All About Coffee Part 49

The last step in the preparation process is called hulling or peeling, both words accurately describing the purpose of the operation. Some husking machines for hulling or peeling parchment coffee are polishers as well. This work may be done on the plantation or at the port of shipment just before the coffee is shipped abroad. Sometimes the coffee is exported in parchment, and is cleaned in the country of consumption; but practically all coffee entering the United States arrives without its parchment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SMOUT PEELER AND POLISHER, WITH CYLINDER OPEN SHOWING CONE]

Peeling machines, more accurately named hullers, work on the principle of rubbing the beans between a revolving inner cylinder and an outer covering of woven wire. Machines of this type vary in construction. Some have screw-like inner cylinders, or turbines, others having plain cone-shaped cores on which are k.n.o.bs and ribs that rub the beans against one another and the outer sh.e.l.l. Practically all types have sieve or exhaust-fan attachments, which draw the loosened parchment and silver skin into one compartment, while the cleaned beans pa.s.s into another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: KRULL HULLING MACHINE (German)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANDERSON HULLING MACHINE (German)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EUREKA SEPARATOR AND GRADER (American)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARACOLILLO (PEABERRY) SEPARATOR (American)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENGELBERG HULLER AND SEPARATOR (American)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AMERICAN COFFEE HULLER AND POLISHER]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WELL KNOWN AMERICAN AND GERMAN HULLING AND SEPARATING MACHINES]

Polishers of various makes are sometimes used just to remove the silver skin and to give the beans a special polish. Some countries demand a highly polished coffee; and to supply this demand, the beans are sent through another huller having a phosphor-bronze cylinder and cone. Much Guadeloupe coffee is prepared in this way, and is known as _cafe bonifieur_ from the fact that the polishing machine is called in Guadeloupe the _bonifieur_ (improver). It is also called _cafe de luxe_.

Coffee that has not received the extra polish is described as _habitant_; while coffee in the parchment is known as _cafe en parche_.

Extra polished coffee is much in demand in the London, Hamburg, and other European markets. A favorite machine for producing this kind of coffee is the Smout combined peeler and polisher, the invention of Jules Smout, a Swiss. Don Roberto O'Kra.s.sa also has produced a highly satisfactory combined peeler and polisher.

For hulling dry cherry coffee there are several excellent makes of machines. In one style, the hulling takes place between a rotating disk and the casing of the machine. In another, it takes place between a rotary drum covered with a steel plate punched with vertical bulbs, and a chilled iron hulling-plate with pyramidal teeth cast on the plate.

Both are adjustable to different varieties of coffee. In still another type of machine, the hulling takes place between steel ribs on an internal cylinder, and an adjustable knife, or hulling blade, in front of the machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EL MONARCA COFFEE CLa.s.sIFIER]

_Sizing or Grading_

The coffee bean is now clean, the processes described in the foregoing having removed the outer skin, the saccharine pulp, the parchment, and the silver skin. This is the end of the cleaning operations; but there are two more steps to be taken before the coffee is ready for the trade of the world--sizing and hand-sorting. These two operations are of great importance; since on them depends, to a large extent, the price the coffee will bring in the market.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Old rope-drive transmission on Finca Ona.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hydro-electric power plant on Finca Ona.

HYDRO-ELECTRIC INSTALLATION ON A GUATEMALA FINCA]

Sizing, or grading by sizes, is done in modern commercial practise by machines that automatically separate and distribute the different beans according to size and form. In principle, the beans are carried across a series of sieves, each with perforations varying in size from the others; the beans pa.s.sing through the holes of corresponding sizes. The majority of the machines are constructed to separate the beans into five or more grades, the princ.i.p.al grades being triage, third flats, second flats, first flats, and first and second peaberries. Some are designed to handle "elephant" and "mother" sizes. The grades have local nomenclature in the various countries.

After grading, the coffee is picked over by hand to remove the faulty and discolored beans that it is almost impossible to remove thoroughly by machine. The higher grades of coffee are often double-picked; that is, picked over twice. When this is done on a large scale, the beans are generally placed on a belt, or platform, that moves at a regulated speed before a line of women and children, who pick out the undesirable beans as they pa.s.s on the moving belt. There are small machines of this type built for one person, who operates the belt mechanism by means of a treadle.

_Preparation in the Leading Countries_

The foregoing description tells in general terms the story of the most approved methods of harvesting, sh.e.l.ling, and cleaning the coffee beans.

The following paragraphs will describe those features of the processes that are peculiar to the more important large producing countries and that differ in details or in essentials from the methods just outlined.

_In the Western Hemisphere_

BRAZIL. The operation of some of the large plantations in Brazil, a number of which have more than a million trees, requires a large number and a great variety of preparation machines and equipment. Generally considered, the State of So Paulo is better equipped with approved machinery than any other commercial district in the world.

