My good friend Dave sent me two kilos of coffee cherries in the mail. Giving me the perfect opportunity to try my hand at processing coffee from fruit to cup. Today was pulping day. The cherries had started to ferment. I read this article, and decided to go with the wet processing option – or at least a low-tech version. Here, for your vicarious coffee preparing pleasure, is the process… in pictures (from my phone).
I started with two kilos of coffee fruit in a plastic bag. I put these in a tub and started squeezing the berries out one by one. This was a slow process.
Embracing the “wet process” method I filled the tub with water and started pressing the beans together and mashing them, imagining my hands were the feet of the hired help at a French vineyard.
It still took a long time. But, after mashing and bashing my way through the bucket I ended up with:
I weighed them. After soaking in water for a while (and they were noticeably waterlogged) they weighed 972 grams. They’ll lose a fair bit before roasting, and a further 20 percent during roasting. It’s not a hugely efficient process.
And now they’re soaking. For 12-48 hours.
