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

The Coffee Bean Dry Process

The dry process demands very forgiving climate conditions. Farmers harvest the coffee cherries and dry them directly in the sun. Depending on the weather, drying takes 2-3 weeks, after which a hulling machine removes the pulp completely, followed by screening and grading. Dry-processed beans have diverse, rich flavors, but their quality can be inconsistent. That is why some people dislike them while others love them—it comes down to personal taste.

These careful steps and stages are what we call "processing methods." Processing is one of the sources of a coffee's style, and different processing choices turn into different characteristics. Africa, for example, has abundant sunshine but scarce water, so Ethiopia and Yemen mostly produce sun-dried beans. Latin American countries, with heavy rainfall and volcanic mountain climates, mostly use washed processing or honey processing, which combines the advantages of both.

Brazilian Mucilage Natural Coffee Beans

When it comes to the natural process, Brazil applies it more widely than anywhere else. The downside of the natural process is that it is easy for defective beans to slip in, and the beans vary a great deal in appearance.

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

The natural process is one of the ways of processing coffee cherries. Cherries are dried on patios for 3-4 weeks after harvest, turned evenly several times a day to ensure even heating. Once dry, the seed separates from the outer skin, a hulling machine then removes the pulp and fruit skin, and screening completes the process.

There are two fermentation methods: wet fermentation and dry fermentation. As the names suggest, the first adds water and the second does not. During fermentation, the seeds and the internal pulp undergo special changes, and this is the step that most affects flavor in the washed process. When fermentation is done, the beans are still in parchment with a moisture content of 50% and must be dried down to 12%, otherwise they will keep fermenting and turn moldy and rotten. Sun-drying is the better method; although it takes 1-3 weeks, the flavor is excellent and very popular. Some places use machine drying instead, which cuts the time dramatically but yields a flavor inferior to sun-dried coffee.

Brazilian coffee farms are vast and mostly use mechanical harvesting for efficiency. When 75% of the cherries on a plantation have turned red, mechanical harvesting begins, followed by the same pre-processing as washed coffee: the cherries go into water tanks to float off the unripe beans, the sinking beans are screened out, and large pulpers scrape away the pulp to leave the pods still coated in mucilage. At this point the two processes diverge: the sticky pods do not go into tanks for fermentation but instead move straight to outdoor drying patios. Because Brazil's climate is so dry, the sticky mucilage on the pods hardens in about a day.

A large workforce is then employed to turn the pods up and down so they dry evenly inside and out, preventing moisture absorption and off-odors. About two to three days of sunshine and dry air bring the pods to a certain degree of dehydration. They are then finished in drying machines until the moisture content drops to 10.5-12%, after which the pods are stored in special containers for about ten days to mature further and stabilize quality. Before export, the parchment (pods) is removed to extract the beans, which are then graded and packaged. The mucilage clings strongly and is hard to remove—it must sit in tanks for about 18-36 hours to ferment and break down.

In other words, once the cherries are harvested they are dried directly in the sun. Depending on the weather, this generally takes 1-2 weeks to bring the moisture content down to 10%-12%, after which machines remove the dried pulp and fruit skin. Beneficios (processing plants) usually leave the parchment shell on the beans during storage until it is removed before export (Costa Rican law requires that exported green coffee beans carry no parchment). This processing method generally needs plenty of sunshine at origin.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer, and its beans bring balance above all else: a moderate acidity with sweetness, bitterness, and body held in harmony. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian beans are roasted to a medium level, so the nutty aromas come forward while the cup stays smooth and gently acidic, and they work just as well as a single origin or in a blend.

To get a first taste of the region, try the FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon, a classic Brazilian single origin from the well-known Cerrado growing area. Roasted medium, it opens with the rich aromas of creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut, with a rounded, non-acidic body and a light hint of bitterness. It is happy in a pour-over, a moka pot, as an espresso SOE, in a siphon, or in a French press.

For something a little rarer, the FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate uses the uncommon Yellow Bourbon, a natural mutation of Red Bourbon, grown in Mogiana near South Minas where the fertile red volcanic soil feeds the fruit. Made as a pour-over, a moka pot coffee, or on a home machine, it shows a clean sugarcane sweetness that other regions rarely offer, alongside fruit and chocolate notes.