Coffee vs. wine

Vines take about 2-3 years to bear fruit. During this time, both the bushes and the soil in which they grow require care. The vine also battles many pests throughout its life.

2. Harvesting

Wine can be harvested either by hand or with machines. If you bought a good quality hand-picked wine, you probably paid anorder of magnitude more for it than for one picked by a combine. Nowadays, most wine is harvested by machines.

3. Aging and maceration

During these processes, the pulp is stripped of the stem andcrushed in vats to produce mash. Maceration is the leachingand fermentation of the grapes. The maceration time varies according to the type of wine and has a significant contribution to the final product.

During these two steps, the wine is rid ofsediment and lees. The clarification causes the solid particles to settle to the bottom. During the filtration process, everything in the wine that most of us don't want is removed.

7. Bottling the wine

The resulting liquid is already what we know as wine. This is bottled, which is then corked and shipped or stored.

1. Growing coffee

The coffee plant takes 5 years in ideal conditions to start producing coffee cherries. The coffee plant is very demanding of
altitude, temperature and humidity and is subject to many pests.

"The coffee tree is largely allergic to 21st century." - coffeebeansdelivered.com.au

2. Harvesting coffee

Compared to wine, there is a fundamental difference. Most of the coffee grown on our planet is harvested by hand.

Yet there are several coffee chains that harvest coffee cherries by machine on their plantations.

3. Sorting coffee cherries

After the cherries are harvested and transported to the processing site, they are sorted by size and colour. At the same time, the processor gets rid ofdefective fruit. This is again done by hand.

Dry does not need water, but the seeds tend to be more damaged and infected by fungi.

Washed processing requires a lot of water and more attention. However, it damages the grains less and preserves their quality.

Other processing methods include 'honey'. This is a kind of combination of the two methods described above.

5. Hulling

The processed grains are then peeledby machine and stripped of the remaining pulp and the so-called parchment.

6. Sorting of the grains

The next step is to sort the grains again, this time individually. Tajsou sorted by machine according to size. There is also a final cleaning.

The grains are then packed into bags, which are distributed by cargo ships to all corners of the world.

7. Roasting

Although all the preceding steps have been carried out with the greatest care, it is not yet won. Roasting is a very demanding process requiring from the roaster a great deal of experience and patience, a good roaster, a lot of time and energy. Even the best green beans can becomeunusable during roasting due to many factors.

8. Coffee preparation

This is what most of us probably know best. Whether we enjoy coffee at home or in a café.

Again, even thebest grown, processed and prepared coffee can be completely ruined by a moment's inattention, a poorly set grinder or poorly whipped milk .

The real price of coffee

Many of those who do not move in the world of third wave coffee are sometimes surprised by the price of a packet of such coffee. Few people wonder about the price of fine wine anymore.

And the energy expended by the people involved in all the aforementioned steps leading to the finished coffee is atleast comparable to the journey to a glass of wine.

Of course,coffee and wine do not need tocompete with each other. Both of these beverages have their lovers and their place.

But try to take afew coffee beans in your hand sometime, take a good look at them, close your eyes and imagine the journey they must have taken to make the coffee you enjoy.