Leaving to the margin famous histories that exist around the
discovery of the coffee, since they have more of legend than
of historical and true data, we certainly know that the coffee
was discovered by the VI century, and the Arab monks of the
time, began to consume it when they discovered all the wonderful
properties that it contains.
Since those facts happened to now, the international trade
of the coffee, is the second in world-wide importance immediately
after petroleum. We can see some relevant numbers: At the moment,
the number of business of the commerce of the coffee surpasses
the fabulous amount of 13,000 million dollars, only in value
of origin between the producing countries of coffee.
More than 60 countries of the world are productors of coffee,
which supposes a world-wide production that it oscillates between
the 5 and 7 million tons, that means about 100,000,000 million
60 coats of grames each one. we can have a glance to the following
table of consumptions:
Let us begin to know the most important historical
and chronological facts: The toasting of the grain began
in the century XIII, since then and favored by the law
of Mahoma by which the spirits were prohibited, the coffee
initiates its expansion by all the Islam. Here you have
a summary of this expansion by chronological order:
1.400 Documents of Arab doctors attest the therapeutic use of the Coffee.
1.554 The first establishment is implanted in Constantinopla serving the new drink.
1.592 El médico botánico Prospero
Alpino describe la planta y
confirma su uso popular en Egipto.
1.600 Alpine botanical doctor Prospero describes the plant and confirms his popular use in Egypt. 1600 Introduction and development in Europe, not only like medicine but also like drink of pleasing.
1.645 Opening of the first coffee in Venice
1.652 Opening of the first coffee in London.
1.672 Opening of the first coffee in Paris.
1.683 Opening of the first coffee in Vienna.
1.690 Opening of the first coffee in Hamburg.
1.700 Export of the plant from the Arab countries to the rest of the world.
1.700 The Dutch export from Yemen, coffee plants to their Colonies of Java, Indonesia, Guayana, etc.
1.723 The French introduce the coffee plant in the Antilles.
1.727 The Portuguese introduce the coffee plant in Brazil.
1.730 The English introduce the coffee plant in Ceylon, Jamaica, Cuba and Central America.
1.730 The Spaniards introduce the coffee in Colombia.
Now that we know as the plant were introduced from its country of origin to the rest of the world, we are going to know it more closely.
Pertaining to the family of the ‘Rubiaceas’ and to the group fo the coffee, the coffee plant can reach a height of six to twelve meters depending on the variety, but in the process of cultivating, usually it is pruned to about two meters then it doesn´t reach more than three meters with will enforce the plant and will be easier to access at the time of collection.
The life of the plant is of about twenty-five years
and, is one of the few plants in which at the same time
we can find flowers and fruits.
The coffee plant doesn´t offer his first useful production
until three years, therefore the first harvesting takes
place when the plant is almost four years of life.
The fruit of the coffee plant is called cherry by its great similarity with this fruit. In each cherry we found two grains faced by its flat face. Between the skin and the grain we found the pulp that is compound in its majority by sugars. Each grain is surrounded by the parchment name, resemblance to the paper of yellow color and that it has the function to protect to the grain that as well is surrounded by the denominated silver-plated film.
Within the coffee group there are more than sixty varieties but only some are cultivated world-wide and is meaningful to emphasize, since they represent 95% of the world-wide production, only two of them: Arabica and Canephora or Robusta.
Arabica:
This variety is cultivated in regions located between 500 and 2000 meters of altitude. It represents 70% of the world-wide production and its caffein content is from the 1 to 2% of the grain. It is the most appreciated variety.
Canephora:
Also known like Robust, it is cultivated from the level of the sea to 500 meters of altitude. It represents 30% of the world-wide production and its caffein content is from the 2 to 4% of the grain.
Now that we know a little bit more the plant, its fruit and its different varieties, we are going to discover all the referring to its cultivating process, from seedtime to its maturity.
All the production of the coffee is between the tropical and Cancer and Capricorn.
Since we have seen, within each cherry we found two grains. If we paid attention to its flat parts, we will see that one is completely flat and the other is a little convex. The first corresponds to a male grain and the second to a female one.
