Coffee - By Maria

Did you know that Colombia is one of the places that produces the most coffee in the world? Here are some interesting facts about how they do it.

We are staying on a coffee farm, and the coffee harvesting season is just being wrapped up. The typical harvest last two months. During the harvest, the farmers hire coffee pickers to pick the coffee berries off plants. When the coffee fruit is ripe and ready to be picked, it is dark red. The fruit around the coffee bean tastes sweet and juicy. When you eat it, you eat the flesh off the bean, not bean itself.

The coffee field that we can see from our porch

Me picking ripe coffee fruit to taste

A bag of coffee berries collected that day

A worker getting what he collected weighed

Coffee pickers are paid based on the weight of coffee they pick. When they are done collecting for the day, they hang their bags on a scale to see how much money they will get. They get paid 1,200 pesos per kilogram they pick. Today, this is about $0.28 for every 2.2 lbs. This worker had a good day and collected 68 kilos, earning about $19.00. 

The machine that separates the shells from the beans

Coffee is made from the seeds of the fruit. To separate the seeds from the fruit, they pour the fruit into the top of this green machine. The seeds come down the chute. There are two seeds from each berry.

Where seeds are washed and sorted

After the coffee beans are separated from their shells, they are washed. Then they are sorted into good quality, and acceptable quality. They can tell the difference because when they wash the beans, the good quality beans sink and the acceptable quality beans float. 

After the coffee beans have been sorted, they are left out to dry in the sun for 8 to 10 days. A lot of families in the neighborhood we are staying in seem to be harvesting coffee too. We have seen them drying coffee beans on their roofs and the street, wherever they can find the most sun.  

Coffee beans drying in the sun. Brown ones are lower quality, and the white ones are high quality. Coffee beans don't turn brown until they are roasted.  

Coffee Beans being dried in the street

This is a marquesina. It is like an oven and holds the heat in so the beans can dry quicker. (4-5 days)

The coffee beans that are good quality are exporteded all around the world but the beans that are acceptable quality are just for Colombia.

Our Spanish teacher teaching us about his coffee and the different stages of processing

Coffee from our Spanish teacher's farm

Me tasting the coffee (with milk and sugar)

I've learned a lot about coffee and I hope you have too!