Day 4

Day 4
      Our breakfast today consisted of eggs, beans, tortillas and fruit. We opened some of the fruits we got at the market last night. It was our first time trying cacao beans. We only sucked on the juicy stuff around the cacao beans. We also tried mango but it was oddly stringy. The passionfruit was everyone’s favorite but it we weren’t expecting it to be so grey.
After breakfast, we went to a farmer’s house. We picked up some parchment coffee and walked it over to the mill. We got to put the beans through the machine that removes the parchment, the one that cleans them off more, and the machine that sorts them by size. After that we went back to his house and further sorted out the defective coffee beans. Some were in a shape they call “caracol” with means snail, referring to the shape of a snail’s shell. Others were tiny, too dark, misshapen, holes, or other noticeable blemishes. These beans are not thrown away. They can be used for fertilizer or they most likely get use to make instant coffee. Only the perfectly shaped beans are used for premium coffee.
      Later we went to the cooperative’s roasting facility. We had to clean off all the machines while someone else weighted out 15lbs of coffee. Then the roaster lit one of the two roasting machines – one can handle 15lbs and the other 25lbs. Usually both are used but we had too little coffee to be worth turning both on. He explained to us that everyone in the cooperative has permission use the machines if they have been trained on it. However, the older members prefer to pay someone else to do it because they worry about not being attentive enough and accidentally burning their coffee. It was fascinating to learn about how the different roasts – medium, full city, dark, espresso and French - have very close roasting times. The first one take about 18 minute and to the get to the next ones you add about 20 seconds. It’s a very delicate process but the roaster is not able to tell what roast they are at by their color as he takes out small samples. He also keeps track of how many times the coffee pops. The first pop indicates the coffee is at a medium roast. After roasting the coffee and picking out the occasional green beans we packed them. We filled, weighted, sealed, and labeled a few bags of whole beans. Then we grounded up a few pounds of lower quality coffee – it has many misshapen, irregular-sized beans. Six, 1lbs bags were made and labeled out of that coffee. The rest got put into a plastic bag. Interestingly, when we sealed the bags shut we also had to puncture holes in the bags. This allows the CO2 that’s still being made by the beans to exit. Any coffee that couldn’t make a full 12oz bag was still bagged, labeled and pressed so that they can open it again later and fill it up completely.
      We finished up the day with coffee cupping! It was kind of like wine tasting, but not. We learned how to slurp up coffee in order to truly appreciate its flavor and aroma. While I could tell that each one had unique characteristics I still couldn’t pinpoint how to describe them. I think I’ll stick to wine. We tried tea made from coffee bean husks. It wasn’t our favorite, but it’s a great way to profit off of this part that is usually just returned to the land.
      Tonight we had dinner for the first time with a woman farmer. Her husband used to work in a factory that made coffee sacs but he got hurt and had to stop working there. You could tell that he was very proud of her. She’s found a way to be a mother, wife, and cook. I’m glad she has been able to find this balance, unlike Rigoberta Menchu, who essentially thinks it’s an all or none deal when it comes to being a mother. The author wanted to be a mother but not a wife. She felt she would have been giving in to the patriarchy.
      We also learned from them that the drought and heat are causing the coffee berries to mature fast but not properly. They tend to get the very bright red on the bottom but stay yellow closer to where the stem is attached. We all knew what they meant because we picked many like that yesterday. At first glance they seem to be ready to pick, but they’re not. Also, the bean in these fruits may be odd, too. They may stay green even after toasting and there may only be one bean as opposed to two











      - Mariana Martinez Ugarte

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Boy, a Mountain, a Sarape

Today was one of the coolest days of my life. We woke up and walked to Farmer Gabriel’s house to pick up baskets and hiked to the finca on the mountainside. There we received a brief history of his time in the coffee farming business and then spent about 2 hours picking coffee cherries. It was so simple but it brought me such joy to get the ripe ones from the top of the trees because the short native Guatemalans can’t reach. I did this, of course, while overlooking the town of San Miguel Escobar with the mountains and volcanoes in the distance while talking to my new friends about almost everything. All together, we picked 93 pounds of cherries, and Gabriel and our British translator, Joe, put the strap of the bag around their foreheads with the bag on their back and walked it down the mountain; very impressive. When we finally made it back to Gabriel’s house, we went through each of the steps in coffee preparation; from tree to cup. Finally, we were able to enjoy una taza de café . Af
Read more

Working and shopping

Woke up at 0600 to go to Mass at 0630.   The church was very full.   I liked seeing that there were people of all ages there.   It seems like religion is still very important here.   After Mass I went back to the house, changed, and had breakfast.   A farmer, Gabriel, met us and took us to his house where we picked up baskets and then hiked to the coffee plots in the direction of Volcan de Agua.   We didn’t get to go as far as originally planned, which was kind of a bummer for me because I was enjoying the climb.   Gabriel told us the whole process of growing from seed to harvest.   A coffee plant reaches full production around five years, and has to be periodically pruned after that.   We harvested for about an hour and a half, then went back to Gabriel’s house for lunch.   After lunch we processed the coffee cherries, and Gabriel told us how the seeds would be rinsed and left in bucket to ferment for several hours, then spread out to dry for several days.   When the second hus
Read more

First Aggie Horticulture Experience in Guatemala

Image
This blogs contains a few of the impressions that the first "Service Learning Coffee Origins" Study Abroad course left on the student participants. The course took place in San Miguel Escobar and was conducted in partnership with De La Gente . Scroll down to read more about this incredible experience. The Group at Cerro de la Cruz, overlooking the city of Antigua, Guatemala.
Read more