For seedtime only is useful the grain female, and this will be chosen of the most vigorous and healthy plants of the plantation.
The first step to follow is to seed the grain with sand of river in a stock market or small flowerpot. After two or four months appears plantula with the grain in the end. To this state we called phosphorus. After several weeks appears two leaves that are what we know with the butterfly name.
All this hard process last six to eight months and is made in the breeding ground. Nowadays the plant is ready to take it to the mountains where it reached his maturity being necessary that each plant has a dark place to avoid the direct exhibition to the sun and in this way helping to maintain the necessary humidity for its total development.
Since we have already seen previously, once they have happened more than three years, the coffee plant offers to us his first useful production.
In order to collect this production, we are going to emphasize two methods to be used. They are denominated the Picking and Stripping.
Picking Method:
In this method, only the the mature grains are picked up, that means those of intense red color. The person who gathers them must have special well-taken care of choosing them one by one. This method is used for the coffees of more high quality.
Stripping Method:
With the Stripping method, the recolector combs with the hand the branch of the plant gathering all the grains, Either the mature and the green ones. Logically this method is used to collect coffees of little quality.
In order to finish with this section due to the different times from rain in the tropical countries, the harvesting doesn´t take place a single time. It is necessary to return to the tree several times during the season to carry out it completely.
Once collected the coffee, we go to the beneficiary or benefit. In order to make this process, there are three different methods but we will be centered in two of them being those that are used more. These are: Dry or natural benefit and humid benefit.
Dry or natural benefit:
Once the coffee is gathered is extended on great called surfaces terraces and it is left there for being dried to the sun during one or two weeks. During this process, it is necessary to remove the mass periodically to avoid an excessive heating obtaining a uniform drying.
Once the coffee is sufficiently dry, is introduced in rotatory cylinders and, by friction, these cause that the pulp, that now are like a husk, and the parchment are given off.
Humid benefit:
More complex than the previous one, in the humid benefit
is necessary to treat grains just when they have been
collected. The first step consists of eliminating the
pulp. This process it is called depulping and it consist
of making pass the cherries between two cylinders that,
by pressure, eliminate the skin and great part of the
pulp.
The following step consists of introducing grains in
great tanks of water prepared to the effect and to let
ferment them during a period of between twelve and thirty
and six hours depending on the climate of the zone (since
we have seen previously, the pulp is composed of sugars
and acids and, therefore, is very susceptible to ferment).
This process is very delicate since a fermentation badly controlled would throw to lose all the coffee.
Once finalized the fermentation process, it is necessary
to eliminate the rest of fermented pulp that are adhered
to the grain. For that, it is necessary to pass to the
coffee through the calls channels, with great amounts
of fresh water from the mountains.
With this process, at the same time that washes the coffee,
a process of selection by density takes place, by which,
the smallest grains and with less weight will leave to
the surface and the materials nonwished (stones, woods,
etc.) remained at the heart.
Once the coffee is completely clean of impurities, we come to the drying like in the previous method. At this moment the coffee is called coffee parchment, and is with parchment, as the caficultor sells its harvest to the cooperatives that are in charge to eliminate this parchment, to select the coffee and to prepare it to export it to the different consuming countries. When the coffee is undressed of the parchment, this is going to be called green coffee.
Arrived to this point, we can say that the work in the origin
country has concluded. But what is really the output? What contain
those grains of coffee that have provided us coffee plant and
caficultor?. In this point we will see, superficially, the composition
of the coffee.
Depending on its origin, the way of obtaining it and other
many factors considering that the coffee contains more than
900 components, we could say that most important are:
Water The water represents a 12% of the grain.
Sugars Approximately Suppose 50% of the dry matter of the coffee.
Fats Approximately from 10 to a 20%.
Proteins Represent around 11% of the dry matter of the green
grain.
Alkaloids (Caffein) Represent between the 1 and 4% depending
on the botanical variety.
Minerals We can find Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Phosphorus
and Sodium.
Vitamins The green grain contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5,
B12 and C.
