Archive plates

Engravings and photographs from William Ukers's All About Coffee (1922), which has entered the public domain.

Sumatra, homeland of wet hulled. Photograph, see the provenance.Roby diery · CC BY-SA 4.0

Coffee preparation in Central and South America — The preparation of coffee in Central and South AmericaWilliam H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 1922 · Public domain

The Smout huller-polisherWilliam H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 1922 · Public domain

Fermentation and washing tanks on a fazenda in São PauloWilliam H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 1922 · Public domain

Drying areas of the Schmidt fazenda, the largest in BrazilWilliam H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 1922 · Public domain

Drying patios, Longa-España hacienda, VenezuelaWilliam H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 1922 · Public domain

Walker's original disc pulper, 1860William H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 1922 · Public domain

The Altamira hacienda, Venezuela, and its water conduitWilliam H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 1922 · Public domain

Previous sectionToday Next plateDiseases

In this plateThe 22 sections, by family

GET YOUR BEARINGS

A path, not a list

Open a family, choose the question that interests you. Each topic keeps its full text, its nuances and its sources.

01 / 04Understanding the fruitWhat surrounds the bean and how the gestures have changed.

01What a process is forWhat lies between the skin and the bean?
02Three centuries of gesturesHow were the gestures passed down and transformed?

02 / 04Choosing a routeRemoving, keeping or re-moistening: the paths after the harvest.

03The washed process, measured onceWhat is removed before drying a washed coffee?
04Knowing when it is done: the FermaestroHow do you know when to wash off the mucilage?
05Mechanical demucilagingHow to remove the mucilage without a long fermentation?
06Kenya and soakingWhy soak after washing?
07The dry process, the oldest and the hardestWhat happens when the whole cherry dries?
08Honey: the colors are standardized nowhereWhy are honey colors not recipes?
09Wet hulledWhy remove the parchment before drying is finished?
10Monsooned coffee, an accident turned into a requirementWhy re-moisten a bean that is already dry?

03 / 04Seeing science at workWater, tanks, microorganisms and gestures that people try to steer.

11Drying, a floor and a ceilingWhat water remains available to mold?
12Anaerobic and SIAF: nobody drives out the airWhat really happens in a closed tank?
13Carbonic macerationWhat does a CO₂ injection bring?
14Micro-oxygenation, MOXWhat does dosing oxygen mean?
15Choosing your microorganisms: selected yeastsWhat does a selected yeast change?
16Thermal shock and bioreactorsWhat is known about thermal shock, and what is assumed?
17Co-fermentation and infusion: what enters the beanWhat can an addition change in the tank?
18Lactic, koji and the other leadsDo lactic and koji mean the same thing?
19Where the microorganisms in the tank come fromWhere do the microbes of fermentation come from?

04 / 04Stepping backWhat is common, what remains to be proven, and the archives.

20Restoring proportionWhat share of coffee follows these experimental routes?
21TodayHow to untangle the names from the mechanisms?
22Archive platesWhat do the old documents show?

Plate IX, section 22 of 22. 146 words, 8 sources.

Last revised on September 24, 2026.

Set in Barlow Condensed for headings, in Atkinson Hyperlegible Next for body text and in IBM Plex Mono for reference marks and figures. Pages are produced by scripts, with no software framework. The images are engravings, plates, archive photographs and contemporary photographs from freely licensed collections. Beneath each image appears only what its license requires; the full register, with author, date, license and address, is on the provenance page.

The plant

From fruit to cup

The world of coffee

The body and matter

Start with the plant

Four stories

Five tools

The site

Archive plates