Introduction to Pectin Natural Coffee Beans - Natural Processing Steps - Why Natural Coffee Beans Are Lower Priced

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Coffee Bean Dry Process

The dry process requires very high climate conditions. Farmers harvest coffee cherries and directly dry them in the sun. Depending on weather conditions, they are dried for 2-3 weeks, then processed with a hulling machine to completely remove the pulp, followed by screening and grading. Dry-processed coffee beans have diverse and rich flavors, but their quality is unstable. Therefore, some people dislike them, while others enjoy such flavors—each has their own preference.

These meticulous steps and processes are what we call "processing methods." Processing methods are one of the sources that create coffee styles. Different processing factors transform into various characteristics. For example, Africa has abundant sunshine but scarce water resources, so Ethiopia and Yemen mostly produce sun-dried beans. The geographical environment of Latin American countries, with rich rainfall and high mountain climate conditions of volcanic rock, mostly adopts washed processing or honey processing that combines the advantages of both methods.

Brazilian Mucilage Natural Coffee Beans

When it comes to the natural process, Brazil has the widest application; the disadvantage of the natural process is that it's easy to mix with defective beans, and the appearance between beans varies greatly.

Dry processing (secado), also called the full natural method.

The natural process is one of the coffee cherry processing methods. The processing involves drying coffee cherries on drying patios for 3-4 weeks after harvesting, turning them evenly several times daily to ensure even heating. After drying, the coffee bean seeds separate from the outer skin, then a hulling machine removes the pulp, fruit skin, etc., followed by screening to complete the process.

There are two fermentation methods: wet fermentation and dry fermentation. As the name suggests, the former adds water, while the latter does not. During the fermentation process, the seeds and internal pulp undergo special changes. This is the step that most affects coffee flavor in the washed process. After washing, the coffee beans are still in the parchment with a moisture content of 50% and must be dried to reduce the moisture content to 12%, otherwise they will continue to ferment and become moldy and rotten. The better processing method is sun-drying, although it takes 1-3 weeks, the flavor is excellent and quite popular. Additionally, some places use machine drying, which greatly reduces processing time but results in inferior flavor compared to sun-dried coffee.

Brazilian coffee fields are vast and mostly use mechanical harvesting for economic efficiency. When 75% of the coffee cherries in the plantation turn red, mechanical harvesting begins, followed by the same pre-processing as washing: moving them to water tanks to remove floating beans, screening out sinking beans, then using large pulp removers to scrape out the pulp and extract the pods covered with mucilage. The next stage diverges from the washed process: the sticky pods don't need to be moved to water tanks for fermentation but are instead moved to outdoor drying patios. Due to Brazil's very dry climate, the sticky mucilage on the pods hardens in about a day.

Then large numbers of workers are employed to turn them up and down to ensure even drying inside and out, preventing moisture absorption and odor. About two to three days with the natural power of sunshine and dry climate allow the pods to reach a certain degree of dehydration. Then they are further dried with drying machines until the moisture content drops to 10.5-12%, after which the pods are stored in special containers for about ten days for further maturation to ensure stable quality. Before export, the parchment (pods) is removed to extract the coffee beans, which are then graded and packaged. The mucilage adheres strongly and is not easy to remove—it must be placed in tanks for about 18-36 hours to ferment and decompose the mucilage.

After coffee cherries are harvested, they are directly dried in the sun. Depending on weather conditions, this generally takes 1-2 weeks to reduce the moisture content of coffee beans to 10%-12%, then machines are used to remove the dried pulp and fruit skin. Beneficios (processing plants) generally keep the parchment shell on the coffee beans during storage until removal before export (Costa Rican law requires that exported green coffee beans cannot have parchment shells). This processing method generally requires sufficient sunshine at the origin.

Natural Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's freshly roasted single-origin natural coffee beans—such as Natural Yirgacheffe and Natural Sidamo coffee—offer full guarantees in both brand and quality, suitable for brewing with various equipment. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money. A half-pound (227 grams) bag costs only about 70-90 RMB. Calculated with 200ml per cup and a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, one bag can make 15 cups of specialty coffee, with each cup costing only about 5-6 RMB. Compared to cafés selling cups for dozens of RMB, this offers extremely high value.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473