07/11/2025
Coffee is a universe, not only for growers, who know its habitual names, stages and productive activities from their daily care.
Coffee aficionados on the other hand may describe a universe of taste notes, body and aroma markers, while lacking basic knowledge about the production of their favorite coffee grounds.
Most coffee drinkers know that coffee seedlings need to be planted and nursed before any flowers and fruits might subsequently appear on the plant. Some will have heard of coffee seedlings being nurtured and protected for 16 months, before they will move to a plant hole and grow into a shrub to yield 3-4Kg cherries per year.
For the shrub to grow best, it will be watered, trimmed, weeded and fertilized all along the way. Once mature, it will bear a first batch of coffee cherries, around four years later.
Have you ever witnessed a coffee harvest, seen how those coffee cherries are processed (hulled, fermented, washed), before resulting coffee parchment is subsequently dried and stored ?
4-6 months will pass before stored coffee parchment is suitable for husking, which turns it into raw coffee, or greenbeans. If not planted, these seeds are then graded and roasted for consumption.
Long story short - there is roughly 80% weight loss in hulling coffee cherries, 20% weight loss in husking coffee parchment, 5-8% weight loss in grading coffee greanbeans, and 20% weight loss in roasting, before that roast will be finally ground and brewed.
