Ever wondered how coffee is made?

I had a chance to visit a cooperative of small coffee farmers in the area of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, a famous region known for their high altitude Arabica coffee. It was interesting to learn about the process from harvesting the coffee fruit to your morning cup of coffee and what exactly influences the flavour. I also had a chance to snap the photo of a recent harvest below. Here are some facts about making coffee that I learned during the tour:

1. Coffee fruit here in Guatemala is harvested once a year, around February / March
2. Arabica coffee that they grow here needs 60% sun and 40% shade, that is why they plant avocado, banana and other trees around the coffee plants to protect them from the sun
3. In short, here is the process for making coffee, but actually it is a bit more complicated than that and I skipped some smaller steps:
   • harvest the fruit
   • separate the first class fruit (the big juicy dark red ones on the pic) from the second class (green, small, dry ones)
   • peel off the skin of the fruit and extract the beans, two in each fruit
   • ferment the beans
   • dry the beans on the sun
   • remove a thin layer of shell from the beans once they've been dried.
4. This is when the coffee is ready to be sold on the international market. It is not sold roasted, because roasted coffee beans last much less - 4 months as opposed to 3 years for dried coffee beans.
5. Coffee beans is a commodity, e.g. just like oil and the prices depend on the global market forces of supply and demand. Every week a farmer brings his coffee fruit harvest the price will be different.
6. There are different levels (light, medium and heavy) and different ways to roast the coffee all of which will influence the flavour.

Do you know any cool facts about coffee? Drop them in the comments!