HARVEST & PROCESSING

The coffee trees are usually cultivated as shrubs in the coffee plantations. This makes the harvest easier and promises a higher-yielding and higher-quality cultivation. A basic distinction is made in harvesting between the industrial, so-called stripping, and the conventional picking method. During the stripping harvest, the cherry fruits are stripped from the bush with the help of large comb-like harvesting machines. However, since both unripe, ripe and overripe fruits thrive on the coffee bushes, the harvest must be sorted out afterwards. For this reason, with high-quality coffee, the fruits are harvested by hand (picking). This is the only way to ensure that the beautiful, ripe, red coffee cherries find their way into the basket during harvest.


To get from the cherry to the beans, a distinction is made between 3 preparation methods:

In regions with more water, the wet treatment method is recommended. With this method, the cherries, which must not be older than 24 hours, are roughly freed of dirt. They come to the depulper via the alluvial canal. This squeezes the beans (still in the parchment and slime cover) out of the cherry. The pulp is separated from the bean and disposed of or partly used again as fertilizer. Then the depulped bean comes through the alluvial channel into the fermentation tank. The fermentation (fermentation process triggered by the existing enzymes) loosens the residual mucus and makes it washable. A fermentation lasts between 12 and 36 hours and must be stopped at exactly the right time, otherwise overfermentation will occur. Overfermented coffee is also called the stink bean. If the fermentation is carried out correctly, the bean gets the typical fine acidity, which you can taste well in the cup. Wet treatment is mainly used for expensive varieties, but only where there is enough water. Approx. 130 liters of water are used for 1 kg of green coffee for wet processing.

After fermentation, the pergamino must be washed in wash channels and wash tanks and then dried in drying places for approx. 10 to 15 days. Sometimes drying ovens are also used for drying.

With dry processing, the freshly harvested coffee cherries are placed whole in the sun to dry until the cherries are "thin as a bell" and can be peeled out without leaving any residue. This type of processing is older and much cheaper. This method takes between three and five weeks.

The semi-dry preparation (semi-washed) works essentially the same as the wet preparation, but the fermentation is omitted. Both wet and dry processed coffee must be processed further in "Trocken-Beneficos" (Dry Beneficio is a grinder with the help of which the coffee beans are peeled or the superfluous wrappings are removed from the coffee beans). To do this, the remaining covers (parchment cover and silver skin) are removed. This is followed by polishing, sifting by size, sorting by color and bagging. The bad quality that is screened out is called "triage" or "grinders quality". Unfortunately, this is also sold and, worse, drunk ...

Now you have the desired raw product as it is shipped to us from the countries of origin. High-quality coffee is usually sent in jute sacks with a capacity of 60 - 70 kg. Optimal air circulation is guaranteed in the coffee sacks and subsequent mold growth during shipping can be ruled out!