Which is sweeter, honey treatment or sun-cured coffee? In which country are honey processed coffee beans generally?

Perhaps many friends will be like Qianjie, when it comes to sweeter coffee, two answers pop up in their heads, one is the sun, the other is honey treatment. Sun-cured coffee tends to emphasize the fermented aroma of ripe fruit, while honey-treated coffee tends to show full sweetness in the taste. It seems that in the market, the main word of these two post-processed coffee is "sweet".

Why do we love tanned coffee so much?

I still remember that when I first joined the industry, Qianjie was asked such a question: "among so many coffee beans, which one do you like best?" Qianjie immediately replied: I like the sun. Compared with other processing methods, the flavor bar of sun-tanned coffee always contains a series of fruit descriptions, ranging from common categories, such as berries, oranges, apricots, tropical fruits, to a specific kind of fruit, such as guava, mango, jackfruit, peach and so on. I would like to ask who saw this full of fruit, do not want to give birth to a sweet.

Sun treatment, known in English as Dry Process, Natural, or Sun Dried, simply means that the whole coffee fruit is exposed to the full open in the sun to dry. Compared with other treatment methods, the operation procedure of the sun is much simpler, as long as there is a good weather, that is, the big sun, whether it is an African-style drying scaffolding or in a clean concrete square, the fruit can be directly spread out and baptized by the sun.

Precisely because sun processing is a complete drying of a coffee fruit, the moisture content is much higher than that of completely peeled and degummed washed beans, so it takes longer to dry, usually twice as much as washing. For example, in sunny Ethiopia, it takes at least three weeks to fully dry and store. In Central and South America, individual estates with conditions set up special wooden shelves or sunshade sheds to allow the fruit to dry more slowly, resulting in varying degrees of fermentation, which usually takes 4 to 5 weeks.

In terms of flavor, sun-cured coffee takes part in drying with peel and pulp pectin, when the fruit begins to ferment, microorganisms produce more volatile compounds, especially esters, and the whole process will produce a certain fermented flavor, so the coffee is easy to show a dense aroma similar to ripe tropical fruit, as well as a complex flavor spectrum of fermented flavor and round sweetness.

What is the "honey" treated with honey?

Honey treatment, translated from English Honey Process, also known as Miel Proces, honey treatment "honey" is from this Miel, which means honey in Spanish. The term honey treatment first came from Costa Rica, and locals like to call the sticky jelly inside the fruit "Miel".

This sweet-sounding treatment, formerly known as Pulped Natural (half-sun / peel solarization) in Brazil, was originally invented to save water for production. Qianjie found two time points about how the honey treatment method sprang up in Colombia.

In the second half of the 20th century, Costa Rica is basically based on washing products, with the pioneering coffee fruit peeling equipment and wet processing plant, can be said to be the forerunner of modern washing technology.

During the period from 1997 to 2000, the price of coffee continued to decline in the international market. in order to make a living, many growers no longer settle accounts by selling coffee fruits directly to large processing stations. Instead, they sell their own products in the form of self-production and self-sale. Because of this, Ka Nong has control over the treatment station, and naturally more attempts can be made, and the peeling and drying process is introduced into production under this background.

Honey treatment first appeared in the public eye in 2006, when Juan Ram ó n Alvarado, a coffee farmer, won the first and second place in the Costa Rican GOLDEN HARVEST raw bean competition organized by SCAA. The following year, correspondingly appeared in the first Costa Rica CoE, a total of three coffees in the top five are treated with honey.

In 2008, Costa Rica experienced a large earthquake, resulting in severe power outages and water shortages in many places. Therefore, in order to deal with these problems, local farmers began to adopt this "water-saving" process. Although at first many people were quite resistant, they felt that this method of drying with pulp and pectin was easy to form uncontrollable fermentation, but many farms not only got positive results after the experiment, but also greatly reduced the consumption of water resources. later, various honey treatments were developed to extend different flavors by controlling the degree of pectin fermentation.

Why are there so many classifications of honey treatment?

In the name of the name, we can often hear black honey, red honey, yellow honey, white honey and other honey with color treatment. This is because pectin contains a lot of sugar, so when the raw beans with only pectin are exposed to the air, they will oxidize, and the appearance of the beans will slowly change from yellow and white to golden yellow, and the fermentation will continue over time. Beans may turn crimson or even dark purple until they are dried.

In theory, dark black honey, red honey coffee will be closer to the sun than light-colored yellow honey and white honey, and the sense of fermentation is more obvious. Until today, however, there is still no precise standard in the industry to define the treatment of different colors of honey, mostly depending on the manufacturer, so there will be naming confusion. For example, the "red honey" produced by this company may be called "yellow honey" in another company.

The drying time of honey treatment was between sun exposure and washing, ranging from 2 weeks to 4 weeks. Similarly, the flavor often tends to be between the sun and water washing, mostly more inclined to the aroma and tone of the sun, often with the sweetness of ripe fruit and preserved fruit, but accompanied by solid bright acidity, which is seldom found in traditional solarization.

Honey treatment and sun-cured coffee, who will be sweeter?

In the same way as the sweetness of fruit, the sweetness of coffee fruit is mainly affected by variety, planting management, altitude, maturity when picking and other factors. For example, the sweetness development of all red fruit is higher than that of fruit. Beans at high altitude tend to store more sweet substances.

The treatment method does determine the amount of sweet substances retained in coffee beans and the degree of sugar transformation, but the overall impact is relatively small, and the sweet performance of coffee also depends on the flavor description of taste and smell. Therefore, we cannot directly say that honey treatment is sweeter than the sun, or that sun coffee is sweeter than honey treatment.

The sweetness of coffee does not exist independently, we can perceive that sweetness mainly depends on the coordination of bitterness, sour and fragrance, so if we like the sweetness of round taste and thicker body, we can give priority to sun-treated coffee, such as Alida Manor Sun Kaduai, Sakui, Sun Jade Red Standard and so on. If you like the sweetness of lighter texture, sour sweetness and quiet aftertaste, you can try honey-treated beans, such as New Oriental Rose Summer in Guatemala, strawberry candy in Costa Rica and so on.

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