First comes the sound of the beans hitting the hot pan, then the aroma that rises as they change color, roast, and begin to release that fragrance that seems to linger in life
SANTO DOMINGO. – In a rustic arbor, a woman holds a small enameled pot in her hands, while another prepares the coffee. The water boils on the stove, the dark grounds are filtered through the cloth, and the liquid slowly drips into the pitcher that waits patiently. When she finishes, she brings it to her lips, inhales the aroma, and closes her eyes. She doesn't need to say it's good; her expression says it all.
The scene can unfold anywhere; it can be done in an industrial coffee maker, a moka pot, or a "media" as grandmothers called a cloth strainer. Coffee always announces itself, in a far from discreet way, occupying all spaces, both personal and those of others.
While she waits, the woman dozes and the aroma awakens memories in her, far from that bower, far in time… She is in a country kitchen, she is about ten years old and she watches her grandmother work in front of the fire: the grandmother is roasting coffee.
The iron cauldron sits on the stove, the firewood glowing red-hot, yet not a spark flies. With one hand, Grandma gauges the temperature, then in one swift motion, she pours in the green beans and stirs with a wooden spoon. She pauses for a moment to extinguish a bit of the embers, then stirs again.
The girl watches as the color changes and listens to the instructions. Look closely, the coffee can't be left alone.
Grandma knows how to recognize the perfect roast and doesn't need a thermometer or measuring instruments. Tradition taught her the ideal roast level according to taste, and her experience is now explained by the technical classifications used in the coffee industry.
The United States Department of Agriculture distinguishes four grades, from light to dark, according to the color of the grain and its development during heating.
She also had the experience of having done it many times: a physical and chemical transformation process, in which heat reduces the moisture of the bean, modifies its components and produces the reactions responsible for a good part of the aromas and flavors of roasted coffee.
Roasters distinguish three main grades: light, medium, and dark. Within these, there are other levels, such as medium-light and medium-dark, which allow for adjusting the beverage's flavor profile.
Light roasting leaves the beans in soft brown tones, similar to cinnamon. It preserves a greater expression of the coffee's original characteristics and usually offers a more noticeable acidity, with notes that can be floral, citrus, or fruity.
A medium roast produces a more uniform brown color and develops a balance between acidity, sweetness, and body. Notes of caramel, chocolate, and nuts may appear in the cup.
Dark roasting gives the beans very deep brown tones, sometimes almost black, and can cause their surface to become shiny due to the presence of oils. The acidity becomes less noticeable, and the roasted flavors, more bitter and smoky, predominate.
The study “Effect of roasting degree of coffee beans on sensory evaluation,” published by Guilin Hu and other researchers in the journal Food Chemistry in 2020, examined how different roasting degrees modify the chemical components and sensory characteristics of coffee. Their results show that body and acidity are attributes particularly sensitive to the roasting process.
During the roasting process, there are also two recognizable moments for those who work with coffee: the first crack and the second crack, known in the industry as first crack and second crack.
These are sounds produced by the changes in pressure and structure that the grain undergoes as it heats up. The first indicates an important stage in the roasting process; the second appears when roasting continues and a darker roast is achieved.
In that country kitchen, however, that science had no name. Grandma taught with her eyes on the bowl, her hand stirring the grains, and her nose attentive to the aroma.
The girl learned by watching, and you had to step back a bit because the smoke from the roasting coffee was intense, penetrating, almost overwhelming when you were too close. It spread through the kitchen and seemed to seep into every corner of the house and many meters into the woods.
They never knew that the Arabica coffee plant originated in the highlands of Ethiopia and from there it spread to Yemen, where its consumption spread around the 15th century, and later it reached Europe and America through trade routes and colonial expansion.
No one told them that coffee found suitable growing conditions in the Caribbean, nor that its history was also linked to slave labor. Different dates circulate regarding its arrival in Hispaniola: the General Directorate of Public Procurement indicates 1735, while other research records references to its introduction from Saint-Domingue.
