One important process to produce quality coffee beans is sorting. Therefore, the right coffee sorting tool is needed to facilitate the process.

As you know, sorting can also be defined as sorting. That is, the process of selecting what is necessary and excluding what is not.

In this case, coffee sorting means the selection of coffee beans after harvesting. Usually, not all harvested coffee beans are good. That is why a sorting process is needed in order to determine or sort out which coffee beans are good or which have defects.

Coffee Postharvest Process

Coffee sorting is a post-harvest process. After the coffee is picked, the coffee farmers need to go through various stages again before the coffee is actually distributed. There are two types of processing stages carried out, namely wet and semi-wet processing.

For wet processing, after picking, the coffee skin must be stripped. Then, dry seed sorting, followed by drying, washing, fermentation, red fruit skin peeling, fruit sorting, until packaging and storage.

Meanwhile, for the semi-wet ones, the sequence of steps is slightly different. After harvesting, the next thing to do is fruit sorting. Next, the peeling of the red fruit skin, fermentation plus mucus washing.

After that, drying is carried out for 1-2 days. After drying, the shells are stripped off and the coffee beans are dried again. Then, sorting and packaging. The last stage is storage and warehousing.

This is where sorting tools play an important role in producing quality coffee beans. For example, coffee beans want to be sorted by size, weight type, color, and so on.

Coffee Bean Criteria

Then, what are the criteria for coffee sorting? What to look for when sorting through coffee beans? There are at least 8 things that are classified to determine a coffee’s characteristics.

  • Coffee crop region
  • The processing method used,
  • Harvest year,
  • Types of coffee plants,
  • Number of defects or impurities,
  • The shape and thickness of the coffee beans,
  • Color, and
  • Organoleptic properties (Organoleptic can be interpreted as something related to taste, color, smell, and touch)

Coffee sorting can separate two types of coffee beans, namely superior and inferior. Superior fruit includes ripe, pithy, and uniform fruit. Meanwhile, inferior fruits are those that are deformed, black, broken, hollow, and also damaged by pests and diseases.

Types of Coffee Sorting Tools

What are the coffee sorting tools that can be used to perform the various steps?

Sifter Machine

This sifter sifts coffee based on its size. The way the machine works is by utilizing a vibration system. Once the coffee beans are inserted, the machine will vibrate and sort the coffee into three types, namely small, medium, and large based on the size of the holes.

The coffee beans will fall into the holes according to the three types of sizes. This will make the next process easier. Coffee beans can be processed according to size so that handling will be appropriate.

Coffee Suton Machine

This machine can sort the coffee that has been dehulled. While the sifter sorts by size, the suton sorts by the specific gravity of the coffee.

This will show you which beans are ideal and which beans are heavy with impurities. Later, the machine will separate the skin and dirt through a vibration system.

This machine utilizes air from the blower so that it can be seen which coffee beans are light and heavy.

Destoner Machine

This tool is useful for keeping coffee beans clean. By utilizing the principle of gravity, this machine can separate foreign objects that affect the quality of coffee beans. This machine can separate gravel or even raw seeds.

Color Sorter Machine

Finally, there is the color sorter. As is known, color is one of the factors that determine the quality of coffee beans. This machine can sort by color.

The color sorter will sort which coffee beans are good and which are not. Good coffee beans have a greenish color and look smooth. Meanwhile, coffee beans with damage have a dark brown color or visible black spots.

Those are some useful coffee sorting tools to produce quality coffee beans. Currently, there are various types of machines available that can facilitate farmers in sorting.

Coffee sorting is needed to sort out which coffee beans are good or not. Of course, this will affect how the aroma and taste of the coffee reaches consumers later.

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