What is the difference between washing, sun-drying and anaerobic honey treatment of coffee? Will coffee beans ferment during processing?

Everyone's preferences are different. Some friends don't like coffee with a strong fermented aroma, so I occasionally encounter some customers and friends on Qianjie who make such a request when buying beans: "Don't ferment coffee beans."

To be reasonable, although Qianjie can understand that these friends want to buy some coffee beans without the strong fermentation flavor of wine, this sentence carries a big problem. After all, coffee beans almost always go through the process of "fermentation" before they are baked. Sharing is often common on the front street. After the coffee fruits are harvested, they will be treated, such as sun-drying, washing, wet planing, honey treatment, etc., before they can be turned into green coffee beans that can be roasted.

In the early days, the purpose of processing coffee beans was only to dry them and make them better stored. However, people later discovered that different treatments would cause coffee beans to develop completely different aromas, so some coffee farmers began to study treatment methods. In order to allow coffee beans to develop the aroma they want. The reason why processing will affect the flavor of the coffee beans is because the coffee beans will ferment during this process! The so-called fermentation refers to the process by which microorganisms decompose organic matter in food into other products such as aroma under anaerobic or aerobic conditions. In daily life, there are many foods that need to be fermented, such as bread, wine, soy sauce, yogurt, etc. Therefore, we can simply understand the processing of coffee as a process of drying coffee beans and converting the organic matter in the coffee beans into aroma.

Then again, the reason why different treatments cause coffee beans to develop different aromas is because they cause coffee beans to ferment differently. Qianjie often shares the difference between sun-cured beans and washed beans. The reason why the aroma of sun-cured beans is richer than that of washed beans is because it has a deeper fermentation degree, and washed beans are because the fermentation degree is not as strong as that of sun-cured beans. It tastes purer and cleaner when drinking. In other words, the aroma of coffee is mainly determined by the degree to which it is fermented. The deeper the degree of fermentation, the stronger the aroma of coffee. However, at the same time, when the coffee beans ferment deeply to a certain extent, some fermentation taste similar to the aroma of wine will appear, and its concentration is also affected by the degree of fermentation.

If you don't want to drink coffee beans with strong fermented aroma, then as Qianjie said earlier, you can choose some washed coffee, because washing will not allow the coffee beans to ferment too much; and if you want coffee beans with a stronger flavor but do not want to have too much fermentation aroma, you can choose to use sun or honey treatment, which is similar to washing and fermentation, which is more deeply fermented but not too deep; But if you like a strong fruity flavor and can accept coffee with a fermentation aroma, then the range of choices can be wider. For example, you can choose re-fermented coffee beans such as anaerobic or double anaerobic treatment, which will have a richer and stronger coffee flavor, and the expressive force will be more prominent.

You can find all of these processed beans at the Qianjie flagship store

! Just what everyone needs to note is that the treatment method mainly affects the aroma of the coffee rather than the taste. The main reason for determining whether coffee tastes ultimately sour or bitter is baking. When the degree of roasting of the coffee beans is deeper, the less the acid of the coffee is retained, the more bitter substances there are, and the more bitter it will be to drink; when the degree of roasting of the coffee beans is shallower, the more acid the coffee will be retained., the less bitter substances, the more sour it will be to drink ~

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