What is Dry Coffee Processing?

May 25
09:19

2012

Bob B. Hamilton

Bob B. Hamilton

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Coffee beans cannot just be picked directly from the plant and ground up in your home machine. Instead, the plants produce cherries that need to be processed before any coffee can be made with them.

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Unfortunately,What is Dry Coffee Processing? Articles coffee beans cannot just be picked directly from the plant and ground up in your home machine.  Instead, the plants produce cherries that need to be processed before any coffee can be made with them.  

The green beans that you may have seen before roasting are encased in these cherries, and they need to be processed using one of a few different methods.  One of these methods is known as dry coffee processing.  Most of the Arabica beans that are produced are processed using this method, and virtually all Robusta beans are processed that this way as well.

After the cherries have been removed, they will need to be cleaned before they can be dry processed.  Also, unripe cherries need to be separated from the batch.  This process can take quite a bit of time since it is usually done by hand with the help of a large sieve.

Next, the cherries will need to be dried.  They will all be spread out to be dried in the sun.  Workers will need to turn the cherries occasionally or they will not dry evenly.  Also, moisture will stick around until the cherries have sufficiently dried, and that can cause issues with mildew.

These coffee cherries will not dry overnight.  In most cases, it can take up to a month before they have dried sufficiently.  The amount of time that it takes them to dry depends on various factors such as ambient temperatures and how much moisture is inside the cherries initially.  Machines are sometimes used to help them dry out a bit more quickly.

The process of drying the coffee will determine how the final green coffee beans turns out, which will affect the end taste.  Therefore, it will need to be done correctly.  If the cherries are left to dry in the sun too long, they will break much easier when the green beans are being removed.  Conversely, cherries that have not been left in the sun to dry enough will be highly susceptible to bacteria and mildew.

Dry coffee processing has been the method that coffee growers have used the longest.  However, not all regions of the world in which coffee is grown will be able to use this method.  Areas that are subjected to frequent rainfall will not be able to use dry coffee processing because the sun will rarely be out enough to dry them quickly enough.  Even regions that have increased humidity will not be suitable.