1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:18,120 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 4 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And just the other 5 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:24,640 Speaker 1: day I did a long episode about the history of 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: lawns and lawn mowers, and I got to dive into 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 1: some medieval history along the way to set up, you know, 8 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:33,519 Speaker 1: why we even have lawns in the first place. And 9 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: today I thought I would do something similar and that 10 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 1: I thought we would explore the technology around coffee. And 11 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:44,920 Speaker 1: you might be thinking, hey, Jonathan, it sounds like you're 12 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:47,880 Speaker 1: just making episodes out of stuff that you can see 13 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,159 Speaker 1: from your chair right there in your home office. And 14 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: to you, I reply, s, don't you worry a little 15 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: hit about that. It's none of your concern, So let's 16 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,960 Speaker 1: talk about coffee now. I also know that episodes like 17 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,679 Speaker 1: this one and My Lawnmower one are going into a 18 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: lot of history and culture type stuff, not strictly the technology. 19 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: But I always feel like an understanding of technology, a 20 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,479 Speaker 1: real understanding of it, requires that, you know, we also 21 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,560 Speaker 1: explore the greater context, Like we could just talk about 22 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,960 Speaker 1: how the technology works at all and how someone came 23 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 1: up with an idea and maybe someone else improved on 24 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: that idea. But I think that has limited value unless 25 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: you explore why were people thinking about this in the 26 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: first place, and what the world was like before and 27 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: then after that technology. Also, I've recorded more than episodes 28 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: of tech stuff, so changing things up keeps it fresh 29 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: from me, and then I don't burn out. But hey, 30 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: you folks are my listeners. If you like how these 31 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: episodes play out with a deeper dive into the context 32 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,840 Speaker 1: around tech, let me know. Now. If you hate them, 33 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: you can also let me know, but do it nicely, 34 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: because yeah, it's just me doing all the researching and 35 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: writing and recording of these shows. Now. Coffee is one 36 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: of those subjects that I find particularly fascinating because there 37 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: are countless people obsessed with it, and yet details about 38 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: its origin and evolution in society are somewhat muddled. It's 39 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: amazing that we've got this huge industry around coffee, but 40 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: we don't have a lot of historical records to refer 41 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: to when it comes time to documenting everything about it. 42 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 1: Maybe people were just too jittery to write anything down, 43 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: So in the absence of facts, people will fill up 44 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: the gap with speculation. That's just a general rule of thumb. 45 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: You didn't think this was gonna be an episode about 46 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: critical thinking, but bam, right out of the gate, I'm 47 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: hitting you with it. Now, if you google history of 48 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: coffee or origins of coffee, you're gonna find results, like 49 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: a lot of them. I mean like million of them. 50 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 1: I know because I did it. And if you spend 51 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: enough time skimming through a few of these different results, 52 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,919 Speaker 1: you're probably going to find several very different explanations about 53 00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:14,960 Speaker 1: the history of coffee. Some might start as early as 54 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: the sixth century of the Common Era, others might flip 55 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: ahead of millennia or so. So this tells us that 56 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: we should probably not put too much stock into any 57 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: one narrative about coffee. It maybe that none of these 58 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: accounts are correct, or maybe they all are, in some 59 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: way or another at least partly correct. So we shall 60 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: proceed with caution. First, let's talk about coffee the plant 61 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: to understand what it is. Now, maybe you've never seen 62 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: one in person. By the way, if you ever find 63 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: yourself on the Big Island of Hawaii, you can go 64 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 1: to the Kona region and tour one or more coffee plantations. 65 00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: I've done the tour of Greenwell Farms and it was 66 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: super nifty, And no, I don't have any connection to 67 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: that farm or that brand of coffee. I just liked 68 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:07,560 Speaker 1: the people that I talked to there, and I found 69 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 1: the tour really fascinating, and the various animals roaming around 70 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: the farm were super cool as well. Coffee plants don't 71 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 1: get particularly huge. They typically fall somewhere in the range 72 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:26,039 Speaker 1: from shrub to medium sized tree. Cultivators typically trim the 73 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:30,479 Speaker 1: branches back to keep them manageable, especially if you're cultivating 74 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: them in rows. You want those rows to be nice 75 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:35,440 Speaker 1: and neat, and it allows you to fit more plants 76 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: per area of land. They have glossy green leaves and 77 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: these plants sprout small white flowers in the springtime, followed 78 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: by berries or the coffee cherry. And these are about 79 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,040 Speaker 1: half an inch in length or about one point three centimeters, 80 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,159 Speaker 1: And these are the coffee cherries. Inside each cherry are 81 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:59,440 Speaker 1: two green seeds. These are the actual coffee beans, which 82 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: aren't really beans at all. Their seeds. Inside each cherry 83 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: are two green seeds, and these are the coffee beans, 84 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 1: and they're not really beans at all. They are seeds 85 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:12,919 Speaker 1: and they only become brown after you roast them, and 86 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:16,479 Speaker 1: that comes much, much, much later. The fruit of the 87 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: coffee cherry is sweet. You can actually chomp on these 88 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:24,360 Speaker 1: if you want, but there's not a lot of pulp 89 00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:30,039 Speaker 1: to these fruits. A coffee cherry is mostly skin and 90 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: the two seeds, and then you've got a little bit 91 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:36,560 Speaker 1: of fruity pulp called mucilage on the exterior of the seeds. 92 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,679 Speaker 1: The seeds are super hard, so you don't really chew 93 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:43,599 Speaker 1: on the seeds. It would really hurt your teeth. And 94 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:46,159 Speaker 1: it takes a lot of work to eat the tiny 95 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:49,280 Speaker 1: amount of fruit that's on a coffee cherries, more work 96 00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:51,600 Speaker 1: than what it's worth, which is why you don't go 97 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 1: to the grocery store and load up on coffee cherries 98 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,039 Speaker 1: as a sort of pick me up fruit snack. But 99 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:01,760 Speaker 1: what's the history of humans cultivating coffee for its caffeinated kick. 100 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: That was a lot of alliteration that I did not 101 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:09,599 Speaker 1: initially intend. Well, there's one tale that is pretty widespread 102 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: to the point that I think we can really consider 103 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: it folklore. Now this doesn't necessarily mean it's not true. 104 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 1: It just means that, you know, it's a story that's 105 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,720 Speaker 1: been widely passed on through oral tradition, giving lots of 106 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,479 Speaker 1: opportunities for that story to change in little ways. I 107 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:28,240 Speaker 1: think it's probably a little fanciful, but again I don't 108 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: know for sure. But the story goes that there was 109 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,599 Speaker 1: a shepherd in Ethiopia who was tending to a trip 110 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: of goats. And yes, I did just google what to 111 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: call a group of goats a trip? I guess. I 112 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:45,240 Speaker 1: guess the word heard would have been fine, but I 113 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: wanted to get, you know, more specific. And besides, a 114 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,360 Speaker 1: trip of goats seems fitting, as this shepherd's goats were 115 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:55,600 Speaker 1: nibbling on some little shrub plants and then they were 116 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: tripping all over the place. Man, those goats were tripping, 117 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:04,039 Speaker 1: or rather they were jumping, skipping and leaping, one might 118 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:08,760 Speaker 1: almost say dancing. And the shepherd, someone who clearly had 119 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: a lot of time on their hands, decided, what the heck, 120 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:14,320 Speaker 1: I'm going to see what this is about. And so 121 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: the shepherd then took some of the berries growing on 122 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,760 Speaker 1: these plants and showed on them, and then felt a 123 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: surge of energy. So if you ever wondered whose job 124 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 1: it was to test the various types of fruits and 125 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: mushrooms and everything else to make sure that it was 126 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 1: safe to eat. I'm guessing was folks like our shepherd 127 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,640 Speaker 1: in this story. Here. Also funny side note, the coffee 128 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,040 Speaker 1: shop I go to all the time has a name 129 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,520 Speaker 1: that references this folk tale. The coffee shop is called 130 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: Dancing Goats. Now when this story happened, if it happened 131 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 1: at all, is also a matter of debate, but generally 132 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,640 Speaker 1: we're looking at around mid ninth century of the Common Era, 133 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:56,240 Speaker 1: or around eight d fifty a d if you prefer. 