We did a coffee tour with one of our friends that is from South Africa. It was really interesting learning about the coffee process from start to finish:

• Harvesting: Ripe coffee cherries are picked by hand or machine - we walked around their farm and picked a bunch ourselves that we would then process next
• Processing: Beans are separated from the fruit - the machine they used is a old machine that squeezes the beans out from the fruit
• Drying: Beans are spread out in greenhouse tents to be dried out
• Milling: Dried beans are hulled, sorted, and graded to remove defects
• Exporting: “Green coffee” aka "unroasted" beans are packed in bags and shipped.
• Roasting: Beans are heated in a roaster to develop flavor
• Cooling & Degassing: Roasted beans are rapidly cooled and allowed to rest so CO₂ can release

We started off the tour with a fresh cup of coffee, it was the best coffee I have ever tasted!