 |
| Cafe oro |
To me, un-toasted coffee beans taste like sunflower seed husks, to the socios they taste like "pure coffee." Just in case you were wondering....
It has become my habit, along with the workers at the cooperative to chew a few green coffee beans here and there throughout the day.
The last couple of weeks have been a lot of time at the beneficio and
talking with folks as they deliver their coffee, or visit the
cooperative store to buy household items and a treats. On Wednesday they
fired up the processing machines and I got to take photos and video of
the dry-process method. I've included some of the videos here (beware of
noisiness--machines are loud....).
 |
| This is a coffee seedling |
I think as time goes by people are
becoming more cognizant of what coffee looks like before it gets into
their mug (or 40oz thermos, or whathaveyou). But I really enjoyed
documenting the process and I look forward to using these shots/videos
in my classes. Also, this day was more than just a day with the
beneficio workers, it was a day of training and learning about coffee
standards and quality for a new generation of coffee farmers (the
majority of the young men processing this harvest are the sons and
brothers of the leaders in the co-op). So, once again it feeds into my
work, which is based on how small producers are staying on their land.
This generation has had different opportunities than their parents, more
consistent school, some training in the Spanish language--they wear jeans
and have cell phones, they listen to Spanish rock music or music from the U.S. (one kid was
even wearing a tag adorned with Justin Bieber's name)--but at the
same time, they all are starting to tend their own coffee and corn plots, they want to stay on
the land and they want to work with the coffee cooperative.
 |
| Behind me is the co-op's nursery for seedlings |
Eventually
I will have pictures of the whole process--the cooperative has a
toaster in town and they toast beans for their cafe in San Cristobal and
also for sale around town and beyond (Chiapas, Yucatan, Tabasco). But
for now here is a primer on what is happening with the coffee harvest in
the highlands.
What follows is what I've been able to capture about the process--I have many other stories to tell, but this one seems the most relevant right now--
 |
| One of the varieties of coffee grown in the highlands |
 |
| Coffee picking |
 |
| Mature coffee on the plant |
 |
| Red is mature, Green is not |
 |
| Coffee de-pulping |
 |
| Coffee drying |
 |
| Gathering the dried coffee |
 |
| Dried Coffee - Pergamino |
 |
| Prepping the costales (69 kilo bags) |
 |
| Delivered coffee - going to storage |
 |
| Mountain of pergamino awaiting processing |
And here is my chronicling of the processing--some things to keep in mind: Those are 69 kilo bags (that translates to 152 pounds for those of us not fluent in metric); also the beneficio processes cafe pergamino (dried/green coffee beans still with parchment) in lots of 400 bags. 400, 69 kilo bags will become 280, 69 kilo bags of cafe oro (without parchment, ready for export)...that's a lot of parchment weight processed out. The videos are following the coffee beans through the process--they're very short--5-20 seconds each.
I don't have video of the coffee going from pergamino to oro, because this is me up on a ladder against the machinery, so just a couple of pictures of this. There are many places in this stream of coffee beans where the export ready are separated from the non-export grade--for every 5 bags of 'good coffee' there is a bag of 'bad coffee.' The non-export grade coffee will stay in Chiapas and be toasted and sold in Chiapas and surrounding states. They also offer their organic Mexico-grade coffee in the cafe in town.
 |
| This one is for Joe, because I know how much he likes automation |
|
|
|
This is the parchment dust getting blown out of the the building--a mountain of parchment
 |
| Painting the lot number |
 |
| Topping up to 69 kilos of Oro |
 |
| Ready for export |