134 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:01,160 Speaker 1: But as I say, there's not really any evidence that 135 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: it definitively happened. And heck, I'm not sure anyone would 136 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:07,360 Speaker 1: even think to record that kind of event. I mean, 137 00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:11,680 Speaker 1: dear Diary, I saw my goats eat some berries and 138 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,880 Speaker 1: then they went totally bonkers. So I ate some berries, 139 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: and I too went bonkers. Tomorrow I opened a Starbucks. 140 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: Like that just didn't happen. So there are some facts 141 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 1: that at least make the story or some variant of 142 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: it possibly true, And the big one is that the 143 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 1: coffee plant grows naturally in Ethiopia in a region called Kafa, 144 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: So did coffee get its name from kafa, or did 145 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,160 Speaker 1: kafa get its name from coffee? Heck, if I know, 146 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:43,560 Speaker 1: there are other words that sound a lot like coffee 147 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:47,240 Speaker 1: that are directly associated with coffee. So this is one 148 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:49,840 Speaker 1: of those that I think I will leave to the 149 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: linguistic experts. Now. It's possible that some people had discovered 150 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: the properties of this odd little fruit long before the 151 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: ninth century. But the first written account about coffee that 152 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: I could find evidence of came from a philosopher named 153 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 1: Rozis from Persia who lived right around the time that 154 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:14,560 Speaker 1: the Shepherd's story might have happened. Rozis wrote of a 155 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:17,760 Speaker 1: medicine used by the peoples of Ethiopia. It was a 156 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:21,440 Speaker 1: drink made from the fruit of the coffee plant, but 157 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:25,560 Speaker 1: from the description it didn't sound like coffee as in 158 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:29,280 Speaker 1: the drink that we enjoy these days. Yemen is a 159 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: possible origin point for coffee, the drink as we know it. 160 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: Sufi monks and Yemen brought coffee cherries from Ethiopia, and 161 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: then they cultivated the plants, and Yemen it grew just fine. 162 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:45,000 Speaker 1: And Yemen as well. The monks made a sort of 163 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:48,640 Speaker 1: tea from the coffee plants. Leaves to help them stay 164 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:51,760 Speaker 1: awake longer and get more prey and done. Now, this 165 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,960 Speaker 1: would have been around the fourteen hundreds, and it's possible 166 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:58,679 Speaker 1: that these monks gradually developed the process of roasting and 167 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: grinding coffee beans to make their stay awake juice. In 168 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:07,200 Speaker 1: the fifteen hundreds, the Turks came a colon. The Ottoman 169 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 1: Empire was an expansion mode, and while it never extended 170 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:13,800 Speaker 1: all the way down to Ethiopia, it did get quite 171 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:17,440 Speaker 1: the foothold in the Arabian Peninsula, which is where the 172 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:22,600 Speaker 1: Turks first encountered coffee, and they really liked it like 173 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: a lot, and they called it covey, which in Turkish 174 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: meant the wine of Arabia. The drink made from roasted 175 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 1: coffee beans soon found its way throughout the Ottoman Empire, 176 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,000 Speaker 1: which was enormous and spanned parts of Europe and North 177 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:42,320 Speaker 1: Africa at this point, and growing coffee outside of places 178 00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:46,600 Speaker 1: like Yemen and Ethiopia proved to be challenging. In part, 179 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,440 Speaker 1: that was because the plants thrived in very warm, like 180 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: tropical style climates and temperate Europe was just a bad match. 181 00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 1: It was too cold. But the merchants selling coffee also 182 00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:01,680 Speaker 1: saw a threat to their trade if people were able 183 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:04,319 Speaker 1: to grow the coffee plants in any old place, and 184 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:08,600 Speaker 1: so they would frequently boil or otherwise alter the beans 185 00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:11,880 Speaker 1: before selling them, so that those beans would be infertile. 186 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:14,640 Speaker 1: If you were to plant them, nothing would grow from them, 187 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,200 Speaker 1: and then they would ship those off to be sold 188 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 1: in places like Europe. It wouldn't be until the seventeen 189 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:23,400 Speaker 1: hundreds before someone, that being the Dutch, was able to 190 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:25,600 Speaker 1: get hold of viable coffee beans and find a place 191 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:29,000 Speaker 1: to grow them outside of the general areas of Yemen 192 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: in Ethiopia. But we'll get back to that. By the 193 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:36,240 Speaker 1: mid sixteenth century, coffee shops were opening up in Constantinople. 194 00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:38,959 Speaker 1: Now you can't go back to Constantinople, so if you 195 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:41,760 Speaker 1: have a dating Constantinople, she'll be waiting in his stan bull. 196 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:44,800 Speaker 1: I have no idea if it was common for a 197 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:48,120 Speaker 1: coffee house to open up right across the street from 198 00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:50,840 Speaker 1: another coffee house, or if that's just something we do 199 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:54,560 Speaker 1: here now. Over in Western Europe, it said that some 200 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:59,800 Speaker 1: high ranking Catholic priests resisted the spread of coffee, declaring 201 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: it to be a devil's brew. I mean it kept 202 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: you awake, It gave you energy. It clearly was unnatural. 203 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,839 Speaker 1: But the Pope apparently like the stuff and said, Noah, 204 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:14,960 Speaker 1: this is fine. It's fine. And so coffee spread throughout 205 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,800 Speaker 1: the Christian world as well over in England, where they 206 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:21,560 Speaker 1: had already had a little tiff with the Catholic Church, 207 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: it was now the Anglican Church in control. Over in England, 208 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:29,840 Speaker 1: they got their first coffee shop by sixteen fifty. That 209 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: was just a century after the earliest ones we know about, 210 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:37,280 Speaker 1: opening up in Constantinople, which really surprised me because frequently, 211 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 1: when it comes to trends in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 212 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:45,000 Speaker 1: England typically is a latecomer because it was, you know, separate. 213 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,120 Speaker 1: It was not part of the mainland of Europe. Still 214 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:49,960 Speaker 1: isn't as far as I know. I haven't looked at 215 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:52,720 Speaker 1: a map recently. But in this case, the Brits got 216 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:55,600 Speaker 1: their coffee before the French started opening up their own 217 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:58,320 Speaker 1: coffee shops. Coffee even made its way over to the 218 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,640 Speaker 1: colonies in North America, with a coffee shop opening up 219 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:04,600 Speaker 1: in what would become the city of Boston in sixteen 220 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:08,200 Speaker 1: seventy six. Okay, so the Dutch I mentioned that they 221 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 1: got some viable coffee beans essentially smuggled them out of Arabia, 222 00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:14,920 Speaker 1: but they had to find a good place to grow coffee, 223 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,520 Speaker 1: and that turned out to be Indonesia, specifically the colony 224 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: of Java, which is why we sometimes referred to coffee 225 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:25,199 Speaker 1: as Java. The Dutch secured their coffee beans through trade 226 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:28,160 Speaker 1: with a port city in Yemen, and that port city's 227 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,560 Speaker 1: name was Mocha. That's how we got Mocha Java. Starting 228 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: in the early eighteenth century, from their colonialism, would spread 229 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,840 Speaker 1: coffee to other parts of the world, such as Sumatra 230 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:45,079 Speaker 1: that's an Indonesian island west of Java, Central America, South America, 231 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,120 Speaker 1: the Caribbean, and Hawaii. And before you can throw some 232 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 1: coffee scenes or beans into a grinder and prep your 233 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:55,120 Speaker 1: morning cup of joe, there are a lot of stuffs 234 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:59,920 Speaker 1: that have to take place between growing it and brewing it. First, 235 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:03,160 Speaker 1: someone's got to harvest those cherries from the coffee plants. 