DRY-MILLING: What happens after the wet-milling and drying of coffee?
At the beginning of the year 2017, I had the amazing opportunity to go on a Coffee Farm and Plantation tour through Central America. I was fortunate to work next to pickers on the farm, harvesting the red cherries and learn all about coffee cultivation. Next to that, I got an inside into the complex processes involved after harvesting the coffee, such as the wet-milling (removing the cherry skin and drying the coffee) and dry-milling (removing the parchment, sorting and preparation for export).
Wet-milling is mostly done on the farm. There are multiple ways to remove the cherry skin - oftentimes it involves a fermentation process (washed or semi-washed process). You can check out the steps of the washed process in one of my videos: • COFFEE FARM VISIT IN G...
Once the cherry skin is removed, the coffee is dried and recollected. At this point, the coffee is not yet ready to be exported or shipped - this happens at the dry-mill.
The dry-mill process (removing the parchment, sort and pack the beans) is typically done by partnering collecting points.
In this video, I briefly outline the steps involved at the dry-mill:
1. Cleaning the batch
2. Removing the parchment
3. Sorting by size
4. Sorting by density
5. Sorting by color
6. Packing
Special thanks to FECCEG - Federación Comercializadora de Café Especial de Guatemala (fecceg.com) for taking the time and for the interesting inside into your dry-mill process.