Natural Dry
Last week I began a short series on processes that go into making coffee and started talking about Coffee Cherry. This week I will be discussing different techniques for drying coffee beans. As I mentioned last week, by exploring the different methods, we can gain a better understanding of how coffee production works and appreciate the taste of our daily morning drink and the skill that goes into creating our favorite brew.
While the basic steps remain consistent across all methods, the techniques and sequence of steps for drying coffee beans can vary greatly. The general steps involved include depulping from the fruit, fermentation, removing the mucilage, and achieving a moisture content of approximately 11%.
The Natural Method
The natural method, also known as the dry method, is the oldest method and less common now but still used in some coffee-growing regions like Ethiopia. In this method, the coffee cherries are laid out on patios or raised beds to dry in the sun after a few hours of picking. Thus, coffee beans are more in contact with the coffee fruit.
Because the seeds are not removed from the fruit for the natural processing, the cherries themselves are incredibly important: Only the ripest, freshest, and the most developed fruit will get to drying beds. In natural method, instead of loading coffee cherries for depulping, fermentation, and washing, the coffee is going directly to drying areas.
[Check 5 ways to make coffee at home]
While coffee cherries are drying naturally, the organic material in the fruit begins to ferment more quickly once the fruit is spread out under the sun. As a result, it is important to rotate the cherries and remove any that are rotten. The drying process typically takes several weeks to a month to reach a moisture content of approximately 11%.
After the drying process, the dried coffee cherries are typically transferred to a dry mill, where the coffee and its cherry will be run through a hulling machine, which uses friction to remove the fruit and its parchment layer. Finally, the resulting green coffee is taken to a mill to be sorted by hand or by special equipment.
Next week, I will be discussing the other techniques to dry coffee cherries. Make sure you subscribe to the mailing list to get the updates and new posts automatically.