236 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:06,200 Speaker 1: And in fact, there is a whole element to this 237 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:08,560 Speaker 1: story that I'm not going to dive into, but it 238 00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:14,880 Speaker 1: does involve some pretty terrible conditions for workers in various 239 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 1: parts of the world. There's a lot of exploitation going 240 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: on whenever you're talking about mass farming in places like 241 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: Central America or South America, or Indonesia or Africa, you've 242 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: got a lot of opportunities for companies to do things 243 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,880 Speaker 1: that are not necessarily the best for the employees. But 244 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:37,520 Speaker 1: that's a matter for another episode. On smaller farms, harvesting 245 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: might be done by hand, possibly with some hand tools, 246 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:44,600 Speaker 1: but on the big farms, heavy machinery is frequently used. 247 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,520 Speaker 1: While some coffee farms use pickers to harvest cherries by hand, 248 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: like just with their hands alone, others rely on some 249 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: of those simple hand tools. I was talking about one 250 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:58,280 Speaker 1: tool I've seen for harvesting coffee really surprised me. I 251 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: hadn't really seen anything like it before. Or kind of 252 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:03,720 Speaker 1: looks like a pair of tongs, and that there are 253 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: two rods that extend out from a plastic handle, and 254 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,280 Speaker 1: the handle actually has motors in it that vibrate and 255 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:15,080 Speaker 1: rotate those fiberglass rods. So while you're operating this harvesting device, 256 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,880 Speaker 1: those rods are spinning and vibrating very quickly. To harvest 257 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: the coffee cherries, first, you put a tarp down to 258 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 1: catch all the cherries that are going to fall, which 259 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:25,880 Speaker 1: is pretty much the same thing you would be doing 260 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:28,280 Speaker 1: if you were harvesting everything just using your hands alone. 261 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:31,320 Speaker 1: Then you would position the rods on either side of 262 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:34,200 Speaker 1: a branch that happens step berries on it. You'd squeeze 263 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,440 Speaker 1: the handle so that the two rods come together and 264 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:41,480 Speaker 1: and touch the branch on either side, thus transmitting vibrations 265 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 1: to the branch, and then you move the tongs down 266 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 1: along the length of the branch to shake the berries free. 267 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:50,360 Speaker 1: It's still a lot of work because you have to 268 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: move from branch to branch, but it's more efficient than 269 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:56,160 Speaker 1: doing it all with just your fingers. Now, this is 270 00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:59,160 Speaker 1: a fairly simple device with electric motors in the handle 271 00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:01,320 Speaker 1: that draw power from a battery pack, so I'm not 272 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:03,800 Speaker 1: going to go into deep detail. There's not a whole 273 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: lot of of advanced tech there. It's just the idea 274 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,200 Speaker 1: of creative vibrating motor that transmits vibrations to a rod. 275 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: Those rods transmit the vibrations to a branch you knock 276 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: the cherries loose. Another tool I've seen for this kind 277 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:20,040 Speaker 1: of harvesting looks almost like a weed whacker or a 278 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,640 Speaker 1: weed eater, except instead of having a rotating blade or 279 00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: a rotating wire. At the end of the device, you 280 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: actually have what looks like almost like a fiberglass rake 281 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,400 Speaker 1: um or a fork. In fact, it does look like 282 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:38,680 Speaker 1: an enormous gas powered fork, and the motor when you 283 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:43,720 Speaker 1: turn it on, makes the tines of that fork vibrate. 284 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: So again, you would just use this device to grip 285 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: several branches of a coffee planet. Once you give some 286 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,840 Speaker 1: gas to the motor, it causes the times to shake, 287 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:58,000 Speaker 1: and it shakes the cherries free from the coffee plant, 288 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,120 Speaker 1: and presumably you catch those on a tarp. But for 289 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:05,680 Speaker 1: really big farms, there are some massive machines that farmers 290 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:08,880 Speaker 1: used to harvest coffee. When we come back, i'll explain more, 291 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick coffee break, all right. 292 00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:23,359 Speaker 1: So for smaller coffee farms, or maybe ones that are 293 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:26,360 Speaker 1: on like really uneven terrain, you might not be able 294 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,360 Speaker 1: to use big machines. They might just not be able 295 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:31,760 Speaker 1: to maneuver through those. But for coffee plantations that are 296 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 1: really huge, particularly ones that have coffee plants and neat 297 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:39,920 Speaker 1: rows and fairly level ground, you get a lot of options. 298 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: One harvester I've seen is a big device that's actually 299 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:46,320 Speaker 1: stationary when it's an operation, and it looks kind of 300 00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:51,080 Speaker 1: like a big metal wagon with an archimedean screw inside 301 00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:53,960 Speaker 1: of it and a shoot like protrusion at one end, 302 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:56,880 Speaker 1: which is where the coffee cherries will come shooting out 303 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 1: and into another container. So you would tow this big 304 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:03,240 Speaker 1: thing to the end of like a pair of rows 305 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: of coffee plants that stretch pretty far back, and between 306 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,520 Speaker 1: the rows you lay down a tarp. This tarp will 307 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:13,879 Speaker 1: become a sort of conveyor belt for the harvester, and 308 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,480 Speaker 1: workers would go down the rows of coffee plants and 309 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:19,720 Speaker 1: use pruning shears to trim back branches that have berries 310 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:22,199 Speaker 1: on them. All of these branches with berries on them 311 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:24,760 Speaker 1: fall down to the tarp below, and once that's done, 312 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:28,800 Speaker 1: you feed the tarp into essentially a roller in the harvester, 313 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:32,720 Speaker 1: which will start to pull the tarp into the machine. 314 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:36,679 Speaker 1: Uh And they typically also has some sort of hinged 315 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: metal frame that you can use a sort of a ramp, 316 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:42,239 Speaker 1: so that way the tarp is going up at a 317 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:45,439 Speaker 1: at a gentler angle. It's not going up so steep 318 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 1: that everything falls off the tarp. So the machine starts 319 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,520 Speaker 1: pulling the tarp toward it and everything on the tarp 320 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:54,240 Speaker 1: gets pulled along with it and dumped into a chamber. 321 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:58,639 Speaker 1: And in that chamber there is that Archimedean screw at 322 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:00,239 Speaker 1: the bottom. And if you don't know what that is, 323 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 1: is a cylindrical drum with a helical blade. It's the 324 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,120 Speaker 1: type of thing that Archimedes used to draw water from 325 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: areas of low elevation to high elevation, and in this case, 326 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:14,680 Speaker 1: it's used to transport the coffee cherries up toward another 327 00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 1: set of devices attached to this machine. So the branches 328 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,400 Speaker 1: and berries and leaves and all go into this chamber 329 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:26,080 Speaker 1: with the turning our comedian screw. The rotational motion separates 330 00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:29,320 Speaker 1: the cherries from the branches, and the cherries effectively roll 331 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: up the screw because of that rotation. This is a 332 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:34,720 Speaker 1: little hard to explain an audio, so I recommend you 333 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:38,040 Speaker 1: check out the videos of watching an archimedian screw in action. 