Did you know? Coffee beans can also be "honeyed" Learn about the honey treatment of coffee beans

Do you know where coffee comes from? Today, we have prepared this article for you. This article briefly describes how coffee beans are transformed from fruits into fragrant coffee. Among them, we focus on the processing of raw coffee beans and the impact of various processing processes on the taste of coffee. Today, our protagonist is the honey process. This processing method is very common in producing areas such as El Salvador and Costa Rica.

1. Coffee Berry Anatomy

Coffee fruit is divided into 5 layers, as shown in the figure:

The 5 layers are:

1. Skin/Pulp: The outermost layer of coffee beans is covered with berry-like skin and pulp. Except for the natural sun drying method, coffee beans processed by other methods must have their skin and pulp removed within a few hours after picking. Similar to this is the cherries we often eat, but the difference is that when we eat cherries, we mainly eat the pulp and skin of the berries. For coffee, the skin and pulp are important by-products. In some producing areas, people use the skin and pulp of coffee to make tea. People in the industry are accustomed to calling the skin and pulp of coffee "pulp". The machine used to remove the pulp is called a "pulper".

2. Mucilage: Under the peel and pulp, a layer of sticky mucus tightly wraps the coffee beans. Because this layer of mucilage is extremely sticky and has a very high sugar content, people are used to calling it "honey". Not only coffee, but many fruits also have a layer of mucilage inside. You can log on to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucilage to check relevant information.

3. Parchment: Inside the mucous membrane, a thin film of cellulose wraps around the coffee beans. After drying, this film looks like parchment, hence the name.

4. Silver Skin/Chaff: There is a thinner film inside the parchment paper that wraps the coffee beans. Because of its shiny and silvery color, people usually call it "silver skin". This layer of silver skin will fall off during roasting. Usually when you grind coffee, you will find some silver fragments in the coffee powder. These fragments are the silver skin that failed to be peeled off from the coffee beans during roasting.

5. Coffee beans: Each coffee fruit contains 2 coffee beans (except for Peaberry, which is a single bean in a pod. This type of coffee fruit only contains one coffee bean. Usually, 5% of each batch of coffee beans are single beans in a pod). After the coffee beans are dried and processed, they can be roasted.

2. Three major methods of processing green coffee beans

As we know, there are three main methods of coffee bean processing. Each method is distinguished by how many layers of material are removed from the coffee fruit before it is dried. Here is a list of the three major processing methods:

1. Natural sun treatment : retain all substances

2. Honey treatment : remove the peel and pulp, leaving some or all of the mucous membrane (honey). Today, almost all producing areas in Costa Rica use the honey treatment, and this method is also widely used throughout Central America. Because the mucous membrane on the surface of the coffee beans is extremely slimy and has a very high sugar content, people often call it "honey". During the honey treatment, some or all of the "honey" is left on the coffee when it is dried. After the coffee berries are picked, graded, and pulped, they are placed on drying beds to dry. Because the mucous membrane dries very quickly, the coffee beans hardly ferment during the drying process. The acidity of coffee beans processed by this treatment method is slightly higher than that of the natural washed method, but much lower than that of the washed method and natural sun drying method.

3. Washing method: Use washing and fermentation to remove the peel, pulp and mucous membrane. This method is also called "Fully Washed". Washing is the most common method for processing Arabica coffee beans in most coffee producing countries in the world. Some regions also use advanced high-pressure water washers to clean the peel, pulp and mucous membrane of coffee beans, so fermentation is no longer required. This method of processing coffee beans using a high-pressure water washer is called "Pulped Natural".

3. Honey processing level

Since the protagonist of this article is the honey process, I will introduce several different honey processes and their impact on the final taste of the coffee.

Some plantations that have not used honey processing in the past have to use the existing tools at hand. Since most regions, such as Latin America, Kenya and Ethiopia, used to transport coffee beans with water, the coffee beans would lose some of the mucous membrane during transportation. In places such as Costa Rica, Brazil or Colombia, local processing plants used to use high-pressure water washers, so part of the mucous membrane would also be removed during the process of pulping and peeling. Depending on the amount of mucous membrane remaining (40%-100%), people divide honey processing into 4 levels: 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. Of course, some growers will deliberately remove part of the mucous membrane to ensure that the coffee will not become sour due to fermentation during the drying process.

4. Color grading of honey processing

Today, some Costa Rican growers grade their honey-processed coffee beans based on their color. There are three grades: yellow, red, and black. The color changes come from the length of time the coffee is exposed to light during the drying process.

Yellow Honey treated coffee beans are exposed to the light the longest. Long exposure means more heat, so this coffee can be dried in 1 week. In general, the drying time of coffee depends on the local climate, temperature and humidity conditions. Red Honey treated coffee beans are dried in 2-3 weeks, usually due to weather conditions or in the shade. If the weather is clear, growers will block part of the sun to reduce the exposure time. Black Honey treated coffee beans are dried in the shade the longest, and the exposure time is shorter. This type of coffee takes at least 2 weeks to dry. Black Honey treated coffee beans have the most complicated processing process and the highest labor costs, so they are the most expensive.