Many people do not realize that coffee beans are actually the inner seed of a coffee berry. The below pictures show the journey from berry to roasted bean.
Coffee berries ready to be picked from tree
Berries being handpicked by farmer
A bowl full of carefully selected and picked berries ready to be de-pulped
De-pulping in process…removing outside layer of the berry to expose inner bean
After de-pulping, if the washed process is used, the beans can go through a washing station depending upon the process that is chosen. This helps to wash away the outer pulp that remains after de-pulping.
Beans are then spread out in the sun to dry and are frequently circulated to ensure even and complete drying
Cherry, depulped, washed, dried, and finally roasted
As green beans enter the hot roaster, they go through an additional drying phase before the roasting phase begins and are depicted in the next picture as yellow or what is called the Maillard phase.
Phases of bean from dried green bean all the way through fully torched depicted above. Some well-known coffee shops serve coffee from beans that are roasted to a Full French or darker which you will never see from us. One advantage of roasting to this level is repeatability and consistency; it all tastes the same in their worldwide stores and most are served smothered in various assortments of syrups and other ointments to try and treat the burn. When coffee is roasted to this level, all of the characteristics that makes each origin of coffee unique has been roasted to the point where it is as described above…charcoal, dead, or worse, a fire risk where your coffee, roaster, or worse, may catch on fire.
You will find that most all of the coffee we roast will fall between 1st Crack Done to City Roast as shown in the picture above. We have been asked to tweek batches, to the customers preference, where they prefer a darker roast and that is quite alright.
We aim to please our customers by giving them what they want but frequently will offer our opinion based on our knowledge of coffee.
Depulping process video: https://youtu.be/Q4uqVIllsbU