February 14, 2024
by Natasha Nesic
Sometimes, we want to get into a hobby, but there’s a language barrier.
Even if we’re all speaking the same national words to communicate with each other, most hobbies and communities have their own terms and vocabulary for specific, defined objects and occurrences. (How fancy and sociological!)
That means that when you’re entering the world of coffee, you might quickly find out that it has its own list of words that are unique to coffee culture.
Let’s start with the easy ones, and work our way to the less-familiar terms as we get towards the bottom of the list. You’ll be sweeping hot baristas off their feet in no time!
1. Beans
These little guys! This is the magical seed that coffee comes from, found in the pit of the fruit of the coffee plant—just as you would find the hard center of a squishy berry-adjacent fruit like lychee or limoncillo, except this one contains the power of caffeine at the center after processing. You see, coffee is certainly the natural product of a plant that grows from the ground, but it definitely doesn’t look like the end result for a fair bit of time while it’s being processed. The total step-by-step looks a little like this:
Planting the seeds
Harvesting the cherries
Processing the cherries
Drying the beans
Milling the beans
Exporting the beans
Tasting the coffee
Roasting the coffee
Grinding the coffee
Brewing the coffee
(And don’t worry if some of those processing words looked odd; they’re about to be covered throughout our list.)
2. Cherries
The fruit of the coffee plant. This word is important because sometimes we identify coffee as having cherry notes or flavors, but it’s not referring to the plant that the beans came from. It’s also important to know this word because depending on how the cherries are processed (through either a wet or dry method after harvesting), that will affect the kind of coffee that’s being produced.
3. Washed
We’re not talking about bath time—
“the washed coffee process” is one example of a wet processing method, wherein the cherries are soaked in water for a period of time before drying and further processing in order to help remove the pulpy fruit around the bean.
It might help instill more fruity, antioxidant flavors—to find out, you can try
Monobamba Washed,
Geisha Caturra Washed,
Castillo Washed,
Geisha Washed, and
Caturra Washed and see how their flavors compare to the dry-processed coffees.
4. Natural
It’s a processing type, too! This is the term for a dry method that skips the soaking stage of washed coffee and allows nature’s oldest, most reliable dehydrator—sunshine!— to do its work, so that the cherry pulp can be separated from the bean inside. Try the
Junin Natural,
Catuai Natural, and
Natural Anaerobic to experience the difference in flavor from the previous method. You may find the nuances brighter and warmer, with a touch of sunny astringency on the aftertaste.
5. Anaerobic
Bet that word looked a little funny up there next to “natural,” but it’s indeed
a processing method as well! You can also find it in the
Junin Anaerobic and
Catuai Anaerobic to see how the flavor changes from terroir to terroir.
6. Terroir
There’s
a lot that goes into making great beans, and it’s all from Mother Earth. Terroir refers to the specific environments in the regions that produce an agricultural product. You often hear this word in comestible cultures like wine and adagio.com tea as well.
7. Origin
Where exactly does the coffee come from? That’s what we call its origin. At Lardera, we source from
the following origins as of this writing:
Limmu, Ethiopia
Tarrazu, Costa Rica
Central Valley, Costa Rica
Junin, Peru
Monobamba, Peru
Antioquia, Colombia
8. Roast
Super self-explanatory: how much a coffee has been gently toasted until it achieves a certain degree of brownness that will be classified on a spectrum of light to medium to dark, depending on when it has “cracked.”
9. First Crack
The first moment that a roasting bean pops, creating a defined hairline split in the bean itself. This signals the beginning of a light roast and congratulations! You’re on your way to a medium roast, which occurs at—
10. Second Crack
Like second breakfast, but better. This means that medium roast has begun and you can take it from there to further break down the tough fiber of the bean shell and modify its chemical structure to be sweeter and crispier as some antioxidants start to come through that would otherwise go unnoticed with a lighter roast.
Enjoy!
