Types of coffee beans Types of coffee beans Small trees of the madder family grow abundantly in the Colombian mountains under the watchful eye of farmers. Barely reaching heights of twenty feet at maturity, the trees simultaneously produce fragrant white flowers and clusters of crimson red cherries. And nestled within the flesh of those cherries are the seeds that fill close to ten million Colombian coffee sacks per year many which find their way into nearly every American household. Coffee available to American consumers comes from the four corners of the globe including Sumatra, Arabia and India, but Brazil and Colombia remain the two largest suppliers. Regardless of coffee s origins, all beans go through a similar process in preparation for brewing.
Coffee trees reach maturity between three and four years when their clusters of fruit turn deep red.
Farmers pluck the ripe cherries by hand and transport the full baskets by mule or truck to the processing plant. Since the coffee bean is the seed inside the sweet cherries, the fruit is forced through a manual machine to extract the seeds. While the pulp is salvaged for use as fertilizer, the seeds or coffee beans are soaked in cool water to stimulate a fermentation process. Next the beans are spread over mats to dry in the open sun. Rotten or disfigured beans are removed so only the highest quality coffee beans remain.