Honey treatment does not treat coffee with honey | what is the difference between different honey treatments?

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Coffee treatment is also an important factor affecting coffee flavor. This is why, in recent years, coffee workers will continue to learn from wine brewing and other areas of experience, innovative coffee treatment.

However, in addition to niche treatments such as red wine treatment, common sun, water, half-sun and honey treatments can also bring different flavor trends to coffee.

Among these common coffee treatments, "honey treatment" is probably more eye-catching, not only because it is relatively small, but also because its name seems to give coffee more sweetness.

Honey treatment, of course, does not use honey to treat coffee. However, it does bring more sweetness to coffee. If we want to know why, we should first understand the meaning of coffee treatment.

Therefore, the coffee treatment is to remove the peel, pulp and pectin layer of the coffee fruit, take out two coffee beans wrapped in sheep skin, and then dry them and grind off the sheep skin. However, coffee treatment is not a simple physical process, it involves a series of chemical reactions, time-consuming and labor-consuming, and can directly affect the flavor of the final cup.

Because, if you want to take out the coffee beans, you must conquer the transparent pectin attached to the sheep skin. This layer of pectin is rich in fructose, glucose and sucrose, but insoluble in water, it is easy to ferment spoilage and pollute coffee beans.

When it comes to the treatment of coffee, in addition to washing and tanning, there is also a quite common treatment-honey treatment, which is between washing and tanning, which is very common in Costa Rica. And honey treatment is divided into white honey, yellow honey, red honey, black honey and so on, so what is the difference between these honey treatments?

| | Honey treatment |

After Brazil's peeling and tanning method has spread to Central American countries such as Costa Rica and El Salvador, it is called honey treatment after improvement.

Honey treatment is the process of making raw beans by sun-drying with mucous membranes. After the outer pulp of the coffee bean is removed, there will be a layer of sticky jelly, which will be washed off with clean water in the traditional washing method, but because of the water resources limitations of some high-altitude areas, this method of drying directly with pectin was born.

According to the thickness of pectin planing, the length of sunshine time (or drying thickness), and the frequency of turning when drying, honey treatment can be divided into black honey, red honey, orange honey, yellow honey and white honey.

According to the thickness of the pectin:

Black honey: hardly removes pectin, so it takes the longest time to dry and lasts for more than 14 days. In order to avoid drying too fast, cover will be used to block too strong sunlight to make sugar conversion more fully.

Red honey: remove 25% pectin (the specific methods of each manor vary), the sun lasts for about 12 days, and shading sheds may also be used in the process.

Yellow honey: remove 40% pectin and receive maximum light drying for about 8 days.

Some producing areas and estates are distinguished according to the thickness of coffee beans and the number of turns, such as yellow honey and white honey, both retain 20-30% pectin:

Yellow honey: thick layer drying, less turning times, long drying time

White honey: thin layer drying, more turning times, short drying time.

Qianjie coffee compared several kinds of honey treatment, found that in flavor, the sweet and sour feeling of [black honey] treatment is obvious, some fruit juice feeling; [red honey] treatment is more balanced, with obvious raisin flavor; [yellow honey] treatment is relatively clean, fermentation taste is not heavy, prefer citrus flavor; [white honey] flavor is closer to water washing, the flavor is cleaner.

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