334 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,120 Speaker 1: You'll see how it all works. And the cherries and 335 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,480 Speaker 1: maybe some bits of leaves and twigs hit a shaking 336 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,840 Speaker 1: grid at the top of that archimedian screw. This shaking 337 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,520 Speaker 1: grid acts like a filter. It allows the cherries to 338 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:53,880 Speaker 1: pass through the filter. Everything else doesn't or at least 339 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:56,640 Speaker 1: most of everything else doesn't. And then the cherries ride 340 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,440 Speaker 1: a second conveyor belt that has you know, these little 341 00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:01,840 Speaker 1: ridges to keep the cherries from rolling back down, And 342 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: this belt carries the cherries up a shoot and then 343 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: they come out the other end and fall into whatever 344 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:13,320 Speaker 1: containment vessel you have to collect all those coffee cherries. Uh, 345 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,040 Speaker 1: you could end up with something that looks like essentially 346 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: a dumpster full of coffee cherries, and the branches and 347 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:21,760 Speaker 1: leaves they get left behind are are chopped out quite 348 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: a bit. They eventually exit the machine through an exhaust, 349 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,480 Speaker 1: kind of like the way a lawnmower has one of 350 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:33,720 Speaker 1: those little side exhaust ports where cut grass flies out. Now, 351 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:35,679 Speaker 1: this sort of device can harvest a lot of cherries, 352 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:39,040 Speaker 1: but it does require a ton of manual pruning work 353 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:41,440 Speaker 1: at the top end of it. There are some other 354 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,359 Speaker 1: harvesters that take the cherries right off the plants without 355 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:48,359 Speaker 1: needing to cut the branches onto a tarp first, and 356 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: they look pretty funky. Now, there are a lot of 357 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:54,719 Speaker 1: variations on this next type of harvester, but they do 358 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 1: share a few things in common. And the easiest way 359 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,679 Speaker 1: I can think of to describe this is imagine a 360 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:05,440 Speaker 1: mechanical automated car wash. You know, you drive your car 361 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:10,280 Speaker 1: into the bay of this car wash, and then once 362 00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:15,959 Speaker 1: the car washes operating, these big machines will rotate giant 363 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 1: brushes that come up against your car and scrub all 364 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:23,200 Speaker 1: that road grime off your vehicle and then you drive out. Well, 365 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:25,560 Speaker 1: imagine that you've got a car wash, but the car 366 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: wash itself is on wheels, So instead of the cars 367 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: driving into a stationary bay, you could have a line 368 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,800 Speaker 1: of cars that are you know, bumper to bumper in 369 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: a line, and you have this wheeled car wash go 370 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,680 Speaker 1: down the line of parked cars, and the car wash 371 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:45,399 Speaker 1: is the thing that moves. Well, that's kind of what 372 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,400 Speaker 1: these harvester things are. Acceptance to have a car wash. Obviously, 373 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:52,560 Speaker 1: they are harvesting coffee cherries off of plants. So you've 374 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:55,679 Speaker 1: got this big machine that has a space where a 375 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:59,399 Speaker 1: tree can pass through the middle of this machine. The 376 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:01,959 Speaker 1: machine is on wheels, so it can move because you know, 377 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,440 Speaker 1: these are coffee plants. They're not ents from Middle Earth, 378 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:07,760 Speaker 1: so they don't walk around on their own no matter 379 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,400 Speaker 1: how much caffeine is in them. Some of these machines 380 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:13,400 Speaker 1: are things that you have to tow behind a tractor, 381 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,639 Speaker 1: But some of them have a tractor like system built 382 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:19,720 Speaker 1: into the actual machine. So some of them have their 383 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:23,880 Speaker 1: own engine and motor that allows you to drive the harvester, 384 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:28,560 Speaker 1: whereas others are a separate piece of machinery that hooks 385 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: onto the back of a tractor. I've seen both versions, 386 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: but either way, a driver manipulates this machine, so it 387 00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:40,280 Speaker 1: moves down a line of coffee plants in order to 388 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,920 Speaker 1: harvest the cherries. So how is that harvesting actually working well? 389 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:47,680 Speaker 1: On the inside where the trees are passing through, You've 390 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:51,760 Speaker 1: got poles with fiberglass rods on either side of where 391 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:54,880 Speaker 1: the coffee plants passed through. So it kind of looks 392 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 1: like one of those round brushes where you've got the 393 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:02,040 Speaker 1: bristles on all sides of the round brush. It looks 394 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,040 Speaker 1: like a pair of those, except not quite as thick, 395 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,200 Speaker 1: and you've got a bunch of fiberglass rods instead of bristles, 396 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,480 Speaker 1: and instead of big rotating brushes from a car wash, 397 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:14,720 Speaker 1: you've got these things and they do rotate, and the 398 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:19,480 Speaker 1: fiberglass rods vibrate as they're rotating, and it's this motion 399 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:23,119 Speaker 1: that shakes loose the coffee cherries as the plants pass 400 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,199 Speaker 1: through the middle of the machine. At the bottom of 401 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,920 Speaker 1: this are some hinged panels that can allow a tree 402 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:33,360 Speaker 1: trunk to pass through in one direction, but the panels 403 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:35,880 Speaker 1: locked from being able to go in the opposite direction. 404 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,679 Speaker 1: So they're hinged in a way where uh they swing 405 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: open to allow a tree trunk to pass through, but 406 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,320 Speaker 1: when they close, they can't go back the other way. 407 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:47,120 Speaker 1: So once you head down a row of coffee plants, 408 00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:50,960 Speaker 1: you're kind of committed. The hinged panels catch stuff that's 409 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,000 Speaker 1: falling down from the coffee plants that gets shaken loose, 410 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:58,639 Speaker 1: and all that material, including cherries, toigs, leaves, bugs, moves 411 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,119 Speaker 1: towards a pair of conveyor belt, one on either side 412 00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:04,639 Speaker 1: of the inner part of the machine. These conveyor belts 413 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 1: move everything up to either a containment chamber or out 414 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,240 Speaker 1: of to a shoot where they get put into a 415 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: separate trailer that's being hauled behind a different tractor, perhaps 416 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 1: one row over. I've seen both um, but some of 417 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 1: these things are kind of an all in one machine 418 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 1: where they can do all the driving, the harvesting and 419 00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:29,440 Speaker 1: collecting of coffee cherries by themselves. And don't need any 420 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:33,639 Speaker 1: additional equipment or other people operating that equipment. Some of 421 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:36,440 Speaker 1: them are used in concert with other heavy duty machinery. 422 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,040 Speaker 1: There are a lot of videos online if you want 423 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,919 Speaker 1: to see these coffee harvesters in action. It might be 424 00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:45,480 Speaker 1: a lot more helpful rather than trying to imagine my 425 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:50,080 Speaker 1: poorly constructed word picture. Uh. The the machines are pretty impressive, 426 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,080 Speaker 1: and they're actually based off older harvesters that have been 427 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:56,000 Speaker 1: used for stuff like blueberry farms. Now, before I did 428 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,320 Speaker 1: this podcast, I had never seen anything like this. Being 429 00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: the city boy I am, and also I mean I 430 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:07,520 Speaker 1: have actually done some very very minor work on a farm. 431 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,520 Speaker 1: Uh it's barely worth mentioning. But it was a much 432 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,360 Speaker 1: smaller operation, not something that would have this big equipment. 433 00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:15,560 Speaker 1: So I've never seen anything like this. It was really 434 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,399 Speaker 1: cool to learn about it. One of the videos I 435 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:22,240 Speaker 1: watched for this episode had a coffee farmer named James 436 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,200 Speaker 1: Chemo Falconer, and he talked about the efficiency of these 437 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,800 Speaker 1: types of harvesting machines. Now, according to Falconer, a skilled 438 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,800 Speaker 1: coffee picker would be able to harvest around two hundred 439 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,160 Speaker 1: pounds of coffee cherries in a day. One of these 440 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:41,520 Speaker 1: harvesters could actually harvest forty thousand pounds of cherries in 441 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 1: around six hours, so it is phenomenally efficient compared to 442 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 1: manual labor. Now keep in mind we are still talking 443 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:54,399 Speaker 1: about coffee cherries here Again. According to Falconer, there's about 444 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:58,159 Speaker 1: a five to one ratio in weight of cherries to 445 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:03,240 Speaker 1: weight of green coffee beans for natural coffee. Some varieties 446 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,840 Speaker 1: of coffee might have cherries with slightly more or less pulp. 447 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:10,240 Speaker 1: That would change the ratio a bit. But if you 448 00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:13,560 Speaker 1: harvest forty thousand pounds of coffee cherries, that doesn't mean 449 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,200 Speaker 1: you've got forty pounds of coffee beans. It's like a 450 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:20,240 Speaker 1: fifth of that. Now, the harvested cherries have to be 451 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,679 Speaker 1: washed to remove dirt, stems and that kind of stuff. 