Coffee Processing

Coffee is inherently sensitive, and several factors affect the coffee in its journey from being raw seed to the cup that you enjoy.

Coffee processing is the stage that follows the stage of agriculture after the harvesting process, where the method of choosing the way to process the coffee is different from country to another, even between washing stations, here are some generic information about it:

Natural Drying Method:

Where the coffee is dried from four to six weeks, the process begins after the hand picking of the ripe coffee cherries only. Then they are collected and placed in a large water pool and the objective here is to wash the cherries and purify the proper cherries and filter the damaged cherries. They are then placed and spread to the drying beds under the sun, and the cherries are stirred periodically to equal the drying. The cherries are then collected and peeled, the coffee is sorted according to size, the coffee beans are washed and dried from the water moisture and packaged with green bags. What will result here is an increase in the sweetness of the coffee and the flavors of fruits, which tends to the dried fruits often with heavy body, and what lies behind this result is a simple process resulted from the drying. The coffee bean contains six layers, one of which is a layer called “Misulage” honey-like texture and taste, made of sugars and water to feed the seeds of coffee, when drying start the seed of coffee absorb this layer to add this layer in the coffee seed.

Washing Process:

Here the cherry peel is removed and the coffee beans washed to a number of layers and dried for about two weeks or less. Collect the ripe cherries and put them in a water container to sort the healthy cherries from the affected and liquidated, and then place the cherries in a pulper machines to separate the outer cherry layer from the seeds of green coffee, and then re-placed in another water container to dispose the honey layer “Misulage" mentioned earlier, Then the green coffee will be dried for about eight to ten days after that it will be ready for packaging in green bags. The result of this process will often tend to citrusy fruits with smooth body.

Honey Process:

It is an innovative method that mixes washed process and natural process, where the coffee is removed but without washing the honey-like layer "Misulage".

Where as is the previous methods of picking the cherries by hand, and then sorted and filtered using water pools and then peeling coffee cherry using a pulber where will remain only green coffee beans surrounded by honey layer and are sorted on beds to dry and depending on the drying time will branch names under the honey process:

• Yellow Honey: Eight days
• Red Honey: Two weeks
• Black Honey: Full Month

The result of this process is a balance in the flavors between acidity, sweetness and a balanced strengthened body.

The coffee process is one of the most important developmental stages in the compounds and flavors of coffee seeds before roasting it, where it is treated differently by the roaster and the barista depending on the type of process. The process types are not only as mentioned, but has become one of the practical arts of coffee growers where everyone is innovating in the types of process and the integration of several factors for the production of distinct and successful crop.