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Producing a Cup of Fairtrade Coffee
Lots of work goes into your daily cup of coffee! This infographic serves to show how many individuals put in hard work to put a hot (or cold) coffee in your hands! Buying Fairtrade coffee means these people are treated fairly and paid what they deserve!
1. Planting
- Coffee bushes grown in the tropics can grow to be 3–3.5 metres tall
- Most coffee is grown at higher elevation, but not high enough for freezing or cold temperatures
- It takes 3-5 years for a coffee plant to begin to produce fruits. They can be harvested for between 50 to 60 years once fully grown
2. Harvesting the Cherries
- After the coffee cherries begin to ripen, after about 9 months, the ripest cherries are often picked by hand by farmers. Farmers usually cycle through all the trees every 7-10 days, ensuring they pick all the cherries before they become overripe.
- Experienced pickers average approximately 100 to 200 pounds of coffee cherries a day, which will produce 20 to 40 pounds of coffee beans
3. Processing the Cherries
- The “Wet Method” is the most common way to process coffee cherries
- The freshly-picked cherries are passed through a pulping machine to separate the skin and pulp from the bean
- Then the beans are separated by weight as they pass through water channels
- The beans are transferred to large water-filled tanks, where they will soak for up to two days to remove a slimy outer layer
4. Drying the Beans
- Once the beans have been separated from the cherries, they will be dried for several days, typically on a large surface of concrete or stone
5. Milling the Beans
- Once fully dried, the beans are hulled to remove the extra dried skin around the bean
- They are then sorted by weight and size, and defective (rotten, unhulled, underripe, etc.) beans are removed
6. Exporting the Beans
- Hulled beans are called “green coffee”, and are exported to hundreds of coffee roasters in Canada and elsewhere
- Canada imports over $50 million in green coffee each year
7. Roasting the Beans
- Most roasting machines maintain a temperature of 550 degrees Farenheight
- The machines continuously turn the beans to prevent burning for several hours
- Once the beans reach an ideal inside temperature, they are rapidly cooled by air or water to stop the roasting process
8. Crafting the Coffee
- Coffee beans are ground to various sizes depending on how they will be brewed — there are over two dozen ways to brew coffee!
- The finer the grind, the more quickly the coffee should be prepared and the less time it should spend in water
9. Enjoying!
- Two thirds of Canadians enjoy at least one cup of coffee per day
Sources
- Coffea. (2020, January 5). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffea
- Coffee Business Intelligence. (2019, April 8). The Canadian coffee consumption 2019. Retrieved from https://coffeebi.com/2019/02/18/the-canadian-coffee-consumption-2019/
- Fairtrade Canada. (n.d.). Coffee. Retrieved from http://www.fairtrade.ca/en-CA/Buying-Fairtrade/Coffee
- Fairtrade Canada. (n.d.). About Coffee. Retrieved from http://www.fairtrade.ca/en-CA/Farmers-and-Workers/Coffee/About-Coffee
- Fairtrade International. (2020, January 10). Coffee. Retrieved from https://www.fairtrade.net/product/coffee
- Jacobs, A. J. (2018, November 8). To Make a Cup of Coffee, It Takes More Than a Village. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-make-a-cup-of-coffee-it-takes-more-than-a-village-1541694551
- National Coffee Association. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ncausa.org/about-coffee/10-steps-from-seed-to-cup
- Topeca Coffee Roasters. (2018, June 26). Seed-to-Cup: The Journey of a Cup of Coffee. Retrieved from https://topecacoffee.com/seed-to-cup-the-journey-of-a-cup-of-coffee/