Primary Processing of the Cherry into Green coffee

 Once the cherries are harvested, the beans have to be extracted by using either the dry or the wet method.
 The amount of pulp around the beans usually determines the primary preparation method
 The pulp has a high water content. If it is thick it will make direct drying difficult. It therefore has to be removed,
using the wet process. This is the case for most Arabicas.
 Robustas have thin pulp and can be processed directly by the dry process.

Dry Method

“Unwashed" coffees by the dry process, mostly involving Brazilian Arabicas and Robustas.

 The dry method (also called the natural method) is the oldest, simplest, less expensive and requires little
machinery
 The three basic steps, cleaning, drying and hulling
 The method involves drying the whole cherry.

1. Sorting & Cleaning:

 The harvested cherries are usually sorted and cleaned, to separate the unripe, overripe and damaged
cherries and to remove dirt, soil, twigs and leaves
 Methods:

1. Winnowing- by hand, using a large sieve. Any unwanted cherries or other material not winnowed away can
be picked out from the top of the sieve

2. Flotation- The ripe cherries can also be separated by flotation in washing channels

2. Drying:

The drying operation is the most important stage of the process, since it affects the final quality of the green coffee

A coffee that has been overdried will become brittle and produce too many broken beans during hulling (broken
beans are considered defective beans). Coffee that has not been dried sufficiently will be too moist and prone
to rapid deterioration caused by the attack of fungi and bacteria

Sun Drying:

 The coffee cherries are then spread out in the sun, either on large concrete or brick patios or on matting raised
to waist height wire mesh tables to dry
 they are raked or turned to ensure even drying
 Duration: Up to 4 weeks before the cherries are dried to the optimum 11% moisture content

Machine Drying

Re-drying & Cleaning Before Hulling

Coffee, whether wet or dry processed, arriving from farms and estates for hulling is not always sufficiently dry,
and it is often necessary to dry certain batches further. Apart from providing storage stability, a uniform moisture
content of 11% enables husk and parchment to be removed more easily

Dry parchment coffee, and particularly dried cherry, may contain many impurities, e.g. pebbles, pieces of metal
and other foreign bodies. These needs to be removed by a preliminary cleaning to protect the processing
equipment. Cleaning can be carried out by use of a hopper with screens to remove large and medium-sized
impurities, followed by magnetic separator to remove metal pieces and a cleaner-separator which combines the
effect of sifting and pneumatic dust removal. An air float separator can be used to sort particles with the same
diameter but different densities.

3. Hulling:
 Husk coffee and parchment coffee is processed to give commercial green coffee
 The dried cherries are stored in bulk in special silos or in bags until they are sent to the mill where hulling,
sorting, grading and bagging take place

All the outer layers of the dried cherry are removed in one step by the hulling machine

Hulling may or may not remove a final layer closest to the beans, called the silverskin. If removal of silverskin is
required, it may require separate equipment following hulling, called polishers

Use:

 The dry method is used for about 95% of the Arabica coffee produced in Brazil, most of the coffees
produced in Ethiopia, Haiti and Paraguay, as well as for some Arabicas produced in India and Ecuador.
 Almost all Robustas are processed by this method.

Limitations:

 It is not practical in very rainy regions, where the humidity of the atmosphere is too high or where it rains
frequently during harvesting.

Wet Method

"Washed" coffees by the wet process, mostly involving Arabicas and very few Robustas

 The wet method requires the use of specific equipment and substantial quantities of water. When properly
done, the qualities of the coffee beans are better preserved, producing a green coffee which is homogeneous
and has few defective beans. Hence, the coffee produced by this method is usually regarded as being of better
quality and commands higher prices.
 The wet method is more expensive than the dry method

1. Preliminary Sorting and Cleaning of the cherries by washing the cherries in tanks filled with flowing
water

Removal of partially dried and unripe cherries, as well as some stones and dirt

2. Removal of Pulp

The pulping operation should also be done as soon as possible after harvesting to avoid any deterioration of
the fruit which might affect the quality of the beans.

 The pulp is removed from the cherry

 This operation is the key difference between the dry and the wet methods, since in the wet method the pulp of
the fruit is separated from the beans before the drying stage.
 The pulping is done by a machine which squeezes the cherries between fixed and moving surfaces
 The pulped beans go on to vibrating screens which separate them from any unpulped or imperfectly pulped
cherries, as well as from any large pieces of pulp that might have passed through with them.
 From the screens, the separated pulped beans then pass through water-washing channels where a further
flotation separation takes place before they are sent to the next stage
3. Fermentation:

 The newly pulped beans are placed in large fermentation tanks in which the mucilage is broken down by
natural enzymes and can easily be washed away
 For most coffees mucilage removal takes between 24 and 36 hours, depending on the temperature, thickness
of the mucilage layer and concentration of the enzymes
 The parchment surrounding the beans loses its slimy texture and acquires a rougher "pebbly" feel
 After fermentation, the coffee is thoroughly washed with clean water in tanks or in special washing machines

4. Drying:

 The wet parchment coffee at this stage consists of approximately 57% moisture. To reduce the moisture to an
optimum 11% the parchment coffee is dried either in the sun, in a mechanical dryer, or by a combination
of the two.
 Sun drying should take from 8 to 10 days
 Hot-air drying machines are also used

After drying, the wet-processed coffee, or parchment coffee as it is commonly known, is stored and
remains in this form until shortly before hulling

Re-drying & Cleaning Before Hulling

Coffee, whether wet or dry processed, arriving from farms and estates for hulling is not always sufficiently dry,
and it is often necessary to dry certain batches further. Apart from providing storage stability, a uniform moisture
content of 11% enables husk and parchment to be removed more easily

Dry parchment coffee, and particularly dried cherry, may contain many impurities, e.g. pebbles, pieces of metal
and other foreign bodies. These needs to be removed by a preliminary cleaning to protect the processing
equipment. Cleaning can be carried out by use of a hopper with screens to remove large and medium-sized
impurities, followed by magnetic separator to remove metal pieces and a cleaner-separator which combines the
effect of sifting and pneumatic dust removal. An air float separator can be used to sort particles with the same
diameter but different densities.

5. Hulling:

 Husk coffee and parchment coffee is processed to give commercial green coffee
 The coffee is hulled, to remove the parchment

Hulling may or may not remove a final layer closest to the beans, called the silverskin. If removal of silverskin is
required, it may require separate equipment following hulling, called polishers.

Use:

The wet method is generally used for all the Arabica coffees, with the exception of those produced in Brazil and
the Arabica-producing countries mentioned above as users of the dry method. It is rarely used for Robustas

The green coffee obtained is then sorted according to size, density and colour

The final stages of preparation of the coffee, known as "curing", usually take place at a special plant just before
the coffee is sold for export.