Coffee Time

Manono showed us how to pick the coffee, then let us loose amongst the coffee trees. After picking for hours and hours (really only about an hour and a half), she showed us how to process what we had picked, up to the drying stage.

 One positions the bucket under the branch being picked, so the beans can "fall" into the bucket as you separate them from the branch. Less arm movement! The beans picked should be red (called cherry), or have some red in the color. No green or very dark colored ones. We also had a small pole with a hook on the end to pull the higher branches down if necessary.

 After picking, the beans are placed in the black container and covered with water. The beans that float are the least flavorful and are removed to the white bucket for processing separately. We picked 15 pounds of beans. About 7-8 pounds of cherries makes 1 pound of Kona coffee.

 The machine that removes the beans from the outer shell.

 Kirsty pouring the beans into the hopper.

The beans (and some of the shells) go down the chute and the beans fall through the mesh into the bucket below. Any shells left on the mesh go back into the hopper for another run through.

The shells under the separator.

I'm emptying the beans from the separator into a bucket with holes in the bottom so the water can drain.  The beans are then dumped into the white bucket so Kirsty can rinse them.

After rinsing, the beans are spread out onto a drying screen to dry for a few days. Approximately 4000 beans per pound of roasted coffee, so lets count 1, 2, 3, 4. . .
Stay tuned.

Peace my friends!