What are the characteristics of sun treatment? What is the difference between sun treatment and washing treatment?

A delicious coffee bean, is through the results, picking, manual selection and then through the raw bean processing, and finally in the baking, to get the well-known coffee beans.

The treatment of coffee beans is very important in the treatment of raw beans, and the treatment method has always been an important part of coffee. As a process of shelling and taking beans, the different treatment methods and quality will directly affect the final flavor of coffee.

Here is a detailed introduction of the traditional treatment-sun treatment.

Sun treatment

Sun treatment is an ancient method of raw bean treatment, which is generally common in dry, warm and sunny areas. Now, the fruit tone that sun treatment brings to coffee also makes coffee growers around the world take risks to do sun treatment. 、

The first step; collect and filter

After picking the coffee fruit will be hand-selected first to select the defective coffee fruit, including overripe, immature, moth-eaten and, of course, foreign bodies in addition to the fruit.

Step 2; drying

After screening, the coffee fruit will be sent to a drying place for drying, and different regions may use different drying racks, some with tarpaulins, some with high beds, some with cement floors, etc., and the average drying time is 3 to 4 weeks. the drying process was not completed until the moisture content of the coffee was reduced to 11%.

Step 3: peeling

After drying, the coffee fruit is sent to the processing plant for peeling and shelling, and even polished. Peel, pulp and other parts will be removed in this step.

Step 4: sorting, warehousing

Peeled raw coffee beans will be screened again to remove coffee beans that do not look good. This reflects the quality of the coffee drying process, over-dried coffee beans will be more fragile, peeling process will be broken into debris; while under-dried coffee beans have too much water content, water is too active, easy to breed bacteria, mildew and so on.

After screening, it will be sent to the warehouse for storage until it is exported.

In the traditional treatment of sun-treated coffee, it has the lowest acidity, the highest sweetness, the clearest touch, but slightly lower cleanliness. The flavor is exposed to the sun. Due to the rough conditions and rough treatment, the quality of the old sun-cured coffee is uneven and the defect rate is high. At the same time, the cause of the defect also comes from the strong dependence on the weather. A month of drying requires a continuous and stable high temperature and dry weather. If it rains during the drying period, it will cause mildew of the coffee fruit.

However, with the popularity of the sun trend in recent years, many producing areas continue to optimize the details of the sun treatment steps in order to improve the taste of the sun coffee cup. Before drying, flotation will be carried out to remove coffee fruits with insufficient density, and drying sites are also strictly controlled, such as the construction of high beds in Africa, cement drying platforms, and so on, and in order to dry evenly in the process of sun drying, many treatment plants or estates will employ workers to turn them regularly to evenly dry while avoiding excessive fermentation and reducing defects.

The water washing treatment is different from the sun treatment, it is a kind of stable quality treatment, in the treatment process, the picked coffee fruit will be floated first, and the low density coffee fruit will also be removed. Then use a machine to remove the peel and pulp, and then put it into a pool for anhydrous or aqueous fermentation, using fermentation to decompose the pectin layer. After fermentation, the coffee beans are washed with clean water to remove pectin. Finally, the coffee beans without pectin layer are sun-dried to reduce the moisture content to between 11% and 13%.

Compared with the sun treatment, the acidity and cleanliness of the washed coffee is higher, but the complexity is not as good as that of the sun, while the sun-washed coffee has a heavier berry flavor, complex and sweeter than the washed coffee. Will produce more berry tonality, but also more complex.

But the disadvantage is also very obvious, the most primitive and traditional sun treatment method will put the coffee fruit on the drying terrace or directly on the side of the road to direct exposure, due to rough conditions and rough treatment methods, the quality of the old sun-cured coffee is uneven and the defect rate is high. At the same time, the cause of the defect also comes from the strong dependence on the weather. A month of drying requires a continuous and stable high temperature and dry weather. If it rains during the drying period, it will cause mildew of the coffee fruit.

However, with the popularity of the sun trend in recent years, many producing areas continue to optimize the details of the sun treatment steps in order to improve the taste of the sun coffee cup. Before drying, flotation will be carried out to remove coffee fruits with insufficient density, and drying sites are also strictly controlled, such as the construction of high beds in Africa, cement drying platforms, and so on, and in order to dry evenly in the process of sun drying, many treatment plants or estates will employ workers to turn them regularly to evenly dry while avoiding excessive fermentation and reducing defects.

The water washing treatment is different from the sun treatment, it is a kind of stable quality treatment, in the treatment process, the picked coffee fruit will be floated first, and the low density coffee fruit will also be removed. Then use a machine to remove the peel and pulp, and then put it into a pool for anhydrous or aqueous fermentation, using fermentation to decompose the pectin layer. After fermentation, the coffee beans are washed with clean water to remove pectin. Finally, the coffee beans without pectin layer are sun-dried to reduce the moisture content to between 11% and 13%.

Compared with the sun treatment, the acidity and cleanliness of the washed coffee is higher, but the complexity is not as good as that of the sun, while the sun-washed coffee has a heavier berry flavor, complex and sweeter than the washed coffee.