A coffee bean is the seed of a cherry. Before it can be roasted, the fruit has to come off and the seed has to dry, down to about 11% moisture. How a farm does that is called processing, and it changes the cup as much as the variety or the roast does. It's why two coffees from the same farm can taste like different drinks. Washed In the washed process, the skin and most of the … [Read more...] about Washed, Natural or Honey Coffee: How Processing Sets Acidity and Body Before the Roaster Starts
Ethiopia
Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony: Green Beans Roasted at the Table and Three Rounds of Buna
In Ethiopia, coffee isn't something you grab on the way out. It's an event. The coffee ceremony, jebena buna, starts with raw green beans and ends, an hour or more later, with a third cup nobody is meant to skip. It happens in homes every day, and it's how guests are welcomed. There's a saying for how central it is: buna dabo naw, "coffee is our bread." Buna is Amharic for … [Read more...] about Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony: Green Beans Roasted at the Table and Three Rounds of Buna