Wet Processed Coffee

Wet processed coffee has a unique flavor characteristic that can be described as cleaner, brighter and fruitier than dry processed coffee.  In the wet process method the harvested cherries are dumped into water where the ripe cherries are sorted from the under ripe and over ripe fruit. The unwanted fruit floats and is skimmed off and the ripe fruit is run through a pulping process.

Pulping removes the skin and some of the pulp of the cherry from the inner seed bearing core.  The core contains the two seeds that will emerge from the processing as the green coffee bean.  Each seed is covered by parchment.  After the pulping process the seed is allowed to ferment in water to loosen the remaining cherry pulp from the parchment.

Fermentation is a crucial and important step in the processing of coffee and this is where mistakes can turn exceptional coffee into unacceptable coffee.  The fermentation will take from 12 hours to three days depending on the temperature and other factors.  After the fermentation process the coffee is stripped of the loosened pulp and laid out in the sun to dry on patios.  The coffee is raked periodically to turn the bean and promote even drying. Some mills will place the coffee in large dryers to accelerate the drying process. 

 When the coffee is dry the moisture content should be between 12% and 14%.  Any higher and the bean will not store well.  At this point it is either bagged and allowed to rest in the parchment state or it may be further milled to remove the parchment.  Coffee stores best while still covered by the parchment. Before the coffee is shipped to the buyer the bean is dry milled to remove the parchment, sorted, graded and shipped.

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