Componentes nonnutritious piricas Bases: the main base of the
coffee is the caffein, followed of teobromína and teofilína.
Nitrogenadas bases.
Acids In any case we must know very clearly the following concepts:
The coffee is not a food. It contributes to neither calories
nor proteins. It is not detrimental for the health if one does
not abuse him. He is stimulating. It is a drink of pleasing.
In spite of the care from the cooperatives in the selection
operation in the producing countries, this often is insufficient.
Due to the limited economic resources (Don’t forget that unfortunately
most of producing countries are underdeveloped) The industrialization
in the selection plants is almost null or very deficient in
the best of the cases. In most of the processes they resorts
to the manual selection since the manual labor in these countries
is very cheap.
This, causes a great irregularity in everything in the selection
and control of quality of the coffee in green. Conscious of
this irregularity, Cafes Bahia incorporate in their process
of selection machinery of great quality, as well as the most
modern technology, all it handled and controlled by highly qualified
personnel. With this incorporation, we made sure to fulfill
the quality levels and service demanded in Cafes Bahia.
According to the legend, its discovery was accidental. A monk whom
it loved to dry too humid grains of coffee, negligence in the
time of the operation and he practics the first involuntarily
never toasts sight.
Later, somebody described therefore the toasts of café: ‘the
decoccion of the crude coffee is an insignificant drink, but
the carbonization develops in an aroma that characterizes to
the coffee as we took it and this would be impossible without
the intervention of the heat.’
In any case, the certain thing is that we are, without givong
less importance to the rest of stages through which the coffee
must pass and we have seen previously, in front of an essential
operation that gives the algid point to the coffee. Without
the operation of it toasts, and without the chemical transformations
that it implies, the aroma of the coffee as we know it, could
not be appreciated by the consumer.
In Cafes Bahia, the toasting teacher makes, with same love
and care of that the caficultor treats to its plants in the
selection of the best coffees of the world, toasting the different
types separately during 18 or 20 minutes, to a temperature between
180 and 200º C. the operation is controlled by expert personnel
with the aid of the most modern technologies like thermal sensors,
to control the temperature in the toasting, devices, that watches
the suitable color of toasts, etc.
In summary, we can say that during the process of it toasts,
the coffee undergoes the following metamorphosis: Change of
color: the more high it is the point of it toasts, the more
it darkens the grain. Lost of weight: between the 15 and 20%
by the evaporation of the water. Increase of volume: from the
30 to 60% by CO2 formation. Change of substances: increase from
in 16% of the 12 fats and diminution of 10% of sugars and 3%
of acids.
Why we made mixtures between different origins from coffee? Three characters must be taken in consideration to appreciate a coffee and in which proportion must enter a mixture. These are: body, acidity and aroma.
The body is the sensation of strength of the flavor and the fullness that fills the mouth when it has conserved in it a little a suck of coffee. It is relatively easy for a paladar to realize the strength of a coffee. The acidity causes a sensation of sharp. It depends in less measuring of the nature of the ground in which the coffee and of its variety has been cultivated, that the altitude, which plays a role here determining.The more elevated it is, the more acid will be the coffee. The aroma is much more difficult to define, in a wine is called a bouquet.
It is the action of the own essences of the coffee in the paladar of the degustador.
Often the aroma of a coffee will be defined because it remembers us to a well-known taste. Since it is very difficult to find an origin that is able to conjugates these three characters, one solution is to make a mixture.
So, the coffees of the Robust variety, provide body, but they lack acidity. A smooth coffee from Central America, will give a mixture a very worthy aromatic point. In order to provide to the mixture an acidity touch, we will resort to a coffee with a considerable height of cultivating process. However, the process to make a good mixture, requires of a great masters and a deep knowledge of the world of the coffee.
The tasting of the coffee is a systematic method for the evaluation of the aroma and the characteristics of the flavor of a sample. This method is known like sampling. The to the paladar.
The tests that the producer makes and that we also made in CAFÉS BAHÍA for the preparation of our mixtures, are made by the known method Brazilian tasting.
