Savoring a cup of coffee while understanding how the farmers dry process the coffee until it reaches your cup, is one way to be grateful for its enjoyment. The whole process is not as easy as you might think.
The coffee bean processing journey, including the dry process, is a lengthy one that spans from planting coffee to processing and ultimately resulting in beans ready for brewing in your cup. This, of course, demands specific skills. If you’re eager to learn more about the process, please refer to our article below!
Dry process coffee into coffee beans
Coffee processing is quite complicated, but it is equivalent to the pleasure given from a cup of coffee that you enjoy. Even the Ministry of Agriculture in 2021 explained that Indonesian coffee consumption reached 312,000 tons per year.
As a coffee producer, the archipelago is known for its unique and distinctive coffee bean flavor. There are many reviews that have been conducted by domestic and foreign experts on coffee beans from Indonesia.
As mentioned by world coffee expert from Mexico, Manuel Diaz, who stated that Indonesia has many excellent coffee qualities. With so many islands, it affects the uniqueness of the various flavors produced.
No wonder coffee from Indonesia has become an export commodity to several countries. In fact, almost every province has coffee beans with its own uniqueness and quality.
If you are thinking of opening a coffee shop, you must know how to dry process coffee to become the best beans for consumption.
As for the common methods, there are at least three ways, namely dry, semi-wet, and wet methods. Usually, the wet method will require a fairly long process and stages, and this is often done to process Arabica Coffee.
Also read: Here’s the Wet Method Coffee Processing: Wet Process You Need to Know
Meanwhile, dry processing does not require a long time and the tools used are also quite simple. Robusta coffee is often processed in this way, and as is well known, the price is more affordable than Arabica coffee.
Generally, coffee fruit is marketed in the form of green bean or green coffee beans which is dry coffee and has been separated from the pulp and epidermis. This dry process coffee aims to separate the beans from the skin, so that green beans or green coffee beans with a certain water content are ready to be marketed.
In this case we will discuss the processing of coffee fruit with the dry method and the process as follows:
Sorting
Sorting starts at the time of picking, but needs to be repeated during processing. At the beginning of processing, sorting is usually done after the coffee arrives from the farm.
The green/young/immature coffee beans will be separated from the ripe red beans which are of good quality.
Drying process
Furthermore, the sorted coffee must be dried immediately so that it does not undergo chemical processes that can reduce the quality of the coffee. This drying can be done naturally by drying in the sun or artificially using a drying machine.
When dried in the sun, it typically takes about 2 weeks to achieve a moisture content of approximately 15% in coffee beans. However, the recommended moisture content is 12%.
This level is considered optimal because it strikes a balance, ensuring that the coffee beans remain stable without easily altering in flavor, and, of course, it makes them resistant to mold. Typically, farmers will perform additional drying and frequently employ drying machines to reach the desired moisture content of 12%.
You need to know, husking in dry coffee processing will be different from wet processing. In dry processing, husking itself aims to separate the coffee beans from the dry husk and epidermis.
When the coffee is completely dry, the horns and epidermis will be peeled off with a husker, after which the beans will be sorted.
Seed sorting
The next dry process is seed sorting, which is intended to clean green beans from various impurities and damaged seeds. So that it will meet the quality requirements and classify the coffee, adjusted to the quality standards that have been set.
Broadly speaking, the sorting of raw coffee or coffee from farmers that has not been sorted is divided into several stages, namely sorting:
Types, origin classification, and processing of coffee
Basically, coffee should be separated by type and processing. Thus, wet-processed coffee should not be mixed with dry-processed coffee, as the quality grade is different.
To clean dirt
This process aims to clean the coffee from coffee logs, horn skin coffee, and other impurities such as broken branches, to moldy bean skins. Farmers will generally sort until this stage.
To obtain quality requirements
This is generally done by reprocessor cooperatives, large cooperatives, and exporters. This one sorting has the aim that the coffee obtained meets the quality requirements.
That is the stage of coffee bean sorting which is generally done dry. The point of this stage is to separate the coffee fruit from impurities, such as leaves, twigs, soil and gravel.
Read also: 3 Coffee Bean Processing Methods, Resulting in Unique Flavors
Coffee bean packaging and storage stage
This is usually the final stage of processing fruit of coffee into coffee beans. Packaging should be done using sacks that are clean and free from odors.
Well, for long storage the sacks will be stacked on wooden pallets 10 cm thick and later a distance will be given between the wood pile and the warehouse wall.
Farmers usually set the warehouse humidity at around 70% (RH). This warehouse serves the purpose of storing coffee beans before they are distributed to buyers.
Currently, many consumers are more interested in buying whole coffee beans than ground coffee. Because, there are many simple coffee grinders sold in the market, so consumers can have a unique experience to get their own version of coffee flavor.
This is fascinating information about the transformation of coffee fruit into the coffee beans that are ultimately prepared for your consumption. We trust you’ll find it exceptionally informative and valuable.
If you are a coffee producer from various regions, do not hesitate to open a shop on the KopiKita platform, so that coffee lovers from all over Indonesia can taste your coffee production. Apply for a business to the KopiKita platform now by filling out the following form .
Are you a coffee enthusiast? Explore the KopiKita platform to discover a wide variety of Indonesian coffees from different regions, all at the best prices!
