Growing Coffee
In this passage, Lynn, a reporter, goes to a coffee farm in Guatemala to interview a farmer, Javier, about growing coffee.
Lynn: Most people do not know how coffee grows. They only know they drink a cup of it to wake up in the morning. But there must be more to it than that! Can you describe a coffee plant for us?
Javier: Coffee comes from a berry that grows on trees. Coffee trees have dark green leaves and bright red berries, called coffee cherries. The coffee beans people buy are actually not beans at all. They are the seeds inside these cherries.
Lynn: How long does it take for the cherries to get ripe?
Javier: It takes six to nine months. During the harvest, we hire lots of workers to pick the cherries. Then we sell them to a factory in town to be processed.
Lynn: And how does the factory process the cherries?
Javier: After the cherries are picked, they must be dried for several days. Once they are dried, it is possible to pick off the outer skin and pull out the two seeds inside each cherry.
Lynn: Are the seeds ready to be made into a cup of coffee at this point?
Javier: Not yet. At this point, it is called green coffee. Our green coffee is shipped to companies all around the world. Each company roasts the seeds just before selling them to make sure they are as fresh as possible. Once roasted, the seeds turn dark brown or black. These are the coffee beans you buy at the store.
Lynn: And once the beans have been roasted, people can grind them up and brew a cup of coffee with them, right?
Javier: That’s right. By the time you have a sip of coffee, many hands have touched those coffee beans.
Sources:
“Ten Steps to Coffee: From the Seed to the Cup.” National Coffee Association USA. Web. 4 Nov. 2012.