In order to make this tasting we will use the coffee with a point of toasts light, worn out thickness and with a 10 dose of gr. by sample. The test is made on 10 cups and each one of the samples is ground separately.
The preparation is made by infusion. The water on the verge
of boiling (85 or 95º C.) is spilled directly on the coffee
worn out and deposited in a suitable cup. As the coffee particles
are soaked of water, they are hurried towards the bottom of
the cup. After 3 to 5 min. breaks the layer and the liquid is
shaken so that all the particles go away towards the bottom.
All the elements that are in the surface are retired with the
spoon.
With this method of infusion we avoid the contact with any material and filtrate equipment that could distort the organoliptics properties of the components of the coffee.
In order to finish with the tasting section, we only can say that the physical gestures that it implies, smelling, sucking and swallowing, are very exaggerated with the purpose of saturating the possible maximum of nervous terminals with the particular strength of the coffee. This that could be considered of bad education in other surroundings, in the tasting of the coffee is fundamental.
Conscious that is irrelevant to evaluate a good mixture by the method of the sampling if because of badly a system of packaging, the properties of the coffee remain us by the way, in CAFÉS BAHÍA we used technology machinery very outpost to assure us that all these wonderful properties that we have seen that it has the coffee they arrive intact at its destiny, the consumer.
Since we have seen in the section of the composition of the coffee, this contains among other substances a percentage of oils and, therefore, exists a risk of ‘enranciamiento’ when making contact with oxygen. In order to avoid this risk, in CAFÉS BAHÍA we used three methods of packaging:
Aluminum package with unidirectional valve: With this valve we allowed that it can leave existing CO2 but we prevented the entrance of O2 in the package.
Packaging to the emptiness: This method consists of totally eliminating the oxygen of the package.
Modified atmosphere packaging: With this method we modified the composition of the air that is within the package replacing oxygen by an inert gas that usually is CO2 or N2.
When speaking of coffee torrefacto, we do not have to confuse with the toasting of the coffee. Torrefacto is a coffee which, during the process of it toasts, it adds sugar to it in amounts that normally do not surpass 15% in weight. To the temperature that is the big drum of toasts, approx 200º C., the sugar is turn to caramel and it forms a film burned around the coffee.
The legend says that this operation was invented to protect essential oils of the coffee and that the ‘enranciamient’o was slower. The fact is that it has been a custom and at the moment is used in almost all Spain. Outside our country, this practices almost is not known, excepting Argentina, Mexico and something in Portugal. The result is that this operation does not contribute to flavor or aroma to the coffee, on the contrary, masks many of the qualities of the good coffees. Like contribution, torrefacto supposes plus a darker color in cup, impression to be loaded and bitterness in the more flavor.
The caffein is a stimulant that is mainly in the coffee and the tea and in smaller proportion in the cacao seeds. Since we have seen previously, the caffein content in the coffee changes according to the botanical variety of the plant. According to some studies, anyone has demonstrated that caffein in normal doses has a negative effect for the health. However, in some people it can cause nervousness or insomnia.
Nevertheless, the people with this kind of problems don`t have to resign to the pleasure to take coffee, they can drink the coffee decaffeinated.
Being soluble, caffein can be extracted of the crude coffee (in green) used the following substances:
WATER: Column extractors are used, in which the coffee grains are dealt with a saturated watery extract of substances that separate the caffein of the coffee.
ETHYL ACETATE: Washing the crude coffee with ethyl acetate, a dissolvent that is in the nature.
METHYLENE CHLORIDE: Caffein is extracted washing the coffee with diclorometano, a dissolvent that evaporates naturally to a temperature superior to 40º C.
CARBONIC ANHÍDRIDO: Washing with carbon dioxide in state I criticize (gas I eliminate) P = 250 bar, that acts like dissolvent of caffein.
By law, the coffee can be considered decaffeinated when it contains 0.13% of caffein. The volumes of dissolvent remainders also pay attention by law. Extracted caffein is used by the chemical, pharmaceutical and nourishing industries.