452 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,400 Speaker 1: There's typically an early sorting process to help separate out 453 00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:31,159 Speaker 1: unsuitable coffee cherries from the good stuff. One way that 454 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: you can do that is dumping all the cherries into 455 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,200 Speaker 1: giant vats of water. Cherries that float to the top 456 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:41,040 Speaker 1: aren't ripe. They can be skimmed off and they can 457 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,240 Speaker 1: be removed and then punished. I'm kidding, they're not punished, 458 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:47,040 Speaker 1: but they are turned into fertilizer, typically so that you 459 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,720 Speaker 1: can use those to help fertilize the ground for future 460 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:54,399 Speaker 1: coffee plants. Now, what happens next is dependent upon the 461 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:59,120 Speaker 1: post harvest process for that particular coffee farm or plantation. 462 00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:04,320 Speaker 1: Dry regions might use natural processed coffee, which involves leaving 463 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:08,280 Speaker 1: the seeds inside the coffee cherry and allowing the whole 464 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,399 Speaker 1: thing to dry out, which takes about four weeks and 465 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,240 Speaker 1: it requires lots of supervision to make sure that mold 466 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:18,120 Speaker 1: doesn't form on those coffee cherries. And after drying, workers 467 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:20,760 Speaker 1: put cherries into a huling machine. Uh. There are a 468 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:22,520 Speaker 1: lot of different versions of this. One of them is 469 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,840 Speaker 1: just essentially a big vibrating tray. You put the coffee 470 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,480 Speaker 1: cherries into this vibrating tray. It often has a rough bottom, 471 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,720 Speaker 1: and the vigorous shaking of that tray using an electric 472 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,280 Speaker 1: motor to to shake this thing ends up rubbing and 473 00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:43,000 Speaker 1: shaking the cherry so that the dried skin and dried fruit, 474 00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,560 Speaker 1: and the parchment on the seeds itself all gets rubbed off, 475 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,960 Speaker 1: which really means that those those seeds, those coffee beans. Now, 476 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,160 Speaker 1: the green coffee beans just need to be polished before 477 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,919 Speaker 1: they're sent off to roasters because you've already done all 478 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,480 Speaker 1: the work of removing everything else that's around the bean. 479 00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:07,040 Speaker 1: But another climates, different post harvesting methods work better. So 480 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,720 Speaker 1: you've got stuff like your honey processed coffee or your 481 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: wet hull process, which is mostly used in Indonesia, and 482 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:18,240 Speaker 1: you've got your washed coffee processing. Now there are several 483 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:23,199 Speaker 1: things that differentiate these processes, and even plantations that use 484 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:26,239 Speaker 1: the same general process will have their own way of 485 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:30,600 Speaker 1: executing that process. So there's no I can't give you 486 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,600 Speaker 1: a universal here's how it works. I can give you 487 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,840 Speaker 1: some generalities with each. So with honey processing, the cherries 488 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:43,280 Speaker 1: are skinned right away after harvest, but the sticky coating 489 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,280 Speaker 1: on the seeds that mucilage. That mucilage is allowed to 490 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,600 Speaker 1: stay on the seeds while they go to areas to 491 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:55,880 Speaker 1: be dried out. The washed process involves pulping the seeds 492 00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: not long after harvest. You allow the seeds to ferment 493 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:02,960 Speaker 1: a bit like overnight, and then you wash the musilage 494 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,040 Speaker 1: off before you allow the coffee to dry, and that 495 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:10,520 Speaker 1: coffee will dry faster because it doesn't have that insulation 496 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 1: around it. But that also means that it's not in 497 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:14,920 Speaker 1: contact with the fruit for as long, and that will 498 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 1: change the flavor profile. In the case of natural processing, 499 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,720 Speaker 1: honey processing, and washed processing, the goal is to get 500 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: the moisture level of the seeds down to around eleven 501 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,360 Speaker 1: before you move on to hulling the seeds, to get 502 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:34,240 Speaker 1: that thin layer of parchment off the coffee seeds before 503 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,960 Speaker 1: you can send them off to roasters. Now, the wet 504 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:41,600 Speaker 1: hull process of Indonesia is a little bit different because 505 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:44,720 Speaker 1: of the high humidity levels in Indonesia, it would be 506 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 1: really hard to dry seeds down to eleven water content 507 00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,560 Speaker 1: on their own, even with the washed process method, So 508 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 1: instead they pulp the cherries so that you get the 509 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,320 Speaker 1: seeds the coffee beans, and then they dry those coffee 510 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,800 Speaker 1: beans until the water content is around thirty percent or 511 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:08,000 Speaker 1: so remember the other ones are, and then they feed 512 00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 1: those to a hauling machine to remove the parchment layer 513 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:15,120 Speaker 1: around those seeds at that point, whereupon they dry more efficiently. 514 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:18,720 Speaker 1: In the human climate, the other processes I mentioned leave 515 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,520 Speaker 1: the parchment on the seeds until after the drying process 516 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:25,480 Speaker 1: is done. The parchment helps protect the seeds against stuff 517 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,640 Speaker 1: like disease and mold, but in the really humid climates, 518 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 1: Even that thin layer of parchment slows down the drying process, 519 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:35,960 Speaker 1: so in order to get the seeds dried and to 520 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,360 Speaker 1: market while they're still good, they have to remove the parchment. 521 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:43,040 Speaker 1: In places like Indonesia, pulping and hauling machines can be 522 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:46,040 Speaker 1: vibrating trays like the one I mentioned for natural processing, 523 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:49,880 Speaker 1: or they can involve feeding the cherries or seeds. In 524 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: the case of if you're just removing the parchment into 525 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:56,200 Speaker 1: a feeding hopper, and at the bottom of the feeding 526 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,920 Speaker 1: hopper is typically a rotating drum that's got little nubby 527 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,720 Speaker 1: protrusions on it, and as the drum rotates, this agitation 528 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:09,560 Speaker 1: UH squeezes seeds out of the cherries, and it can 529 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: also remove parchment from the seeds if you've calibrated the 530 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,719 Speaker 1: machine to do so. But it's that rotational force that 531 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: is UH kind of separating the cherries out from the 532 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,520 Speaker 1: seeds infect It kind of squeezes them out and the 533 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,560 Speaker 1: chair the seeds go one way, and the cherries, the 534 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,440 Speaker 1: pulp and the skin go the other way. So you 535 00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:32,120 Speaker 1: will get one shoot where green coffee beans will slide down, 536 00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,040 Speaker 1: and then on the back you'll just have this mass 537 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,680 Speaker 1: of pulp shot out the back of the the machine, 538 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:42,320 Speaker 1: which again is used often for fertilizer. The holed coffee 539 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,480 Speaker 1: then has to be sorted by size, and a typical 540 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:48,280 Speaker 1: sizing machine has a series of meshed trays stacked one 541 00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:51,360 Speaker 1: on top of the other in a vibrating device, and 542 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:54,880 Speaker 1: the holes in the mesh decrease in size as you 543 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,680 Speaker 1: go down the stack vertically, so larger seeds will be 544 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 1: caught by one of the upper trays because the seeds 545 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,040 Speaker 1: will be too large to pass any further down in 546 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:08,680 Speaker 1: the link of of meshes. Uh, the smaller seeds will 547 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 1: eventually collect in the bottom trays because they'll pass through 548 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,560 Speaker 1: the larger holes on the upper ones. Then the coffee 549 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:18,600 Speaker 1: can be graded based on coffee bean size. The best 550 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,280 Speaker 1: coffee beans, by the way, are not necessarily the biggest ones, 551 00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 1: nor are they the smallest. It's typically the just right 552 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,800 Speaker 1: the goldilocks zone. Those seeds also have to be examined 553 00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: to make sure they are the right quality. They have 554 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:32,040 Speaker 1: to be looked at to make sure they're the good color. 