Brazilian coffee processing method

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Brazilian coffee: The four most common treatments are: sun exposure, desizing, semi-washing and washing, with sun exposure being the most popular. Since the harvest seasons of Cerrado Mineiro and Mogiana Paulista, Brazil's two main producing areas, fall in the dry season of the year, natural solarization is very popular in this region.

solarization

Natural solarization differs greatly from the washing method used in other Central American countries and Colombia, and because the term "unwashed" does not fully capture the essence of this process, the Brazilians eventually chose the same term "natural solarization" as Ethiopian coffee. Note, however, that Brazilian sunning differs from traditional Ethiopian sunning. Brazilians say "natural sun" refers to the process of picking coffee rather than the traditional process, which is because Brazilians let the coffee fully absorb the sun on the branches and mature before picking.

In Brazil, freshly picked fruit is dried on the terrace, and the dried fruit is known locally as "Boia"(English for "ball"). As I said before, all coffee is picked unpicked, so many of the fruits are overripe during the drying process and dry like raisins. In more modern plantations, workers sift coffee before drying it, stripping out the immature fruit by putting it all into a tank, where the immature fruit floats above the water because of its lighter weight, and siphoning it away. But on relatively backward plantations, workers don't have enough cash for the equipment, and the unripe fruit can't be fully peeled, which is why many Brazilian sun-baked coffees are mixed with unripe beans.

Traditionally, coffee treated with sun usually has leather, tobacco and wood flavors, but Brazil's natural sun treatment gives coffee a sweet taste and balanced fruit aroma. Dr. Flavio Borem from the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) has conducted in-depth research on natural sun treatment of green coffee beans. According to his theory, in order to ensure the high quality of coffee beans treated by natural sunlight, people must strictly control the metabolic rate of coffee beans during the drying process to maximize the sweetness, complexity of taste and body of coffee. Only by strictly controlling the external temperature and the speed of fruit drying during the drying process can one ensure the integrity of coffee cell structure. During the drying process, the cell wall of coffee cells is easily damaged. Once the cellular structure is destroyed, the quality of coffee will not be guaranteed.

washing method

Finally, let's talk about the washing method. Although many Brazilian coffee growers have expressed strong interest in the washing method recently, the demand for this coffee in the domestic and foreign markets is still not high. The reason is that the washed Brazilian coffee has a poor reputation in the international market and the washing technology is relatively late and immature in Brazil. Washed coffee is treated in a similar way to semi-washed coffee, except that washed coffee requires fermentation to remove the mucus from the green bean surface. Washed coffee usually tastes pure and has a pleasant acidity.