Some pictures from the process of making coffee.

[NNadir]

I was catching up on my reading, and I came across this paper about coffee which claimed that coffee is the second largest consumer product after petroleum: Integrated Design of Biorefineries Based on Spent Coffee Grounds (Manuel Taifouris, Marcos L. Corazza, and Mariano Martín Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2021 60 (1), 494-506).

This seemed like an extraordinary claim, so I decided to look at reference 5 in the paper, on which this claim was based. Reference 5 was this paper: Sustainable management of coffee industry by-products and value addition—A review

I'm not sure the claim is well supported in this paper (although I don't have time to read the entire paper now, but have downloaded for future reference.)

I'm a regular consumer of copious amounts of coffee and in looking at the pictures, I recognized that I have never thought in my life about what goes into the product and whence it comes.

Here's a few pictures of the coffee process beginning with the plant:



The caption:

Fig. 1. The coffee plant.

The plant, which apparently originated in modern day Ethiopia is described like this:

Coffee is an important plantation crop belonging to the family Rubiaceae, subfamily Cinchonoideae and tribe Coffeae (Clifford et al., 1989). The Rubiaceae members are largely tropical or subtropical comprising nearly 400 genera and 4800–5000 species. Botanically, coffee belongs to the genus Coffea of the family Rubiaceae. The sub-genus Coffea is reported to comprise over 80 species, which are prevalent in Africa and Madagascar (Bridson and Verdcourt, 1988). Coffee is a perennial plant and evergreen in nature (Fig. 1). It has a prominent vertical stem with shallow root system, the feeder roots of arabica coffee penetrate relatively deeper into the soil whereas robusta has feeder roots concentrated very close to the soil surface.

Coffee leaves are opposite decussate on suckers. The leaves appear shiny, wavy, and dark green in color with conspicuous veins. The inflorescence is a condensed cymose type subtended by bracts. Coffee is a short day plant and hence the floral initiation takes place in short day conditions of 8–11 h of day light. Pollination takes place within 6 h after flowering (Fig. 2). Arabica coffee is autogamous with different degrees of natural cross-pollination in contrast to Robusta coffee, which is strictly allogamous with an inbuilt ametophytic system of self-compatibility. The process of fertilization is completed within 24–48 h after pollination. Seeds are elliptical or egg shaped and the seed coat is represented by the silver skin which is also made up of scleroides. The size, thickness or number of pits in the walls of scleroides is considered as important taxonomic characters in differentiating between species. Germination takes place in about 45 days.

Coffee in bloom:



The caption:

Fig. 2. Coffee flowers blossomed in the estate.

Coffee pulping:



The caption:

Fig. 3. Coffee pulping using pulper in wet processing of coffee.

Coffee drying:

Fig. 4. Coffee drying in the drying yards after wet processing.

Coffee roasting:



The caption:

Fig. 5. Coffee roasting to obtain volatiles.

A diagram of the coffee "cherry" as obtained from the plant as a fruit:

Fig. 6. Cross-section of the coffee cherry.

A schematic of the coffee process with some byproducts:



The caption:

Fig. 7. (a) Sketch of the production of various by-products from coffee industry. (b) Coffee by-products obtained during coffee processing.

I think it's a good idea to appreciate whence our "stuff" comes.

Pretty cool, I think.

[paleotn]

1. My coffee choir every morning isn't nearly that complex.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong?....oh, what....thaaaat kind of making coffee. Sorry.

Actually, it is a very interesting process. Thanks!

[niyad]

2. Thank you so much for this.

[indigoth]

3. I've been

I’ve been trying to grow my own coffee plants for years. Unfortunately, I have a brown thumb. Sooner or later, I’ll manage it.

[hlthe2b]

4. Fascinating-almost makes me feel guilty that I expend only a couple of minutes brewing via pour-over

BTW, I look back at all those coffee makers I've owned over the years and am really amazed that the most simple (inexpensive) method has turned out to be the best of any of them (with the exception of espresso drinks for which I still use a machine).

[UpInArms]

5. Made me think about the movie

Out of Africa

[drmeow]

6. My grandfather

was a coffee bean broker in Colombia in the 30's, 40's, and 50's. He bought coffee beans from Colombian coffee bean growers and sold them to coffee manufacturers in the US.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. "second largest consumer product" ... oh, they mean in $$$.

Starbucks gets much of the credit for that.

[NNadir]

8. Maybe. It would still be surprising, give commodities like corn and wheat.