555 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:34,840 Speaker 1: This can be done by I but when you're looking 556 00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:38,800 Speaker 1: at really big operations, that's not practical. So we've got 557 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:41,480 Speaker 1: some high tech to do this too. There are advanced 558 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:44,400 Speaker 1: machines that use l e ed s and high resolution 559 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:49,400 Speaker 1: cameras and imaging software to examine seed color and consistency, 560 00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:52,640 Speaker 1: and that makes it possible to sort large quantities of 561 00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:56,480 Speaker 1: seeds and remove any that don't meet specifications. So I 562 00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,160 Speaker 1: always think of the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory 563 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,280 Speaker 1: scene with the golden eggs. You've got these machines that 564 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: are looking at seed by seed very very very fast, 565 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:10,760 Speaker 1: and if the color and the consistency matches the specifications 566 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,960 Speaker 1: that the machines software has set to, then the beans 567 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,760 Speaker 1: are allowed to continue on their path. If not, they 568 00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:20,200 Speaker 1: get the boot. They are the proverbial bad eggs in 569 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,920 Speaker 1: this case. Other machines sort the beans by density using 570 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,920 Speaker 1: vibration and air. So, in other words, you've got a 571 00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 1: big stack of beans, you put them in this machine. 572 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:32,800 Speaker 1: The machine shakes the beans, that uses some air to 573 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:37,040 Speaker 1: blow against the beans. The heavier beans will be closer 574 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,240 Speaker 1: to the bottom of this machine. They'll be heavy enough 575 00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,400 Speaker 1: and dense enough to make their way to the bottom. 576 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,040 Speaker 1: The very light beans will be more towards the top 577 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,880 Speaker 1: of the machine because they'll be blown by the air 578 00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 1: and they will be pushed up from all the heavier beans. Now, 579 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,240 Speaker 1: you want to do this because sometimes those lighter beans 580 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,160 Speaker 1: are actually representative of beans that have been you know, 581 00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,640 Speaker 1: munched on by insects and stuff. Those are not the best. 582 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:03,520 Speaker 1: So it's another way of sorting beans out very quickly 583 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:06,640 Speaker 1: for quality control. Now, what I think is really cool 584 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,440 Speaker 1: about a lot of these devices is apart from the 585 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 1: one that tends to use like high resolution cameras to 586 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:15,440 Speaker 1: look at bean color. Now, what I like about a 587 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,600 Speaker 1: lot of these devices is that a lot of them 588 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:23,799 Speaker 1: use a pretty simple mechanical approach to help sort out 589 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: all these beans. I just think it's a neat and 590 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 1: pretty elegant way of doing things. All this takes place 591 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:35,000 Speaker 1: before roasting. The coffee roasters take incoming green coffee beans and, 592 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:37,960 Speaker 1: depending on the flavor qualities of the bean, which in 593 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:40,719 Speaker 1: turn are determined by stuff like where in the world 594 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,840 Speaker 1: it was grown, what sort of post harvest processing to 595 00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,600 Speaker 1: go through that kind of thing, the roasters then take that, 596 00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:50,239 Speaker 1: they take that flavor and they determine what sort of 597 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,640 Speaker 1: roast they should follow for those particular beans. The beans 598 00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,799 Speaker 1: are put into roasting machines, which look a lot like 599 00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:01,200 Speaker 1: clothes dryers. A lot of these, especially for the larger roasters, 600 00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:04,279 Speaker 1: are gas power. They actually use natural gas for a 601 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:08,280 Speaker 1: heating element. So a typical roaster has a hopper feeder 602 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: at the top that's where you pour the green coffee 603 00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:15,640 Speaker 1: beans in. These flow into a barrel that is inside 604 00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:19,439 Speaker 1: the roaster. The barrel can rotate, and the barrel has 605 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:23,560 Speaker 1: burners on the outside of it, so inside the machine, 606 00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,320 Speaker 1: but outside the container of the barrel are these burners. 607 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,480 Speaker 1: They heat up the air and the barrel itself, and 608 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:34,759 Speaker 1: that allows these beans to get a lot of heat 609 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,399 Speaker 1: directed at them in a very short amount of time. 610 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: And you use a combination of temperature and time in 611 00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: order to roast the coffee beans. They're constantly being circulated 612 00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:49,000 Speaker 1: so that each bean is getting evenly heated. And typically 613 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 1: there's a way to remove beans from the middle of 614 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,359 Speaker 1: this process while it's still going, so you can check 615 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:58,200 Speaker 1: on progress. Uh. There's frequently something that's called like a 616 00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:02,080 Speaker 1: sample spoon. This is a little container that actually can 617 00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,799 Speaker 1: extend into the barrel as it's an operation, but there's 618 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:07,960 Speaker 1: a handle on the outside of the machine that you 619 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,279 Speaker 1: can grab. You can pull the sample spoon out, check 620 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:15,080 Speaker 1: the beans that are in the process of roasting and 621 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:19,120 Speaker 1: reinsert the sample spoon to put them back into the barrel, 622 00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:21,600 Speaker 1: and you know, use that to check to make sure 623 00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:24,360 Speaker 1: that you're not going too far with your roasting process. 624 00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 1: After roasting, the roasters will essentially open a flap to 625 00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:31,040 Speaker 1: the barrel to let the roasted beans pour out of 626 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,240 Speaker 1: the barrel into a cooling tray. Then the roasters will 627 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:37,040 Speaker 1: either stir the beans or typically a lot of these 628 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,759 Speaker 1: cooling trays have a mechanical stir that will just do 629 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:43,960 Speaker 1: rotations through the beans and mix them up. That allows 630 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,080 Speaker 1: the beans to cool and stop the roasting process from 631 00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:51,040 Speaker 1: going on much longer after they've already emerged from the roaster. Now, 632 00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,799 Speaker 1: the length of time spending those chambers, along with what 633 00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:58,799 Speaker 1: temperature you set it to, that determines the level of 634 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,000 Speaker 1: the roast, and the flavors can change in that time 635 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:05,920 Speaker 1: as well. So a light roast coffee uses beans that 636 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:08,839 Speaker 1: have been in a roaster for much less time than 637 00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 1: a dark roast coffee, and light roasts tend to be 638 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,720 Speaker 1: a little more floral. Dark roasts tend to have more 639 00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: chocolate e or caramel flavors, but also roasting the longer 640 00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:23,160 Speaker 1: eu roast. The more you typically reduce the amount of 641 00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:26,880 Speaker 1: caffeine that's in the the coffee bean, the caffeine gets 642 00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,520 Speaker 1: kind of roasted out gradually. There's still some there, but 643 00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:34,160 Speaker 1: less so. While an espresso has a very strong flavor, 644 00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:38,080 Speaker 1: it can actually have much less caffeine per volume than 645 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,680 Speaker 1: a simple light roast coffee. Though this is also dependent 646 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:42,480 Speaker 1: upon the type of bean that was used at the 647 00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:44,839 Speaker 1: very beginning of the process, so it gets a little 648 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,799 Speaker 1: more complicated than that. There are some great videos on 649 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,560 Speaker 1: YouTube of master coffee roasters describing the process they use, 650 00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,919 Speaker 1: which frequently needs to have some flexibility built into them. 651 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,640 Speaker 1: Figuring out the perfect temperature and the perfect timing to 652 00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:00,120 Speaker 1: get the kind of roast you want is kind of 653 00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 1: a matter of science and art. It's fascinating stuff. Now, 654 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:06,880 Speaker 1: when we come back, I'll talk about the evolution of 655 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:17,040 Speaker 1: the coffee maker. One thing I did not cover in 656 00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:21,000 Speaker 1: the previous section is how companies make decaffeinated coffee and 657 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:24,920 Speaker 1: coffee beans half caffeine in them. How do you decaffeinated Well, 658 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,800 Speaker 1: there's a couple of different methods, but generally the process 659 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,480 Speaker 1: involves leaching the caffeine out of the green coffee beans. 