In Brazil, coffee plantations are known as _fazendas_, and the proprietors as _fazendeiros_, terms that are the equivalent of "landed estates" and "landed proprietors." Practically every _fazenda_ in Brazil of any considerable commercial importance is equipped with the most modern of coffee-cleaning equipment. Some of the larger ones in the state of So Paulo, like the Dumont and the Schmidt estates, are provided with private railways connecting the _fazendas_ with the main railroad line some miles away, and also have miniature railway systems running through the _fazendas_ to move the coffee from one harvesting and cleaning operation to another. The coffee is carried in small cars that are either pushed by a laborer or are drawn by horse or mule.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PICKING COFFEE ON A WELL KEPT FAZENDA]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MANAGER'S RESIDENCE ON ONE OF THE BIG SO PAULO FAZENDAS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photographs by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.

DRYING GROUNDS ON A MODERN ESTATE IN RIBEIRAO PRETO]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAKING BRAZIL COFFEE READY TO MARKET]

Some of the larger _fazendas_ cover thousands of acres, and have several millions of trees, giving the impression of an unending forest stretching far away into the horizon. Here and there are openings in which buildings appear, the largest group of structures usually consisting of those making up the _cafezale_, or cleaning plant. Nearby, stand the handsome "palaces" of the _fazendeiros_; but not so close that the coffee princes and their households will be disturbed by the almost constant rumble of machinery and the voices of the workers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright by Brown & Dawson.

WORKING COFFEE ON DRYING FLATS, SO PAULO]

Brazilian _fazendeiros_ follow the methods described in the foregoing in preparing their coffee for market, using the most modern of the equipment detailed under the story of the wet method of preparation. On most of the _fazendas_ the machinery is operated by steam or electricity, the latter coming more and more into use each year in all parts of the coffee-growing region.

In some districts, however, far in the interior, there are still to be found small plantations where primitive methods of cleaning are even now practised. Producing but a small quant.i.ty of coffee, possibly for only local use, the cherries may be freed of their parchment by macerating the husks by hand labor in a large mortar. On still another plantation, the old-time bucket-and-beam crusher perhaps may be in use.

This consists of a beam pivoted on an upright upon which it moves freely up and down. On one end of the beam is an open bucket; and on the other, a heavy stone. Water runs into the bucket until its weight causes the stone end of the beam to rise. When the bucket reaches the ground, the water is emptied, and the stone crashes down on the coffee cherries lying in a large mortar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FERMENTING AND WASHING TANKS ON A SO PAULO FAZENDA]

The workers on some of the largest Brazilian _fazendas_ would const.i.tute the population of a small city--more than a thousand families often finding continuous employment in cultivating, harvesting, cleaning, and transporting the coffee to market. For the most part, the workers are of Italian extraction, who have almost altogether superseded the Indian and Negro laborers of the early days. The workers live on the _fazendas_ in quarters provided by the _fazendeiros_, and are paid a weekly or monthly wage for their services; or they may enter upon a year's contract to cultivate the trees, receiving extra pay for picking and other work.

Brazil in the past has experimented with the slave system, with government colonization, with co-operative planting, with the harvesting system, and with the share system. And some features of all these plans--except slavery, which was abolished in 1888--are still employed in various parts of the country, although the wage system predominates.

[Ill.u.s.tration: By Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.

DRYING GROUNDS ON FAZENDA SCHMIDT, THE LARGEST IN BRAZIL]

Brazil has six gradings for its So Paulo coffees, which are also cla.s.sified as Bourbon Santos, Flat Bean Santos, and Mocha-seed Santos.

Rio coffees are graded by the number of imperfections for New York, and as washed and unwashed for Havre. (See chapter XXIV.)

COLOMBIA. Practically all the countries of the western hemisphere producing coffee in large quant.i.ties for export trade use the cleaning-and-grading machines specified in the first part of this chapter; and the installation of the equipment is increasing as its advantages become better known.

In Colombia, now (1922), next to Brazil the world's largest producer, the wet method of preparing the coffee for market is most generally followed, the drying processes often being a combination of sun and drying machines. Many plantations have their own hulling equipment; but much of the crop goes in the cherry to local commercial centers where there are establishments that make a specialty of cleaning and grading the coffee.

The Colombia coffee crop is gathered twice a year, the princ.i.p.al one in March and April and the smaller one in November and December, although some picking is done throughout the year. For this labor native Indian and negro women are preferred, as they are more rapid, skilful, and careful in handling the trees. Contrary to the method in Brazil, where the tree at one handling is stripped of its entire bearings, ripe and unripe fruit, here only the fully ripened fruit is picked. That necessitates going over the ground several times, as the berries progressively ripen. More time is consumed in this laborious operation, but it is believed that thereby a better crop of more uniform grade is obtained and in the aggregate with less waste of time and effort.

Colombian planters cla.s.sify their coffees as _cafe trillado_ (natural or sun-dried), _cafe lavado_ (washed), _cafe en pergamino_ (washed and dried in the parchment). They grade them as _excelso_ (excellent), _fantasia_ (_excelso_ and _extra_), _extra_ (extra), _primera_, (first), _segundo_ (second), _caracol_ (peaberry), _monstruo_ (large and deformed), _consumo_ (defective), and _casilla_ (siftings).