Natural Coffee Processing | Coffee Camping

Natural process, also called dry process, is the oldest method used to remove the coffee seed from the coffee cherry, and it's still commonly practiced in many coffee-growing countries, including Ethiopia, where Arabica coffee was first discovered. Since it was in Ethiopia that the natural process was originally perfected, we'll visit a facility in Yirgacheffe in this video to learn more about this particular process. Natural coffees are thought to have a generally fruitier profile than coffees processed in other ways. The flavor can be reminiscent of coffee cherry, blueberry, raspberry, or strawberry. Historically, natural or dry processing had been practiced in climates that are dry, warm, and sunny, without much humidity or cloud cover. Today, the technique is being adopted by producers all over the world who are interested in the profile that results from the longer fruit contact to the seed. Now we'll examine the steps of making a natural process coffee. First, as in every other processing method, the coffee cherry is picked ripe, and in Ethiopia it's delivered to what they call a washing station. While they're called washing stations, most of the processing plants produce both washed and natural coffees. The basic difference between these two processes is how much time the coffee seed remains in its coffee fruit. For example, generally speaking, washed is a term used to describe coffee seeds that are removed from their fruit as soon as possible, typically within 8 to 12 hours after being harvested. Natural coffees, on the other hand, are left in their whole fruit for the entire duration of the drying time, which is part of what creates their distinctly different profile. Because the seeds are not removed from the fruit for natural processing, the cherries themselves are incredibly important. Only the ripest, freshest, and most developed fruit will be accepted. At the best washing stations, meticulous sorting will take place during the delivery as well as throughout the drying process. Instead of being loaded for depulping, fermentation, and washing, the coffee is brought to the mill in-cherry and sorted, weighed, and reported before moving directly to the drying area. In Ethiopia, coffee is often dried on raised beds that are woven, or made of mesh, in order to allow air to circulate around the fruit. This allows for a more even and uniform drying of the cherry on each table, which might comprise individual lots. Drying naturals can be tricky for several reasons. For one thing, the fruit's organic material starts fermenting as soon as the cherries are picked, and that fermentation is accelerated once the fruit is laid out under the hot sun. The fruit's susceptible to mold and other types of defects that can occur during this time, so it requires constant attention by staff to rotate the cherries and to continue to sort them as they dry. Drying naturals also takes longer than washed or even honey coffees. It can take three to four weeks for the fruit to dry completely and for the seeds inside to reach the moisture content that's required for export, around 11%. Often, in order to regulate and modulate the drying process, workers will pile or cover the coffee depending on what's necessary. At this washing station, the workers even transfer the cherry to another surface part way through in order to control the rate and uniformity of the drying. After the fruit's dry, it's transferred to the dry mill, where the coffee and its cherry will be run through a humming machine, which uses friction to remove the fruit and the parchment layer. The resulting green coffee is taken to a mill to be sorted by hand or by special equipment, and it will also be polished at this stage. Then it's placed in sacks and stored in a warehouse until it's ready to be shipped.