660 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:36,760 Speaker 1: Using some form of chemicals or an activated charcoal filter 661 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:41,200 Speaker 1: to bind with the caffeine, and then continuing to soak 662 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:44,840 Speaker 1: green coffee beans so that some of that delicious flavored 663 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:47,080 Speaker 1: juice goes back into the bean. In fact, in many 664 00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:50,560 Speaker 1: of these processes, the first batch of green coffee beans 665 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,440 Speaker 1: is either a loss. You just throw them out after 666 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:56,600 Speaker 1: you've soaked them in hot water, or you have to 667 00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:59,880 Speaker 1: set them aside because it's not just the caffeine that 668 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,319 Speaker 1: leeches out. There's also a lot of those oils that 669 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,200 Speaker 1: make up the aromatics and flavor of the coffee bean. 670 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:09,880 Speaker 1: So if you wanted to decaffeine eate a batch of coffee, 671 00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:12,760 Speaker 1: you would put your first group of green coffee beans 672 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,879 Speaker 1: in a vat of hot water, and then the water 673 00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:19,959 Speaker 1: becomes saturated with caffeine and these oils. Then you would 674 00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:23,400 Speaker 1: use chemicals or a charcoal filter to bind with that 675 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:27,279 Speaker 1: caffeine and remove the caffeine from the mixture, and then 676 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:33,000 Speaker 1: you could remove the green beans from that mixture, and 677 00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:36,000 Speaker 1: then you add more green coffee beans, the ones that 678 00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:39,040 Speaker 1: haven't been processed yet into the vat. Now the hot 679 00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:42,440 Speaker 1: water is already saturated with the oils from the first 680 00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:45,239 Speaker 1: batch of coffee beans. So the second batch of green 681 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:48,399 Speaker 1: coffee beans keeps the flavors and aromatics for the most part, 682 00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:51,239 Speaker 1: but the caffeine still leaches out. Then you use that 683 00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:54,319 Speaker 1: same chemical process to bind with the caffeine molecules and 684 00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:56,920 Speaker 1: remove the caffeine from the mixture. And at the very 685 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,160 Speaker 1: end of this process, after you've done batch after batch 686 00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:01,960 Speaker 1: after batch of the green coffee beans, maybe then you 687 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:05,120 Speaker 1: go ahead and you add back that first batch of 688 00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:08,600 Speaker 1: coffee beans to stew in the juices. As it were, 689 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,640 Speaker 1: These are the coffee beans that were sapped of not 690 00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:15,040 Speaker 1: just their caffeine but all their coffee goodness, and you 691 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:20,440 Speaker 1: let them sort of reabsorb those chemicals minus the caffeine. Obviously, 692 00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,160 Speaker 1: now it's a little more complicated than that, and as 693 00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:25,160 Speaker 1: I mentioned, there are a few different approaches to this, 694 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:27,640 Speaker 1: but I still need to talk about coffee machines, so 695 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:31,840 Speaker 1: let's move on. Gosh darn it. So to brew coffee, 696 00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,360 Speaker 1: you grind up the beans to create more surface area 697 00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:38,000 Speaker 1: for the beans to make contact with hot water. That 698 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:41,279 Speaker 1: allows more oils to transfer to that hot water, and 699 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,120 Speaker 1: thus the drink we call coffee is made. And there 700 00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:47,480 Speaker 1: are many different sizes of grinds of coffee, ranging from 701 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:51,840 Speaker 1: course to extra fine, and they're they're good for different 702 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,920 Speaker 1: types of coffee preparations. For example, a very coarse grind 703 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,120 Speaker 1: is recommended for cold brew coffee or French press coffee, 704 00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:03,280 Speaker 1: a meat grind is good for your standard automatic drip 705 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:07,120 Speaker 1: coffee machines, and an extra fine grind is really good 706 00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:11,920 Speaker 1: for Turkish coffee pots. Typically, you want to filter out 707 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:15,640 Speaker 1: the coffee grounds from the water so that the stuff 708 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:17,960 Speaker 1: you've brewed doesn't have coffee grounds in it, unless you're 709 00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:21,640 Speaker 1: making Turkish coffee. So you might pour boiling hot water 710 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,160 Speaker 1: over coffee grounds that are in some sort of filter. 711 00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:28,880 Speaker 1: That's the classic pour over coffee, or, as is the 712 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,560 Speaker 1: case with most coffee machines, you have a filter or 713 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:36,080 Speaker 1: perforated surface that keeps the grounds from passing through and 714 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:40,040 Speaker 1: the coffee can move on into a caraft or pot 715 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,000 Speaker 1: or pitcher, while the coffee drink is able to you know, 716 00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:46,680 Speaker 1: flow freely and everything. One of the earliest modern applications 717 00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:53,040 Speaker 1: for coffee making is the humble percolator. Joseph Henrie Marie Lawrence, 718 00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:57,239 Speaker 1: a metal worker in Paris, invented such a device in 719 00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:02,080 Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen. The ideas atty simple. You've got a pot 720 00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:04,279 Speaker 1: complete with a spout. You know, it doesn't look that 721 00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,120 Speaker 1: different from a kettle. UM. This sits on top of 722 00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:09,239 Speaker 1: a source of heat, like an open flame or an 723 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:12,600 Speaker 1: electric stovetop. You fill the bottom part of this pot 724 00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:16,480 Speaker 1: with water. You've got a vertical tube that extends up 725 00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:18,920 Speaker 1: from the bottom of the pot to the top. Sometimes 726 00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:21,960 Speaker 1: this is actually a separate piece that you insert into 727 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:24,760 Speaker 1: the pot after you've already filled it with water. UM. 728 00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:26,640 Speaker 1: That means that the water in the tube is at 729 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,200 Speaker 1: the same level as the water level of the pot. 730 00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:31,880 Speaker 1: And at the top end of this tube is a 731 00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:35,839 Speaker 1: perforated basket of some sort. That's where you put the 732 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:40,880 Speaker 1: dry coffee grounds, and the water is in that chamber underneath. 733 00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:43,239 Speaker 1: As the water boils when you put it on this 734 00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:46,040 Speaker 1: heat source, some of the bubbles forming begin to push 735 00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:50,560 Speaker 1: water up that tube. So the hot water travels all 736 00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:53,400 Speaker 1: the way up the tube out the other end, and 737 00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:56,919 Speaker 1: it typically hits like a spreader plate or a drip 738 00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,560 Speaker 1: plate of some sort that distributes this hot water, so 739 00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:03,000 Speaker 1: it drips down onto the coffee grounds. UH. This hot 740 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,600 Speaker 1: water then seeps up the oils and caffeine as it 741 00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:10,480 Speaker 1: does this and drips down through the perforations back into 742 00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:14,880 Speaker 1: the water chamber below, and the whole process continues. Uh Percolation, 743 00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:17,799 Speaker 1: by the way, refers to filtering a liquid through some 744 00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:21,800 Speaker 1: sort of porous material, and that actually means that most 745 00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:26,120 Speaker 1: but not all coffee makers are actually percolators. But never 746 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,400 Speaker 1: mind that in America we just call the little bubbling 747 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:33,680 Speaker 1: stuff we see percolation. That's not really true, it's not accurate, 748 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:36,280 Speaker 1: but it's what we call it. So the boiling water 749 00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:39,480 Speaker 1: brewis the coffee, and eventually all that boiling water in 750 00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:43,200 Speaker 1: the bottom of the pot is really brewed coffee as 751 00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:46,719 Speaker 1: this process continues in the coffee recirculation also means that 752 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:49,839 Speaker 1: you typically end up with a pretty darn strong cup 753 00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:52,520 Speaker 1: of coffee at the end, and that's because the coffee 754 00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:55,560 Speaker 1: and the fresh water mixed together and the concentration of 755 00:43:55,560 --> 00:44:00,280 Speaker 1: coffee increases the longer that the percolator is percle eating. 756 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,400 Speaker 1: The stovetop or open flame versions also have a drawback. 