Moisture level of coffee is the most important part during its drying phase. When coffee placed on drying patio or mechanical dryer it should be spread out evenly and dry uniformly. Mechanical dryers should only be used as pre-drying phase before coffee moved to raised beds or covered patios or coffee could be dried on raised beds or patios first and compete the final drying cycle on mechanical dryer. Even drying on raised beds is must to allow air to circulate around coffee beans. Coffees cannot be the same from one country to another and from one island in the Caribbean to another island in South Pacific. Typica in Puerto Rico will differentiate with typica in Guatemala based on cup profile, soil content, climatic condition, elevation and etc. But moisture level must be precise and farmers should establish proper moisture management control in order to avoid uneven drying, over drying or under drying. When coffee placed on raised beds or mechanical dryer piled upon each other or not moved around for even drying it would result in moisture level variations which is not applausable. SCAA Green Arabica Coffee Classification system specifies that washed coffee should be between 10-12% of moisture level upon import and natural process should be between 10-13%. International Trade Center suggests that 11% moisture level is probably a good target for most coffees. Because after drying complete coffee will go into stabilization phase allowing moisture to stabilize evenly. And again proper conditions where coffee is stored and how it kept would influence the final cup. Some would think they keep coffee dry in the storage under proper condition but lack of ventilation would.not keep coffee cool and coffee will continue dry and eventually turns to be over drying. Over drying meaning exceeding moisture level target meaning.your crop is trash and lost since you wont be able to reverse it and change the moisture to appropriate level. You will jeopardise your quality for good. When you have a lot of shells and broken beans besides being classified as malformed beans consisting of a cavity by SCAA they are part of over dryed coffee beans that break up more easily during milling producing shells and broken beans. International Coffee Organization worked on prohibiting shipments of coffee below 8% moisture level. I dont know If that regulation is in effect now. The reason for this is quality and when moisture drops below 10%, aroma, acidity and freshness begin to fade away and at 8% or below they have completely disappeared. Also according to trade organization coffee with moisture level below 8% could roast much faster with not so pleasant results. One thing for farmers to do is never mix coffee together with different moisture level where one part is under dried and other is over dryed. They dont belong to each other. When I had my internship at coffee farm in Hawaii their moisture target was set to mostly 12% but other farms there like some I assume elsewhere would over dry coffee to 14% moisture level meaning quality was completely killed and money lost. What next? They would probably sell this type of coffee, either over dried or harvested coffees that were not properly ripped (green, yellow, underdeveloped) to government for less who will eventually mix all this unfavorable mixture together and sell it to public at lower cost at the grocery store like its happening here. So basically farmer is loosing good cash money he could get for quality but not loosing completely by selling to government and not trashing it. If you want to sell your coffee for higher price it requires consideration and practical methods and consistentcy. And most important; quality a) ripe cherries at harvest or at sorting manually selecting b) proper processing methods for consistency c) proper drying with raised beds and in places with constant rain, covered patio with raised beds with proper ventilation d) proper storage with humidity control e) not to store beans in parchment over 90 days f) have sample roaster, learn how to roast, find your roast profile and cup. Play with different roast profile and cup. g) protect your farm from deseases h) for better results separate your varietals and keep them separately from others to keep track on them too k) keep an eye on moisture level If I missed something......sorry
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 02:18:28 +0000
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