What's the difference between sun-drying and washed coffee? How to distinguish sun-dried beans from washed beans? Detailed explanation of the sun and washing treatment process!

"Washed" and "Natural" are the most traditional and widely used treatments in coffee. The so-called treatment is a process of removing all substances except coffee beans from the harvested fruit and drying it to a specified degree.

In this process, coffee beans will produce different flavor performance due to different treatment processes and different degrees of fermentation. Because of the distinct "personality", as Qianjie often shares, some experienced coffee players can always tell the way beans are handled in one mouthful.

In addition to the differences in taste, the appearance of coffee beans is also very distinctive under different treatment methods. By observing whether there is a white silver skin in the cracks in the middle of the coffee beans, we can roughly tell how the coffee is treated. In a serving of coffee beans, the coffee beans with more silver skin in the middle line are more likely to be washed, and those with a small number of white lines are more likely to be sun-cured coffee beans. This is a view that Qianjie once shared in Jian Dou's article.

So why can the white line serve as an observation point? It's very simple, it has a lot to do with the processing of coffee beans. The structure of a coffee fruit from the outside to the inside is: peel, pulp, pectin, sheep skin, silver skin, coffee beans. As mentioned at the beginning, the treatment is a process of removing all substances other than coffee beans, and the order and methods of removing substances in different treatments are different, so the appearance of coffee beans will be different.

The process of sun treatment is very simple, we only need to spread the picked fruit in a place where it can be exposed to direct sunlight. When the fruit is dry to a certain extent, and then use the machine to remove the peel, pulp and sheep skin, the raw bean treatment is complete! On the other hand, the washing process is a little more complicated: the conventional washing process requires flotation to remove the immature / bad fruit, and then remove the peel and pulp of the fruit; after removal, the coffee beans with pectin and sheep skin will be soaked and fermented; after fermentation, the beans will be transferred to another clean tank, and then the pectin left on the appearance will be removed by manual stirring. When the process is over, the coffee bean has only sheep skin and silver skin, then we send it to the sun to dry and dry it until the moisture content is determined, then the shell can be removed and the processed raw coffee beans can be removed.

From the above, we can know that the biggest difference between washing and tanning is whether the skin is peeled before drying and whether it is soaked in water. And it is these two differences that make the appearance and taste of coffee beans have a qualitative change. Sun-dried coffee beans are more involved in fermentation (including high sugar substances such as pulp pectin) and longer sunshine time (deeper fermentation), so after treatment, the color of raw beans tends to be golden, while washed beans tend to be golden because they are soaked in water for a long time and dry for a short time, so the color of the whole bean will show a warm emerald green. This is one of the characteristics that can tell the difference between sun-cured and washed beans at the raw bean level.

So when we get the raw beans, we can start baking! In the process of baking, beans will have a second difference due to different ways of handling, that is, "silver skin". In fact, from the picture of raw beans above, we can see the different characteristics of silver skin under different treatments. the first difference is the integrity of silver skin: the silver skin of sun-dried raw beans is relatively complete, not to mention completely reserved. but at least there is a connection between the silver skin and the silver skin, while the silver skin of washed coffee beans is different, from east to west, less connected and full of fragmentation!

The second feature is the color of the silver skin, especially the silver skin on the middle line. Sun treatment not only allows coffee beans to get sugar impregnation, full fermentation, but also allows silver skin to enjoy the same "treatment". So compared with the silver skin of the middle line of washed beans, its color will be darker. When it comes to baking, the beans will swell as the baking advances. However, the silver skin can not keep expanding like raw beans! As a result, they will be separated by the growing size of the beans in the process of baking. When the baking is finished, we will find that most of the washed beans have a white silver skin, while the midline silver skin of the sun-dried beans is very little, which is the difference caused by the integrity of the silver skin during the treatment.

Even though there are still silver skins in the seams of sun-dried beans, they will undergo more caramelization during baking because they get the same "treatment" as beans, and the color will be darker after baking. from a distance, it looks as if there is no silver skin. Therefore, whether there is an obvious white silver skin in the seams of beans has become the best distinguishing feature of coffee cooked beans treated with sun and water. (it should be noted that most beans are said here, not all, because there is no absolute. ) so the last thing that can tell the difference between the two is the taste! Sun beans will have a more prominent fermentation flavor (such as wine, fermented fruit) because there are more substances involved in fermentation and the fermentation time is longer. At the same time, it will also make the coffee flavor performance, hierarchical sense more rich; washing beans due to the relatively less degree of fermentation, the process is mainly to let the acid produced to decompose the pectin, so it is not so obvious fermentation taste. Also because there is no too much fermentation, the coffee will drink cleaner and the flavor will be more prominent.

What we call sun-dried beans will be sweeter, and water-washed beans will be more sour and will be affected to a certain extent. But more often because of the different degree of baking, the proportion of sour substances in coffee beans is different. Therefore, the sun and water washing are relatively easy to identify. Because they have distinct characteristics in raw beans, cooked beans and coffee. But again, there is nothing absolute. These references only apply to most coffee beans, not all.

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