The Many Hands of Coffee

To drink your cup of joe in the morning, there are countless touchpoints depending on how simple or complex you brew or buy.

The steps include:

1. Growing the coffee cherries (beans)

2. Harvesting and processing the coffee cherries

3. Coffee beans are graded and sorted.

4. Packaging the green coffee for transport to a roastery somewhere in the world

5. Coffee is roasted

6. It’s packaged into commercial or consumer packaging for consumption.

7. A consumer or commercial grinder is used to grind the roasted coffee beans.

8. A manual, automatic, home or commercial coffee brewer is used.

9. Drinking coffee

You can imagine that there’s further granular steps and all sorts of paths each step can take and these all have various suppliers or partners to take part in the coffee journey.

While we often hear of the global brands in coffee like Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Dunkin Donuts and equipment manufactured by Breville, Bodum, Cuisinart, Braun, De’Longhi and many more, there are countless others out there doing their part to make the coffee experience as straightforward or involved as you would like.

Why am I on this tangent?

As I explore, buy, consume, read, and discuss coffee, its a fun journey to be on.

Each step or sub-step can have nearly infinite pathways and while it may be repetitive, their unique in their own way.

For example: Roasting coffee has become both an art and a science. While roast level is one descriptor roasters typically use, and light roasts typically occur between 7 and 9 minutes, medium roast between 9 and 12 minutes, and dark roasts between 12 and 15 minutes.

Those are imprecise ranges while many coffee roasters have computer based profiles that leverage a number of temperature and humidity sensors to monitor each roast. Then factoring in what region the coffee comes from will also play a large part in its flavour profile in conjunction with the roast level the roaster has decided upon.

The topics can be voluminous and varied and its important to take a step back and breathe as coffee can be overwhelming. 😁😁