start to appear in the coffee tree. Cherries in the picture are still raw so they will need 4-8 months to mature into a deep red cherry.
- Picking
Once the cherries are deeply red, they are mature and ready to be picked. As you can see in the picture, not all cherries mature at same time so the harvesting can not be done all at once.
- Sorting coffee beans
Before the cherries are processed, they are sorted so raw and too mature cherries are removed from the lot.
- Depulping coffee beans
In washed coffee processing the cherries need to be pulped before the beans can be fermented and washed. In pulping the cherries' fruit flesh is removed by a depulper ("a mill").
ProcessingBeans are prcessed in the dry or wet method. Read more about the difference of the methods below.
- Drying the coffee beans
In Africa it's common to use raised beds for the drying. The beans need to dry for ~10-22 days depending on climate (temperature, moisture and sun light).
- Removing defected beans
Defected beans need to be sorted from the good ones so that they don't ruin the cup quality. Defect in coffee means that the bean doesn't meet the standards and it has been ruined by farm condition, coffee processing or roasting. Often defects can be seen visually in the beans (it's black, cracked, visual mold etc.) but some defects can be seen or tasted after roasting.
Different coffee processing methods
Natural processing method
Also known as the dry process, natural processing is most old school way to process coffee. After picking the coffee cherries from the coffee trees, they are spread out in thin layers to dry in the sun. Once the cherries are properly dry, the skin and dried fruit flesh are removed mechanically and the green coffee is stored and “rested” before exporting it.
Wet processing method
There is still some fruit flesh and mucilage left on the beans which is why the beans need to be fermented in water tanks for 24-48 hours. Fermenting enhances the bright and acidic flavors in the beans. After fermentation the beans are washed with fresh water. Washing and fermentation makes the beans quite moist so they need to transferred to drying station.
Key Knowledge
Coffee roasting
During roasting, the beans becomes less dense and expands to twice in inital twice. The darker the coffee, the less acidity and more roastiness and bitter notes. The lighter the coffee, the more acidity and fruitiness. Intresting facts: 1 tree = 0,5 kg roasted coffee; 4 kg coffee berries = 1 kg roasted coffee.
Full solution
Professional coffee knowledge from Paulig PRO
Paulig PRO offers the ideal coffee setup for your business, whatever you might need. Our solutions include a wide selection of coffee, coffee machines but also tea, hot choco drinks, and everything else that’s necessary to create premium coffee experiences. Our coffee experts arrange barista training's that help you improve your skills and knowledge, no matter what level you’re starting at.