African honey coffee processing processes Roasting, grinding, brewing

Coffee processing

In order to start talking about coffee processing, I have to start with ten steps to bring coffee from the seed to the cup. When I first knew there were ten steps, I thought, "grow, roast, grind, brew." Is there anything else you can do? " As discussed on the National Coffee Association website, they are as follows:

Planting

Harvest cherries (yes, coffee grows on trees and looks like cherries)

Deal with cherries (if you are bored and scroll down, I will talk about this in this blog post)

Dried beans

Crushed beans

Export bean

Tasting coffee (this is where Sagebrush Coffee enters the supply chain)

Roast coffee (you would think this is what we are good at, but step 7 makes a big difference for a good roaster. You can't roast delicious food into coffee. We're just trying to make everyone in front of us do a good job and put it in a full display)

Grind coffee (it's best if you do, but we can help)

Make coffee (your job)

Each of these steps is crucial to a good cup of coffee. When you drink a delicious cup of coffee, remember to be very careful in all these steps.

Next, I will talk about step 3, processing cherries.

Coffee processing details

Please note that this is a very short high-level overview that can help you buy coffee. If you want more details, I can guide you to excellent resources for more details.

At the highest level, processed cherries remove fruit from beans. This happens soon after picking fruit and is very important for the flavor characteristics of coffee.

Water washing / wet process

The washed beans remove the pulp completely before drying. This is usually done with a mixture of water and a desizing machine. This is a good process and will not add a lot of changes to bean. It means that everything will happen correctly, and the harvest will produce good fruit. I think because this is a common method, it will be humiliated because it is not so good. This is completely untrue. Washed coffee scores high all over the world.

The taste of washed coffee has a lot to do with this method. You tend to get more unique flavors in bean. It almost always produces brighter, cleaner coffee. In Latin American coffee, washed beans show more caramel or nuts that are so common in the region.

Natural / drying process

Naturally processed beans are probably the oldest method. Although most of the farms we buy choose all three processes, you will find this process specifically in some areas. In the process, they will pick cherries and dry them with pulp and skin. They are scattered on the drying bed and dried in the sun. This method has a lot of labor, because they turn the beans regularly to avoid forming or deteriorating. It is worth noting that this process can take several weeks, depending on the weather.

This process, regardless of the source, almost always produces stronger coffee. When you think about it, it makes sense, because for weeks, fruit has only seeped into the beans. Some of our richest coffees are the drying process.

Natural technology of honey / half-washing / pulping

This can easily become the most confusing process. Maybe it's because we call it the honey process, which has nothing to do with real honey. The process is very similar to dry coffee. Except for removing the skin before drying. As you can imagine, this makes the beans very sticky / honey-like. Dry the coffee with a skin. How much pulp is left and how they dry is a longer discussion. The point is, they are a mixing process that eventually has its own flavor characteristics. Some of the best and most popular coffees we sell are processed with honey (pour a cup for Costa Rica Terra Bella).

When I taste honey-processed coffee, I always notice its unique sweetness. It doesn't get a natural fruity flavor, but it's more complex than similar washed coffee. I noticed a more syrup body and a richer flavor of some beans.

What does this mean?

Be careful when drinking a cup of coffee. I always list the process of every kind of beans we sell, including the product page and the information card on the package. I also added a procedure as a filter on the left side of the collection page. So let's see which one you like best. I like the dry Ethiopian craft, but I prefer the Latin American honey craft. Although look at our products, but brain surgeons will not come up with that.

In addition, when you pour a cup of morning coffee tomorrow (or you are drinking it now), think about all your time and energy. Thanks to people on the other side of the world raking a pound of coffee and a pound of coffee, so you can enjoy that cup of coffee.