Thread by @LesDaChef

All about coffee. What, how, why. A thread. P.s. This is from personal knowledge and what I've been trained on, I'm no barista #LesFoodFacts

Ok, let's start at the beginning. The history (its important coz it will help explain how unfair the global coffee trade has been).

There is a legend that coffee was first consumed and brewed in Ethiopia. In a region called Kaffa. Others claim it was discovered by Arabs in Yemen

No matter the history, everyone agrees coffee originally comes from the horn of Africa and up through to the middle east. Through trading and merchants it made its way to Europe. The Europeans called it "that Muslim drink" until the Pope said it was safe for Christians to drink.

You get a few different breeds of coffee plants but the most well known and consumed are C. Arabica and C. Robusta. A coffee shrub has to be 4yrs old before it starts producing fruit. Only the red cherries are picked. #LesFoodFacts

The coffee cherries traditionally are picked by hand although in Brazil, where a lot of the Amazon has been removed to grow coffee, they now use machines. Cherry pickers only pick the most ripe fruit from the tree. #LesFoodFacts

The cherries are dried. Traditionally it was done out in the sun but some have adopted the methods used in processing cocoa beans, where they ferment and remove the outside fleshy layer through a wet fermentation. The old method makes the best coffee, some claim #LesFoodFacts

After the drying or fermentation, the outside fleshy layers of the cherry are removed by further drying and polishing the beans. You're left with "green beans". The term green coffee refers to unroasted coffee beans. #LesFoodFacts

That's how coffee is exported. As green beans. Brazil is now the world's biggest exporter of coffee, it makes 35% of the world's beans. C. Arabica is considered the best quality on the mass market. It grows best in the horn of Africa (Kenyan and Ethiopian coffee is top stuff)

It's why you have airlines and businesses boasting that they serve Arabica coffee. It's seen as the best around. C. Robusta is native to west and central Africa. Coffee shrubs, like cocoa trees, prefer tropical climates. Hence colonisers fighting for that territory #LesFoodFacts

Ok, onto the part that gives coffee it's distinct taste. The roasting. If you buy coffee beans you'll see that the beans are graded according to how they were roasted. The longer the roast, the stronger the coffee. #LesFoodFacts

You can buy green beans and roast them yourself, you need a thermometer if you wanna do it properly but most old schoolers just roast them on a braai or in their ovens. I'm not a fan of self-roasted beans #LesFoodFacts

Most people just buy roasted beans. The problem though is once coffee beans are roasted they immediately start losing potency and flavour. It's why you shouldn't buy roasted coffee beans in bulk #LesFoodFacts

If you buy whole roasted coffee beans you'll need a coffee grinder or a coffee machine that has a grinder installed in it. Coincidentally @BoschHomeSA has a whole range of them 😉. If you don't want to grind beans then we move onto the contentious subject of instant coffee...

Oh, before tackling instant coffee there is also the ground coffee segment. You buy roasted (and these days flavoured) ground coffee and just scoop it into your coffee pot or plunger. Similar to beans, you don't want to buy ground coffee in bulk. #LesFoodFacts

You also don't want to use really hot water for plunger coffee. You should also let your coffee steep for a few minutes. Go onto YouTube and search for the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Temperature control is key with tasty coffee #LesFoodFacts

*takes a deep breath*

Instant coffee. Here we go....

So coffee and cocoa have the same issues. They grow in specific climates, they're popular globally and the annual harvest is limited. So the good stuff is expensive. So just like candy bars vs real chocolate, manufacturers came up with a similar alternative w.r.t. coffee.

By boiling and brewing ground coffee, sifting and straining it and then freeze drying the coffee syrup, food scientists discovered they could make soluble coffee granules. Hence instant coffee was born #LesFoodFacts

Instant coffee was invented in New Zealand nearly 130yrs ago. It was then perfected in America. What is instant coffee? I'm referring to Jacobs, Nescafe, Illy, House of Coffees etc. NOT Ricoffy, Koffiehuis etc. #LesFoodFacts

Ok, onto Chicory. The word "chicory" refers to the chicory plant as a whole but on coffee it's specifically referring to the root. It is baked, roasted & ground into a powder. It tastes similar to coffee but is a lot cheaper & contains no caffeine #LesFoodFacts

To make coffee even more cheaper (despite instant coffee bringing the price of coffee down, it's still not cheap) manufacturers decided to start adding things to instant coffee to bulk it up and also reduce the price as much as possible #LesFoodFacts

I'm sure most of you recognise that label. 😉
Also note, ingredients on food in SA are written from the highest ingredient to the smallest. #LesFoodFacts

By law those chicory coffees can't call themselves coffee (they have to state on the packaging that they're mostly chicory) but few make noise about it, for obvious reasons. #LesFoodFacts

Decaffeinated coffee is made the same way instant coffee is made but there's an extra step added where the caffeine is removed. Decaf coffee still has some trace amounts of caffeine in it, it isn't caffeine-free #LesFoodFacts

Good quality coffee doesn't need sugar or milk but if you're someone who likes their coffee looking interesting, here's an explanation of some of the popular types. #LesFoodFacts

The base of the majority of Coffees is an espresso. An espresso is made by a machine pressurising hot water through ground coffee beans. It is a method invented in Italy. #LesFoodFacts

Latte means milk. So if there's the word latte anywhere near the name, then your coffee will have milk. I make this point coz I've seen lactose people asking for lattes 😓 #LesFoodFacts

This is a simplified thread on the topic. It's obviously a lot more intense and deep discussion, especially when you start talking about the finances behind coffee and who really makes the money from it.