Hand-selected coffee beans

I talked about the types of defective beans and their possible negative effects on the taste of coffee. Defective beans must be picked out before baking, a process called hand selection.

Perhaps some people will say that they buy the most advanced raw beans, there is no need to pick out defective beans. But even the highest grade of raw coffee beans will contain a small number of defective beans, if not hand-selected, then these defective beans will have a negative impact on the taste of coffee, which will affect the good taste of the highest grade raw beans. Therefore, the process of hand selection is very necessary.

Hand selection is important, but the way is simple, you only need simple tools to do it. These include electronic weighing, boxes for raw beans, boxes for defective beans, spoons and hand-selected screens (or brown trays). How should it proceed?

First, weigh the raw beans needed for baking, but not too much weight by hand (if the baking quantity is very large, it can be weighed in stages). Determine the appropriate amount according to the size of the pallet or screen. Take the picture as an example, a hand-selected weight is appropriate in 1--2KG.

Second, prepare boxes for raw beans and boxes for defective beans. When everything is ready, you can start hand selection.

Third, spread the raw beans evenly on the tray (the thin layer is the best). Or you can concentrate the raw beans on one side, select them from one side, and then pile them on the other side, so as to rotate the selection.

Fourth, there is also a certain order of hand selection. Because there are many kinds of defective beans and the quality of raw beans is different, we often feel that there are too many defective beans and do not know how to start, so we can hand-select them in a certain order. First of all, pick out black beans with obvious color differences, moldy beans, over-dried beans; secondly, pick out sundries with obvious differences in shape, shell beans, broken beans, like beans, round beans; and then pick out obvious worm-eaten beans. Pick out these and then select those less obvious defective beans, such as fermented beans, unripe beans and so on. In this way, hand selection will be easier.

Fifth, if the baking quantity is small, it does not matter if the manual selection is carried out slowly, but if the baking quantity is very large, the manual selection should be carried out quickly (or ahead of time) in order to avoid affecting the baking. Therefore, it is best to choose defective beans with both hands at the same time, so that the speed will be much faster, but also can reduce the burden of using hands.

Sixth, weigh the remaining raw beans by hand and calculate the approximate proportion of defective beans. Then the selected defective beans are classified and counted and saved as part of the raw bean information. Less than the amount of baking and then hand-selected to make up. In this way, the hand-selected raw beans can be baked.

Generally speaking, in order to ensure the quality of coffee, there is another hand selection after roasting. This time, the main purpose is to pick out coffee beans with different colors (this may be the defective beans that were not selected in the previous hand selection, such as unripe beans, dead beans, shell beans). The color of successful roasted coffee beans is very consistent, and the number of coffee beans that are too dark and too light is very small, so it is easier to choose by hand.

Hand selection is the most important preparation before baking. Although it is simple, it is indispensable. Do you feel that your baked coffee beans don't taste good? In addition to the problem of baking itself, you should also consider the fineness of hand-selection. next time, carefully hand-select it and take a look at the effect on the taste of coffee.