How We Are Fed: A Geographical Reader

by James Franklin Chamberlain

The picking is but a small part of the work of preparing coffee for the market. The first operation is removing the pulp. This used to be done by tramping on the berries, but now it is done in a better way.

The berries are thrown into a large tank filled with water, which carries them through a pipe to the pulping machine. This machine removes the pulp and separates the beans.

Next the beans are carried to a second tank, where they remain for about twenty-four hours, to wash off a sticky substance which covers the shell of the bean.

If you have ever put beans or peas into a basin of water, you have noticed that nearly all of them sink, while a few float. These latter are the poor ones. This is the way in which the good and bad coffee beans are separated. A pipe carries off the seeds that float on the surface of the water.

The beans are dried on cement floors upon which they are spread. This drying takes a long time. Before sunset each day the coffee must be carried under shelter, for the dew injures it. While they are drying, the workmen stir them. Sometimes artificial heat is used, but this is expensive. Juan's father has a watchman whose duty it is to guard the coffee at night, for it is very valuable.

Each bean is covered by a strong shell, or hull, which has to be removed. The soaking has loosened this, and so it comes off easier than it otherwise would. Juan and Lupe often watch the wheels of the huller as they turn, moved by patient oxen.

There are two wheels set upright over a circular box, into which the coffee is put. As it passes between the wheels and the bottom of the box, the hulls are removed. Underneath the hull is a thin skin, which is also taken off.

In some countries people want the coffee dyed or colored. A bluish color is given to it by coating the wheels of the hulling machine with lead.

The hulls are separated from the beans in a winnowing machine, and the coffee is then sorted. Often this is done by hand. The beans are spread out on a table, and girls and boys, and sometimes grown persons, sort it into several grades.