Process, Process, Process
The intention of this piece is not to compare the world of alcohol with coffee and make out that coffee is far more complex and deserves more respect. Each respective world is full of incredibly passionate and talented producers, whose produce has kept us caffeinated and inebriated for many a year now, putting a smile on our faces when we didn’t think we could and consoling us when necessary. If anything this is a celebration of difference and those who make it possible for us to consume such beautiful creations every damn day.
I’m sitting on the sofa after finishing my sausage and mash, a meal I have at least 3 times a week for it’s comforting stodginess and being able to slap it together in my tired and delirious state. In my hand is a beer, what beer depends entirely on what caught my eye in the fridge, more than likely something no more than 5% ABV and something I can smash down with relative ease; it really is the simple things these days.
It’s been on my mind these past months that the beer (or wine) I consume on these evenings is the finished article; ready for the consumer to enjoy. The journey can be simplified as such:
CROP - HARVEST - PROCESS (BREWING) - PACKAGING - TRANSPORTATION - CONSUMPTION
I realise this is a simplified version of the process, down to its core component parts and appreciate the centuries of trial and error that have happened, providing us with (let’s be honest) incredibly consistent and delicious beer, wine and everything in between.
The point to be taken from this is that you and I, the consumer, do not have to do a single thing to the beverage we’ve chosen apart from opening it up and getting it down our gullet. For me that is part of the joy in its consumption, no effort required whatsoever. The same goes for ordering and consuming within a licensed premises, thanks to the skilled and hard working individuals curating the drinks menu and then serving it, the work has been done and your chosen beverage is ready.
The same cannot be said for coffee.
Before we can order our favourite cup of caffeinated deliciousness at the cafe or prepare it ourselves at home, a vast array of processes must occur, stretching across the globe, touching many many hands, and requiring immense attention to detail. Even before you can sit down in the morning with your wake up juice, it still needs to be brewed. Up until the point that coffee is in your hand and cooling to a drinkable temperature, it is not ready for consumption, the ‘process’ of coffee is still happening. I hope I’m not the only one who finds this utterly fascinating.
The journey of coffee can be described as such:
CROP - HARVEST - PROCESS - TRANSPORTATION (across the globe) - ROASTING - TRANSPORTATION - BREWING - CONSUMPTION
Whereas beer and wine production is undertaken by the producer or a brand, coffee is processed by the farmer (some of the time) before travelling to the roaster to be roasted and then to the cafe or our homes to be brewed. Three processes before we can have our seemingly simple cup of coffee, two of which the vast majority of consumers know little to nothing about at all.
I would bet a reasonable sum of money on the majority of consumers knowing the plants that provide us with the crops of beer and wine, but I’d bet a damn sight more money on the majority of consumers not knowing that coffee is in fact the seed of a cherry-like tree. I’d be delighted to be wrong here, but somehow I think I’ll be cashing in.
Coffee is harvested when the cherries are at their most ripe, a task completed by hand for the majority of the world's speciality coffee. Cherries are then processed (fermented) either at the farm within which they were harvested or transported to a community processing station, though this is more common in African producing countries. The harvesting, processing and transport to the dock is completed and the coffee is moved to the dock where it is loaded onto a container before making its way across the globe to the destination port, in our case London.
If you were to get your hands on coffee at the point at which it entered the country you’d be greeted by a large sack of pale green, odourless and tasteless seeds, which you can do absolutely nothing with.
Enter the coffee roastery, a place and process largely unknown to the majority of consumers. The important role it plays in creating something tasty for us to wake up to is something the general public knows little about. This is where someone like myself comes in. My role at Hard Lines is sourcing and roasting coffees, a continuous process that changes with the seasons and especially more recently changes month by month.
Simply put, roasting is the application of heat to drive off moisture and encourage the process of the Maillard reaction to take place, a chemical reaction occurring between 140-165 degrees centigrade, resulting in the flavour and colour of coffee as we know it. (If you don’t love it, then I’m honestly surprised you’ve managed to get this far, well done, we’re nearly there.) After roasting the coffee is now required to rest at least a week, during which time gases that were produced during roasting are released and, it is thought, the coffee can ‘open up’ before being brewed. A widely debated topic amongst the roasting community
After the roastery team has done their part in roasting and packaging the coffee it is ready for its final leg of transportation to either the cafe or the home consumer where it awaits its final process - brewing! So after all of the effort, skill and resources we are yet to have our coffee, which is when we call on the skills of the humble barista. Having been a barista for 5 years before getting into roasting, I have the utmost respect for the profession, and believe me when I use that word, it is absolutely a profession. I vividly remember the first time in front of a machine with it’s 500 buttons which all do something different from the other and a million ways to burn myself thinking ‘I am never going to get used to this’. Thankfully I did, but not without producing thousands of undrinkable coffees and burning myself many, many times.
So you’ve ordered your drink and got comfortable, soaking up the chatter and noise that fills the cafe; the clink of crockery, purge of the steam wand and hammering of the portafilter on the tamp tube. The barista uses their vast experience to almost effortlessly pull a well extracted espresso and steam milk to the perfect texture, combining them to create something totally unique, which is then brought to you to finally enjoy. In total the approximate journey time from tree to cup is nigh on a year, to produce something we gulp down in minutes before beginning our day. Crazy when you think about it. Then again the same treatment is given to our alcoholic delights later in the day; opened, poured and dispatched in a matter of minutes, maybe an hour if we’re taking it slow. All that time spent in the making to be gone so quickly, there’s something upsetting in that for me. Yet again, I digress.
There is one thing that jumps out at me at this point, which is why then, given the extra processes and labour involved with producing our coffee, is it so cheap? Why can you sit in a London cafe and drink an espresso for less than £3, but the beer or wine you’ll consume later on will in all likelihood cost you three times as much? It can’t be purely down to alcohol content, can it? Something to be explored another time, and I’m sure with a greater number of factors to consider than this, but something for us to ponder all the same.
If all you take from this is a slightly better understanding of the breadth of processes involved with producing your coffee then I shall be fulfilled. It is my hope that we can all show just a smidge more appreciation for the hundreds of interactions that must take place, the hours and hours of practice and the immensely undervalued producers of our coffee, without whom we could not consume such tasty brews, and why we must be willing to pay the fair price for it.
