Water-washed coffee what are the characteristics of washing coffee beans?

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When buying coffee, have you ever paid attention to the treatment of coffee beans?

If you are drinking coffee in this way, you must not know how to taste coffee. You might as well order a cup of fine coffee next time, look at the producing area and treatment of these coffee, listen to the barista's explanation, and taste the flavor carefully. If you know anything about coffee, you must have heard of the two most common ways to treat coffee beans: washed coffee and sun-cured coffee. The flavor of these two ways of coffee can be said to be poles apart, water-washed coffee is sour and sun-cured coffee is sweet. Now use scientific research to explain the difference between the two.

Coffee beans are the seeds of coffee fruit, which looks like a red jujube from the outside, and because the small red fruit of coffee fruit is also like a cherry, it is called coffee cherry (coffee cherry) in foreign countries.

In terms of structure, coffee fruits generally have peel, pulp, pectin layer and coffee beans from the outside to the inside, while coffee beans with different treatments will retain different structures, which will of course affect the flavor.

At first, coffee farmers will remove the immature fruit after collecting the coffee fruit, and then they will treat the coffee beans in different ways.

Solarization method

If coffee farmers adopt the sun treatment method to evaluate the weather permitting, they will spread the screened coffee fruits directly on the main square, let the sun exposure for 2 to 3 weeks, dry the coffee fruits, and then remove the shell of the dried coffee fruits to get coffee beans. This kind of sun-dried beans will adhere to the dried pulp layer and pectin layer, so the coffee beans will be richer in flavor and tend to taste sweet.

Washing method

Is to remove the peel and pulp of the screened coffee fruit through the shelling machine, and the remaining coffee beans containing pectin layer will be fermented for 12 to 24 hours by the symbiotic bacteria of the coffee itself, such as acetic acid bacteria and lactic acid bacteria. These strains will digest the pectin layer outside the coffee beans, and then the acid will seep into the coffee beans, making the flavor of the coffee beans sour, and then treated by water washing, so it is called water washing.

A study in 2001 studied the fermentation changes of washed coffee beans. The results showed that the pH value of coffee beans before fermentation was about 5.7.After 20 hours of fermentation, the sugar content of coffee beans decreased significantly, while the relative organic acid content increased significantly, indicating that there are indeed more acids in washed coffee beans that make their flavor sour.

Sun drying and water washing each have their own advantages and disadvantages in processing. Sun processing is simple, as long as the coffee fruit is dried by the sun, but it is limited by the weather because it is very dependent on the sun for several consecutive worship. If it rains for a few days, it may reimburse the whole batch of coffee fruits, so the price of good sun beans remains high in the coffee bean auction market. Washed beans also have processing restrictions, and they may not be able to use water washing in some countries where water is scarce or of poor water quality.

Qianjie coffee has a lot of washed beans, such as [Jamaica Blue Mountain] [Kenya] [washed Yega] and so on, but the difference is that although the Blue Mountain is washed, it is well balanced and mellow. The acidity of [Kenya] [washed Yega] is very bright. Therefore, Qianjie Coffee recommends that the brewing temperature of [Jamaica Blue Mountain] is 88 ℃ and the time is one minute and 50 seconds, while [Kenya] [Yega] these are brewed with 90-91 ℃ for about two minutes and ten seconds.

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