Coffee is made from coffee beans, so do you know how to treat coffee beans? Next, I will tell you how to treat coffee beans. For more relevant information, please pay attention to the relevant columns!
Treatment of coffee beans
Natural solarization
The process of this processing method is the simplest. After picking, the fruit began to dry in the sun without treatment. This is the oldest existing treatment. Today, Ethiopia and Brazil are still using this treatment. In areas where water resources are scarce, natural sun exposure is the most commonly used method. The drying process usually lasts about 4 weeks. The treatment method must be very strict to ensure that coffee does not lose any flavor.
Natural sun exposure requires the local climate to be extremely dry. In some areas, people will use dryers to assist the drying process of coffee cherries (the hot air of dryers can accelerate the drying process and help people control the drying degree).
Natural sunlight can preserve the aroma of coffee fruits. When you taste this kind of coffee, you will find that it is rich in fruit aroma and has a brighter taste. After drying, people will use special machines to remove the surface shell. This process is called "dry grinding".
Water washing method
In the washing process, the peel and pulp of the fruit are treated by a special desizing machine, and the coffee beans are stripped. The coffee beans enter the fermentation tank for fermentation treatment, so that the mucosa is no longer sticky. Sugar in mucous membrane will be decomposed during fermentation. According to different fermentation processes, the fermentation time is usually 12 hours to 6 days (some growers will use water spraying system to ferment coffee beans. This method is called "Kenya method, which usually lasts for several days".
It is extremely important to decide when to stop fermentation. Once coffee is over-fermented, the taste of coffee will become too sour. Once the mucosa is completely decomposed, people will wash it down with a lot of water (the wastewater generated during the treatment of raw beans is considered as the pollution source of the coffee industry). Nowadays, many areas are studying advanced technology to recover and filter the wastewater produced in this process. Wool washing came into being in19th century, also known as "wet processing".
Strictly controlled fermentation process will increase the acidity of coffee, which will eventually be reflected in the taste of coffee. But as long as it is washed immediately after the fermentation process, the taste of coffee can be improved and it has a bright sour taste.
Natural water washing method
This method is extremely common in Brazil. The natural water washing method is very similar to the water washing method, but the difference is that the natural water washing method removes the mucous membrane on the coffee surface with a high-pressure water washing machine, thus skipping the fermentation process. Several coffee bean processing enterprises in Brazil and Colombia have applied for patents for this method and become local natural water system processing and monopoly enterprises. This method uses far less water than washing hair, so some people are used to calling it "semi-dry method". Because coffee beans have not been fermented, there is no (or only very low) fermentation risk, and the overall quality of coffee is more constant. Unfortunately, because there is no fermentation, the taste of coffee is often flat.
Honey treatment method
Almost all producing areas in Costa Rica are treated with honey. This method is also widely circulated throughout Central America. Because the surface mucosa of coffee beans is extremely sticky and contains high sugar, people usually call it "honey". In the process of honey treatment, coffee will leave some or all of the "honey" when it dries. After picking, grading and peeling, coffee cherries will be put on a drying bed for drying.
Because the drying time of mucous membrane is very short, coffee beans will hardly ferment during the drying process. The acidity of coffee beans processed by this method is slightly higher than that of natural washing, but far lower than that of washing and natural drying.
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