Today we select and roast samples of rich coffee for our allies | Business Activity

Hello friends of the Business Activity community, we are very happy because this is our first post in the community and our second post on steemit. Today we want to write you a little about the small-scale activity that we were developing yesterday and today, as we were selecting and roasting samples of one of our most exclusive coffees, from the 2020-2021 harvest, for our ally Barista Academy who will be there using in tastings and practices in their next courses.

As we mentioned in our previous publication, the Hacienda 4D brand produces on the farm coffee beans and cocoa as raw materials for the industry, in the case of coffee, we give added value to the beans by offering roasted and ground coffee for the final consumer, In other words, we carry out artisanal or à la carte roasts, according to the protocols established by the Specialty Coffee Association to the best beans of each harvest, this for exclusive clients who value the quality and the arduous effort of all the people who work on the farm at the same time. throughout the year, both in agronomic activities, such as harvesting, benefit processes and those in charge of making the selection, roasting, grinding and packaging processes.

Traceability in the case of coffee has been like the identification card of the beans we are using, we know that it is a more complex concept, but we define it this way so that it can be easily understood by the reader. Previously, drinking coffee was done only by receiving the effects of caffeine in the consumer's body, regardless of who, how and when the beans were grown, benefited or stored. Currently with specialty coffees, consumer curiosity has been stimulated, informing them who grows the coffee, what variety it is, at what height, place of origin, method of benefit of the beans, drying method, roasting profile, among other aspects. .

In this case we will be roasting a coffee from our Hacienda 4D farm, from Bourbon variety coffee plants, grown in a batch 1300 meters above sea level, in the upper area of ​​Bergantin Edo. Anzoategui in Venezuela, with a wet beneficiation process, washing and drying in African beds to guarantee the quality of each process. We have called the beans from this batch as Bourbon Washed.

Before taking our green coffee beans or threshed coffee, as it is also known, we always make a previous selection, manually and very meticulously, to eliminate beans that present problems and that will surely alter the flavors and quality of the final drink . This selection is not carried out empirically, but rather that each person in charge of making the selection is trained and experienced applying the green bean selection protocols developed by the Specialty Coffee Association.

If we do not make this selection, when the barista prepares a cup of coffee with those beans, it will surely have unpleasant flavors, such as earthy, phenolic, wood flavors, among others. Also in the case of leaving grains with defects that have been caused by insect attack, they may have been contaminated with mycotoxins that affect the health of the consumer. Another type of problem that can arise in the case of not making the selection prior to roasting, is that we can get foreign materials such as stones, remains of sticks, metals, etc. that can damage our mills and add physical contamination to the final drink.

After manual selection, we can see in the image how we manage to separate beans that have a different appearance to what we know as a coffee bean and elsewhere the high quality beans ready to take to our sample roaster machine and from which we will be writing below.

Once we have our selected coffee, clean of defects, we proceed to weigh each batch, which for this roasting machine will be 500gr, remember that this is our sample roaster, which we use to roast and evaluate lots of coffee, develop the roasting curve and then roasting to a larger machine with a larger quantity of coffee per batch, such as 100 kg or 2 Quintales as the unit of measure used in coffee growing is known, for a sack of coffee 46kg.

For those who do not know, coffee roasting is a heat treatment to which the beans are subjected to develop the characteristic brown color, which we all already know, and the respective aromas and unique flavors of each bean. All this occurs by reactions and chemical processes that begin when the grains are subjected to certain temperatures for a defined time. Reactions such as Maillard and caramelization are worth mentioning.

Each batch will be inside the toaster machine for approximately 15 minutes, it is a fabulous experience to perceive the different fragrances that are released from the beans as the roasting time progresses, fragrances that go from vegetable, herbal, passing through fruity to bananas and then change to nuts such as peanuts, then to baked bread until it reaches a point where fragrances such as candies, chocolates, vanilla among others are balanced.

Finally and after a long work, we obtain our roasted beans, which when they reach the desired profile or color, are emptied into a cooler container to go from approximately 220 ° C to room temperature, which in our city, would be about 28 ° C depending on the time of day. Then they will be stored in a container that has a degassing valve, so that it can continue to give off the gases created during roasting and a few hours later they are ready to start grinding according to the desired extraction method and congratulations! To prepare and taste the first cups of coffee.

Let's hope that the participants of the next Barista course at the Coffee Academy @baristaacademy will be delighted with the cups of delicious coffee that they will prepare with these exclusive beans from Hacienda 4D Coffees. We also hope that this publication has been to your liking and you can follow our account to learn a little more about each of the processes we do, to offer you a fabulous energy drink full of many aromas and flavors, thank you very much and remember to leave your comment.

We take this opportunity to send a greeting to: @steemcoffeeshop @arie.steem @oscarcc89

And the friend of the house @cindycam who motivated us to participate in Steemit, thank you!.