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| Life cycle of Cup of Coffee |
How many people does it take to makea cup of coffee?
For many of us, all it takes is a shortwalk and a quick pour.
But this simple staple is the resultof a globe-spanning processwhose cost and complexity are far greaterthan you might imagine.
It begins in a place like the remoteColombian town of Pitalito.
Here, family farms have clear cutlocal forests to make roomfor neat rows of Coffea trees.
These shrub-like plantswere first domesticated in Ethiopiaand are now cultivated throughoutequatorial regions.
Each shrub is filled with small berriescalled "coffee cherries."
Since fruits on the same branchcan ripen at different times,they’re best picked by hand,but each farm has its own methodfor processing the fruit.
In Pitalito, harvesters toilfrom dawn to dusk at high altitudes,often picking over 25 kilograms per shiftfor very low wages.
The workers deliver their picked cherriesto the wet mill.
This machine separates the seedsfrom the fruit,
and then sorts them by density.
The heaviest, most flavorful seedssink to the bottom of the mill,where they’re collectedand taken to ferment
in a tub of water for one or two days.
Then, workers wash off the remaining fruitand put the seeds out to dry.
Some farms use machines for this process,but in Pitalito, seeds are spreadonto large mesh racks.
Over the next three weeks,workers rake the seeds regularlyto ensure they dry evenly.
Once the coffee beans are dry,a truck takes them to a nearby millwith several specialized machines.
An air blower re-sorts the seedsby density,
an assortment of sieves filterthem by size,
and an optical scanner sorts by color.
At this point, professionals calledQ-graders select samplesof beans to roast and brew.
In a process called "cupping,"
they evaluate the coffee’s taste, aroma,and mouthfeel to determine its quality.
These experts give the beans a grade,and get them ready to ship.
Workers load burlap sackscontaining up to 70 kilogramsof dried and sorted coffee beansonto steel shipping containers,each able to carry
up to 21 metric tons of coffee.
From tropical ports, cargo shipscrewed by over 25 peopletransport coffee around the worldBut no country imports more coffeethan the United States,with New York City alone consumingmillions of cups every day.
After the long journeyfrom Colombia to New Jersey,our coffee beans pass through customs.
Once dockworkers unload the container,a fleet of eighteen-wheelers transportthe coffee to a nearby warehouse,and then to a roastery.
Here the beans go into a roasting machine,stirred by a metallic armand heated by a gas-powered fire.
Nearby sensors monitor the coffee’smoisture level, chemical stability,and temperature, while trained coffeeengineers manually adjust these levelsthroughout the twelve-minuteroasting cycle.
This process releases oil within the seed,transforming the seeds into grindable,brewable beans
with a dark brown color and rich aroma.
After roasting, workers pack the beansinto five-pound bags,
which a fleet of vans deliver to cafesand stores across the city.
The coffee is now so closeyou can smell it,
but it needs more helpfor the final stretch.
Each coffee company has a head buyerwho carefully selects beansfrom all over the world.
Logistics teams managebean delivery routes,
and brave baristas across the cityserve this caffeinated elixirto scores of hurried customers.
All in all, it takes hundreds of peopleto get coffee to its intended destination—and that’s not counting everyonemaintaining the infrastructurethat makes the journey possible.
Many of these individuals workfor low pay in dangerous conditions—and some aren’t paid at all.
So while we might marvel at the globalnetwork behind this commodity,let’s make sure we don’t valuethe final product
more than the people who make it.
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