In the Dominican Republic, commercial production began to develop around 1860, according to the catalog of small producers published by that institution in 2021.
The turn of the pillar
After the roasting, the women gathered around the wooden piles, each with a wooden mallet, and began to beat the roasted beans, over and over again, until they were reduced to powder.
One struck, the other responded. The mallets rose and fell. The sound repeated and intersected in a cadence that seemed to have its own music.
The girl watched; she was not yet old enough to handle those mallets, but she knew the women's movements and knew that the coffee that would later be prepared in the kitchen would come from there.
For the youngest members of the household there was the mill, which allowed them to grind the grains without having to handle the heavy mallets and stir the grains in the drying room, and thus, each generation had its own way of participating in the preparation.
The grind size also affects the beverage. When the coffee is ground very finely, the surface area in contact with the water increases, allowing for faster extraction; when it is ground coarser, different brewing conditions are required.
But in Grandma's kitchen, they didn't talk about particle size or extraction. They talked about grinding coffee, and they did it until it was ready to go through the filter, with the right texture, flavors, and aromas.
A profession surrounded by beliefs
The person in charge of roasting the coffee had to bathe before starting. Afterward, they shouldn't, because, according to the belief passed down by the elders, it could cause them to become paralyzed.
It was one of those warnings preserved in rural homes, passed down from grandmothers to daughters and granddaughters. It wasn't a medical recommendation backed by scientific evidence, but rather a popular belief that was part of how that work was organized.
Coffee preparation was steeped in practical knowledge, habits, and superstitions. Some stemmed from accumulated experience; others belonged to oral tradition.
The girl had no reason to distinguish them then, because for her, everything was part of the same scene: the fire, the smell, the mallets, the mill, the women, and the coffee.
And that's how things are etched in our memory, things that are later brought back by a scent.
The coffee that brings the house together
The work ended when the coffee was ground, and of course, it had to be tasted. The water was brought to a boil. The dark powder was placed in the cloth filter, and the brew began to flow. The liquid slowly passed through the fabric and reached the container waiting below.
The cloth strainer retained the coffee grounds while allowing the brew, along with some of the oils and soluble substances extracted from the bean, to pass through. Then came the small pot.
In country houses, coffee was served in pewter or enamel pots, and each sip seemed to have its own time. There was no rush to finish it; it was drunk while conversing, looking out at the patio, listening to the news of those arriving, or simply accompanying the start of the day with the sounds of the henhouse.
Coffee also had, and still has, a social function, as it is offered to visitors, shared with neighbors, and accompanies family conversations. It is a way to welcome, to pause, and to be together.
The little girl watching her grandmother roast and grind coffee had no idea she was witnessing a tradition that had spanned continents. Nor could she imagine that, long before reaching that kitchen, the beans had passed through Arab markets, European ports, and Caribbean plantations. To her, it was simply the family coffee.
Waking up from the half-sleep
The woman in the arbor nodded, and her enameled jug almost slipped from her hand. She smiled and said, “Mmm! Goodness, it smells delicious, give me mine…” and the woman with the strainer came over, smiling, to serve her. “Tell me what number I’m playing,” and they both burst out laughing.
For a moment, the kitchen of his childhood seemed to still be there, as he sipped the steaming coffee, he again heard the mallets hitting the mortars, the mill of the children, the birds in the yard and the voice of his grandmother telling him not to neglect the roasting pan.
Many years have passed since those mornings, the world has changed, the ways of preparing coffee have multiplied, and the drink that was born in the African mountains has become part of the daily life of towns and cities all over the planet.
And there are memories that remain, lurking in some corner of memory, until someone brews coffee the right way and then a whole house is filled with childhood again.
Seated in separate rocking chairs, the women laugh and chat while sipping coffee, which continues to fulfill its purpose of bringing stories together around a cup or a small pot, as the case may be.
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