Fretboard Coffee
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Berry to Cup
There is an old African legend about a goat herder named Kaldi who lived in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia. One night he awoke to find his goats dancing joyously around a green bush, whose berries were bright red. Kaldi thought that these red berries might have had something to do with his goats' strange behavior, so he picked a few and tried them. Before long, he felt elated and revived. The story goes that he filled his pockets with the strange red berries and brought them to the monks for counsel. The moks thought the berries might be "devil's work" and threw them on the fire. Within minutes, the heavenly scent of roasting coffee filled the monastery, The monks gathered round to see what this smell was, and they scraped the coffee embers from the fire. The monks then put the crushed and charred grains in pitcher with hot water. At that moment, they vowed that from then on, they would drink this rich brew during their late night meditations.
While this tale tries to condense the discovery of the coffee cherries and their use as a beverage into one story, it is believed that monks throughout Ethiopia chewed the coffee cherries for centuries before they were ever roasted or used in a beverage.
So what is coffee? Coffee comes from the berries of the coffee plant. These berries are sometimes referred to as cherries, and contain seeds or grains. So coffee beans are actually not beans at all, but seeds. The coffee berries are harvested and then processed roasted to remove the seed from the berry. This can be achieved through two different processes called Dry Processing and Wet Processing. More on Coffee Seed processing (Dry and Wet) can be found here.
Once the coffee beans have been extracted from the cherries, they are shipped all over the world for roasting and consumption.
Properly processed dried green coffee beans will last for a number of years if kept in the proper conditions. Green coffee beans are roasted to a variety of of roast levels, ground, and then brewed to create various coffee-based beverages like coffee, espresso, cappuccino, and lattes.
More Coffee Info Coming Soon!
