What is anaerobic treatment? What is the difference between anaerobic treatment and sun washing? What are the characteristics of anaerobically fermented coffee beans?

When Mr. Sasa Sestic won the championship with an anaerobic bean on WBC in 2015, he completely opened the door to a new era in the way coffee is handled. Because since then, all kinds of anaerobic treatments have sprung up.

But we can see from the surrounding environment or online platform that anaerobic coffee beans are not as popular as traditionally treated coffee beans. One reason is that the taste of anaerobic treatment is so "chic" that not everyone can accept it, and that the process of anaerobic treatment is not understood by many people, which is easy to cause misunderstandings. So anaerobic coffee beans are often a controversial existence, so let's share what "anaerobic treatment" is on the front street today.

What is anaerobic treatment? "anaerobic treatment", also called "anaerobic fermentation". This treatment allows raw coffee beans (coffee fruits) to ferment in an oxygen-free or anoxic environment for a period of time. In an oxygen-free (anoxic) environment, the fermentation of raw coffee beans (coffee fruit) can be controlled, thus producing a completely different complex flavor. Qianjie is here to briefly explain fermentation, although it is very daily, but also very important! The so-called "fermentation" is actually a process of biochemical reaction, which converts one substance into another through the life activities of microorganisms. For example, the fermentation of raw coffee beans converts the sugar in pectin into alcohol and carbon dioxide!

But what we need to know is that not only the coffee beans treated by anaerobic treatment will ferment, but many traditional treatments such as sun exposure, water washing and honey treatment will make the raw coffee beans fermentate. it's just that the degree, mode and direction of their fermentation are different from those of anaerobic treatment, and the taste will change with the degree of fermentation. For example, washing and tanning, why does washed coffee taste cleaner than tanned coffee? Quite simply, because coffee beans are not fermented as deep as the sun, they convert less substances and drink cleaner, but the layers are not as rich.

Back to the point, although Mr. Sasa Sestic promoted anaerobic treatment, it was not the "founder" of anaerobic treatment. The anaerobic process was first used in the production of red wine, then treated with coffee by Costa Rican currant Luis Eduardo Campos, and finally used by Sasa Sestic in world events. Many people may think that anaerobic fermentation is to throw the coffee beans into a sealed container and then complete the fermentation on their own. But the truth is not as simple as you think! Anaerobic fermentation needs not only a closed space, but also a completely closed container that can be monitored and opaque. In addition, the ambient temperature of the sealed bucket also needs to be strictly controlled! Because only in this way can the producer control the degree of fermentation in the barrel and make the coffee flavor develop toward the goal they want.

In order to do this, producers not only need to use carbon dioxide to exclude oxygen before fermentation, but also pay close attention to the changes in temperature and pH during the fermentation of coffee beans. When the sugar in the pectin and mucus in the bucket is completely decomposed, it is necessary to open the seal immediately, stop the fermentation, and then immediately carry out other procedures to avoid the negative situation of over-fermentation of coffee beans. So we can know that anaerobic fermentation treatment is not just to put beans into an airtight space, it will have higher requirements than other treatment methods. Thanks to this, coffee beans will develop a completely new flavor that is completely different from the traditional treatment. In addition to the developed coffee flavor, the anaerobic treatment of coffee beans will also produce different degrees of fermentation flavor according to the degree of fermentation, which is also one of their major characteristics. But when the fermentation taste is too strong, the coffee will be prone to a strong "big sauce" flavor, many people are tired of anaerobic treatment of coffee, because the "big sauce" taste is too strong.

The names we see in the market, such as anaerobic solarization and anaerobic washing, all refer to coffee beans in the process of treatment, in addition to anaerobic fermentation, they will also participate in the process of traditional treatment such as solarization and washing; for example, fermentation with double words means that coffee beans will participate in two anaerobic fermentation in the process of treatment.

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