757 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:08,839 Speaker 1: They typically are pretty bad about burning coffee as well, 758 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:13,640 Speaker 1: so it's a good efficient way to make a potentially 759 00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:17,359 Speaker 1: terrible cup of coffee. Much later. Other inventors came up 760 00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:20,760 Speaker 1: with electric percolators, some of which designated a very small 761 00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:22,800 Speaker 1: area of the bottom of the pot as a heat source, 762 00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:27,080 Speaker 1: so that the area directly under where the tube is 763 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:30,319 Speaker 1: would become hot enough to cause bubbles to push water 764 00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,600 Speaker 1: up the tube, just like in the stovetop version, but 765 00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,360 Speaker 1: the rest of the water in the pot wouldn't be 766 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:41,240 Speaker 1: directly on a heat source, so cold water from the 767 00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:43,759 Speaker 1: most of the pot would end up circulating in to 768 00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:46,879 Speaker 1: replace the hot water that's going up the tube, and 769 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:50,200 Speaker 1: you wouldn't be as likely to burn your coffee. However, 770 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,800 Speaker 1: like other percolators, this is another method where the fresh 771 00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:57,920 Speaker 1: water and coffee mixed together and the coffee recirculates to 772 00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:01,160 Speaker 1: the system, so you still get a pretty strong cup 773 00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:04,040 Speaker 1: of coffee. Not necessarily a good one, but a very 774 00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:08,440 Speaker 1: strong one. In the nineties seventies, Samuel Glazer and Vincent 775 00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:11,200 Speaker 1: Moroda got an idea. They thought of a way to 776 00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:14,920 Speaker 1: create an automatic drip coffee maker, which was a kind 777 00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:17,440 Speaker 1: of a way to create a pour over coffee without 778 00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:21,400 Speaker 1: actually having to manually pour water over coffee grounds sitting 779 00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:25,320 Speaker 1: in a filter over a craft. With the original Mr Coffee, 780 00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,000 Speaker 1: you would put a filter in the coffee grounds basket. 781 00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,640 Speaker 1: You would fill that filter with coffee grounds, and then 782 00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:32,440 Speaker 1: you would fill a chamber at the top of the 783 00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:35,720 Speaker 1: machine with water, and you would put your coffee craft 784 00:45:36,239 --> 00:45:39,440 Speaker 1: under the filter spout and you would turn on your 785 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,120 Speaker 1: coffee maker, and gravity did most of the work. Really. 786 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:45,280 Speaker 1: It would pull the water downward through this coffee maker. 787 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:47,719 Speaker 1: The water would pass over heating elements that raised the 788 00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,680 Speaker 1: temperature of the water dramatically before that water would then 789 00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,279 Speaker 1: drip down over the coffee grounds in the filter, and 790 00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,040 Speaker 1: then the water would go through the filter, carrying those 791 00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:01,600 Speaker 1: oils nearromatics and caffeine into the graft. Later versions of 792 00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:04,200 Speaker 1: the coffee maker changed up this design. They used a 793 00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:08,440 Speaker 1: water reservoir that requires thermodynamics to move water up a 794 00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:10,840 Speaker 1: tube to pass it over the coffee grounds, but it 795 00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:15,040 Speaker 1: no longer used a gravity fed system. So a typical 796 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:17,960 Speaker 1: coffee maker would have a little hole in the bottom 797 00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:20,759 Speaker 1: of the water reservoir that you fill up with cold water. 798 00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:24,240 Speaker 1: So cold water goes from the reservoir down this hole 799 00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,640 Speaker 1: into an aluminum tube and it passes through a valve 800 00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:30,840 Speaker 1: that allows water to travel only in that direction. It 801 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,240 Speaker 1: can't go backward, So in the aluminum tube, the cold 802 00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:37,760 Speaker 1: water passes near heating elements. These are coils of wire 803 00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:40,080 Speaker 1: that heat up when you pass electricity through them because 804 00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:44,640 Speaker 1: of electrical resistance, and that transfers heat to that cold water. 805 00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:47,800 Speaker 1: The heated water inside the aluminium tube begins to boil, 806 00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:50,840 Speaker 1: so bubbles are forming, and because you have that valve 807 00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:53,600 Speaker 1: that is blocking the bubbles from going back up to 808 00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:57,200 Speaker 1: the reservoir, they can only travel forward up the tube, 809 00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:01,000 Speaker 1: pushing water up as it goes up, and this hot 810 00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:04,040 Speaker 1: water comes out of the top of the tube and 811 00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:08,240 Speaker 1: then filters out to hit the coffee grounds, which then 812 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,040 Speaker 1: percolates right same same sort of thing as the percolator, 813 00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:15,560 Speaker 1: except in this case you've got the supply of fresh 814 00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:19,680 Speaker 1: water separate from your finished coffee, because the hot water 815 00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:23,960 Speaker 1: comes up, hits those coffee grounds, filters down through, carrying 816 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:27,160 Speaker 1: those oils and caffeine and everything, and then drips into 817 00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:31,239 Speaker 1: the empty caraft underneath the filter, so you don't have 818 00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:34,960 Speaker 1: to worry about the coffee mixing with fresh water and 819 00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:38,279 Speaker 1: then recirculating through the system. And this was said to 820 00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:42,400 Speaker 1: create a much more consistent cup of coffee, so you 821 00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:45,520 Speaker 1: didn't end up with this burnt coffee taste or super 822 00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:49,640 Speaker 1: strong taste. Glazer and Moroda did call their device Mr Coffee. 823 00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:52,279 Speaker 1: It represented a huge change in how Americans would make 824 00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:55,400 Speaker 1: their breakfast beverage, and it was one of those inventions 825 00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:58,400 Speaker 1: that made coffee far more convenient and cut back on 826 00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:02,240 Speaker 1: the problems of burnt coffee in general. Though, the heating 827 00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:05,640 Speaker 1: plate on most drip coffee makers can also burn coffee 828 00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:07,480 Speaker 1: if you leave it turned on with the craft on 829 00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:10,800 Speaker 1: top of it. So after you finished brewing coffee with 830 00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:13,720 Speaker 1: an automatic drip coffee maker, I recommend you turn off 831 00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:17,440 Speaker 1: the coffee maker. I know that means that the heating 832 00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:20,360 Speaker 1: plate is going to be off and that the coffee 833 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,200 Speaker 1: will gradually go cold. But one only brew as much 834 00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:25,719 Speaker 1: coffee as you actually need, and to drink it not 835 00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:27,800 Speaker 1: long after you brew it, because that's when it's best. 836 00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:34,120 Speaker 1: Otherwise you're just you're just making things worse for yourself, honestly. Now, 837 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:36,560 Speaker 1: there's a lot more we could talk about. Right There 838 00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:41,000 Speaker 1: are the curig machines and their pods and the danger 839 00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,560 Speaker 1: that that presents to the environment if you don't have 840 00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:49,799 Speaker 1: compostable pods. There are French press machines which actually use infusion, 841 00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:53,680 Speaker 1: not percolation for coffee. There are espresso machines which use 842 00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:59,560 Speaker 1: pressurized hot water pushed through a coffee puck a puck 843 00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:02,000 Speaker 1: of coffee grounds. There are all these other things that 844 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:05,200 Speaker 1: we could talk about, but we're running along, so I'll 845 00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:08,000 Speaker 1: do a look at some of the materials see if 846 00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:10,960 Speaker 1: there's enough to justify a second episode, and if so, 847 00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:14,960 Speaker 1: we'll follow this up with another coffee themed episode of 848 00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,560 Speaker 1: tech Stuff, and if not, maybe I'll pair it with 849 00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:21,399 Speaker 1: something else. Maybe we'll do sort of you know, breakfast tech, 850 00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:23,759 Speaker 1: and we'll include some of the coffee stuff I didn't 851 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:26,600 Speaker 1: talk about and some other technologies. In the meantime, If 852 00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:29,000 Speaker 1: you guys have suggestions for things I should tackle on 853 00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:32,680 Speaker 1: tech Stuff, whether it's a specific technology, a trend in tech, 854 00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:36,200 Speaker 1: maybe it's a company that you want me to talk about, 855 00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:38,920 Speaker 1: whatever it might be, let me know on Twitter. The 856 00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:42,600 Speaker 1: handle to use is tech stuff H s W and 857 00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:50,640 Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is 858 00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:53,840 Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I 859 00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:57,560 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 860 00:49:57,680 --> 00:50:01,560 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Three