ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the outlines of coffee cultivation and the production of coffee ready for use as a beverage. Coffee is grown in countries situated between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. The production of green coffee beans involves successive removal of the outermost red skin and the pulp of the coffee berry, followed by removal of the mucilage, parchment covering, and, finally, the silverskin surrounding the green coffee bean. The dry method produces green coffee beans much less expensively than the wet method. Decaffeination of green coffee beans is most usually carried out with a water/solvent partition system. Spray-and freeze-dried coffee extracts have generally lost their original volatile flavor and aroma compounds. Several techniques for collecting the flavor and aroma components that are given off during roasting, grinding, and percolation have been developed so that the “flavor and aroma” can be added back to the soluble coffee before it is packaged.
