Introduction to the treatment of Coffee Raw beans Why should they be washed natural Coffee treatment

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Preliminary treatment

The next step after harvest is to take the coffee seeds out of the ripe fruit and dry them. This can be achieved in two ways: dry and wet.

The method of drying

Drying or "natural" methods include drying whole cherries. This is the oldest and simplest method, requiring almost no machines. Harvested cherries are sorted and washed by hand to remove immature, overripe and damaged cherries as well as any dirt, soil, branches and leaves. This can also be achieved by floating cherries in the water.

The coffee fruit is spread out in the sun, either on a large concrete or brick patio, or on a waist-high support. If it rains, they will be covered. When the cherries dry, rake them flat or turn them over by hand to make sure they dry evenly. It takes four weeks for cherries to fully dry. In larger plantations, after coffee is dried in the sun for a few days, machine drying is sometimes used to speed up the process.

Dried cherries are fragile, the shell is hard, and the highest moisture content is 12.5%. Dried cherries are stored in silos until they are sent to the factory to be shelled, where the outer layer of dried cherries is removed. These "green coffee beans" are then classified and sold by grades.

Almost all Robusta are processed in this way. Most Arabica coffee beans produced in Brazil, most Arabica coffee beans produced in Ethiopia, Haiti and Paraguay, and some Arabica coffee beans produced in India and Ecuador are dried.

Wet method

The wet process requires the use of special equipment and available water. Like drying, ripe cherries should be washed first. Then use a machine to squeeze the cherries into pulp so that the pulp and skin are separated from the coffee beans. What's left is a smooth skin (mucus) and a piece of parchment.

After further washing, the beans remove the residual pulp and put them in a large container, where the mucus is broken down by natural enzymes and washed away. This takes 24 to 36 hours. Then wash the coffee with clean water. At this time, the water content of coffee is about 57%.

To reduce moisture to the ideal 12.5%, parchment coffee is either dried in the sun, in a mechanical dryer, or both. It takes 8 to 10 days to dry. Then the parchment coffee is stored.

Before selling, the coffee is peeled, parchment removed, then cleaned, screened, sorted and graded. This "green coffee" is now on the market.

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