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Each morning you enjoy a cup of coffee at your local (this is very important?) [tag]coffee[/tag] shop. But can you imagine the months of hard labor that went into producing your cup of Joe? It all begins with the ?green beans?, which are like any other natural crop that have been cultivated through good farming practices, taking into account the local climate, elevation, available manpower, etc. At Moschetti, we favor producers who implement organic farming under an indigenous tree canopy to preserve flora and fauna. Farmers then have to make choices which will ultimately affect the quality of the finished product; planting density for the bushes, proper pruning and canopy management, which enables easier working conditions during harvest and also creates a more aerated canopy, weed control, and plantation of cover trees to provide shade for the coffee bushes. It takes 9 months of careful cultivation before the harvest takes place. During this time the farmers will have to preserve their precious crop against pests, diseases and variable weather. If lucky, the farmer will transform his effort into a valuable crop with cherries coming to maturation. It is now time to harvest. Pickers will select the cherries one by one, skipping the green ones as well as the overripe ones to further improve the quality of the coffee. The coffee cherries will now be processed into a viable commodity. There are two methods to separate the fruit pulp from the wet seeds. One is called the dry method, where cherries are sun dried and then crushed to liberate the coffee beans. The second is called the wet method, where the cherry pulp is first separated from the coffee bean by crushing it, and then the coffee bean is fermented with water to get rid of the mucilage covering it, and finally it undergoes a drying process. The coffee bean obtained by the dry method is called ?natural,? whereas the one obtained by the wet method is called ?washed.? The coffee beans will now be separated from various impurities before being graded by size through different screens. The beans are now ready to be exported and processed by your local roaster. But this is another story?.

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