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St. John Coffee Believe it or not, St. John grows great coffee. This is first hand information. Habiba and I picked coffee cherries from some of John Gibney's coffee trees, which are in full bloom now and, which he says give two crops a year. The red, ripe cherries should be picked one at a time. If they're too high on the tree, you can pull on a branch and bend the top of the tree down enough so that you can reach the higher branches. You'll need to do this carefully so as not to break the tree.
Picking Coffee I learned from John that you can eat the cherries. They're mildly sweet and have a pleasant flavor. They do contain some caffeine, but not nearly as much as can be found in the bean. John also told me that the cherry makes a delicious drink that is popular in Latin America.)
Coffee Cherries Next, we took the cherries home and squeezed out the beans. There are two beans in each cherry. You just squeeze the cherry and the beans pop out. At this point they are slimy from the juice of the cherry.
Fresh Beans
fermenting bean soup Then you wash them and put them in the sun until they're good and dry.
Washed Beans Once they're dry, you need to remove the husk. This is done commercially using a machine. The first such device was invented by Julio Smout in 1800. Lacking this you can use a mortar and pestle or, if you don't have a real lot of beans, by simply peeling off the husk bean by bean.
Husks Once you get the husk off, you have what are known as green beans.
Green Beans We brought the beans over by John and Teri, ground them up and Teri brewed up a batch, which we all sampled.
Roasted Coffee Beans John, Teri, Habiba and I are all coffee It takes a lot of work to make a cup of coffee, but it's worth it.
Drinking the Coffee |
