How to Make Fushan Coffee_How is Hainan Fushan Coffee_Is Fushan Coffee Delicious_Fushan Coffee Bean Processing Workflow

Introduction to Fushan Coffee

Fushan Coffee is already renowned throughout Hainan Island and has become a nationally protected geographical product. Many people have fallen in love with Fushan Coffee, but perhaps besides the people of Fushan, many coffee enthusiasts are not clear about how Fushan Coffee transforms from trees into a drinkable cup. Let me take you through it now.

Step 1: Harvesting

Ripe coffee cherries on the tree are ready to be picked. Picking coffee is not an easy task either.

Step 2: Sorting

The harvested cherries are poured into a tank. Only mature coffee can produce good coffee, so unripe cherries are sorted out.

Step 3: Initial Cleaning

Clean water is injected into the pool to wash the cherries. Lighter berries float on the surface along with leaves and small branches, which are removed with a strainer.

Step 4: Pulping

A pulping machine is used to remove the coffee pulp.

The purpose of removing the pulp is to separate it from the seed coat of the coffee bean. The pulp is removed by squeezing the berries. Since ripe berries contain a lot of moisture, the beans with their skin can easily pop out when the berries are squeezed.

Step 5: Transfer to Fermentation Tanks

Through flow channels, the beans enter the fermentation tanks.

Step 6: Mucilage Removal

The next step is to remove the mucilage.

The purpose is to remove the mesocarp residue that tightly adheres to the seed coat after pulping. Because this mucilage is insoluble in water and clings tightly to the seed coat, it cannot be removed by simple washing alone, so it must be fermented and then washed. In Fushan, this process is completed mainly through natural fermentation. The term fermentation is not 100% accurate, because no biochemical reactions occur inside the coffee beans; it would be more appropriate to describe this process as using biochemical reactions, or hydrolysis, to remove the mucilage. The reaction is caused by enzymes naturally present in the coffee berries.

Step 7: Washing

Fermentation time ranges from 6 hours to 72 hours, depending on conditions such as temperature, the amount of mucilage, and the concentration of digestive enzymes. The coffee can be washed once it has sat in the fermentation tanks until the mucilage is completely decomposed.

Step 8: Drying

The washed beans need to be dried in the sun.

The key to ensuring coffee quality is to terminate fermentation at the right time, because over-fermentation leads to so-called stinker beans. If fermentation is insufficient or too slow, butyric acid or propionic acid is produced, both of which adversely affect coffee quality.

The fermented coffee with its skin needs to be washed immediately once fermentation is complete, in order to terminate the process. After removing the mucilage and before washing, however, the coffee with its skin may need to be soaked in clean water for 12 to 24 hours to reduce the bitter taste in the beverage.

Step 9: Coffee Bean Raw Material

The dried coffee beans are the raw material, still green beans at this stage.

Step 10: Roasting

Roast the coffee. After it cools, it can be collected and stored, and the bean processing is complete.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Fushan has you wanting to explore Chinese and other approachable specialty coffees, FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level lineup is a good starting point. For an Ethiopian introduction, the sun-dried Flower Queen and the washed Gudingding Cooperative are the two classic picks. Ethiopia is Africa's largest coffee producer and the world's recognized birthplace of coffee, with a huge range of varieties usually named after their region or cooperative, and Yirgacheffe and Sidamo are the two best-known areas. Washed Gudingding is a typical Yirgacheffe representative, with jasmine florals, lemon acidity, and berry notes, while natural Sidamo Flower Queen shows off tropical fruit and fermented aromas, with flavors of berries, florals, jackfruit, melon, and honey.

For Brazil, try FrontStreet's Cerrado red Bourbon or Queen Estate. Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer; even though commercial beans dominate, high-quality Brazilian coffee exists. Because Brazilian coffee is mostly grown in the open sun and ripens quickly, the beans are softer, the acidity mild, and the sweetness good, giving a delicate, smooth, balanced cup. The Cerrado beans are a value entry-level single origin with typical cream, peanut, and cocoa notes, while Queen Estate grows at higher altitude and uses the rare yellow Bourbon variety, adding butter, sunflower-seed, macadamia, and almond aromas to a sugarcane-like sweetness; brewed on its own or with milk, it gives a thick, smooth texture.

For Indonesia, FrontStreet's Lintong Mandheling and PWN Golden Mandheling cover both ends of the range. Mandheling uses the wet-hulled process, invented for Indonesia's rainy climate, in which the outer shell is machine-removed while the bean is still half-dry to speed drying, which is what produces the world's distinctive Mandheling flavor. It is richer and smoother than FrontStreet's Blue Mountain, with herbal and spice notes, and suits anyone who dislikes acidity. For a higher grade, PWN Golden Mandheling undergoes three hand-sorts and one machine sort, cutting the defect rate to a minimum for a cleaner, smoother cup with clearer woody aroma and caramel sweetness.

For Colombia, FrontStreet's Huila coffees, including the Sidra and the Big Navel, are worth trying. Colombia is one of the few single-origin coffees sold under a country name, and its mild climate and humidity mean coffee ripens somewhere year-round. The Huila region, ringed by mountains with growing altitudes above 1,500 meters, is Colombia's most famous specialty region, with floral-dominated, gently acidic coffees. To finish, FrontStreet's Costa Rica Mozart (raisin honey) and Blackberry (black honey) show the country's honey-processing signature, with grape, raisin, and blueberry sweetness and osmanthus and rose aromas, while the Yunnan small-bean (washed) and the 2013 Yunnan Typica offer the nut, brown-sugar, and black-tea flavors of China's own growing region, with the Typica grown at 1,300 meters and medium-roasted for a cleaner cup of hazelnut, dried apricot, black tea, caramel, and ripe plum.