colombian coffee

Production and Processing

Colombia is known today as the largest producer of washed Arabica coffee. In fact, unlike Brazil or Ethiopia, all coffee produced in Colombia is washed processed. This is due to an abundant supply of water in most coffee growing regions and to the fact that during the harvesting season the weather is predominantly wet and humid.

Harvesting

All coffee grown in Colombia is manually harvested to select only ripe (red) beans. To harvest one hectare of coffee at least 15 experienced coffee pickers are necessary. Each of these pickers will harvest 90 to 150 kg of cherry each day, working from dawn to dusk. Since most of Colombia's coffee is grown on hills, picking ripe cherries is not an easy task.

Most regions in Colombia have two harvests every year, one main crop and another usually smaller one called mitaca or traviesa (fly-crop). Almost all coffee producing regions have two harvests, with the exception of three, which are Santander, Boyaca and Sierra Nevada, which only have one harvest during the second semester of the year. Usually the first semester harvest begins in April and ends in July, while the second semester harvest begins in September and ends in December.

Wet Milling and Fermentation (Beneficio)

After the cherries are picked from the trees, they are taken to the beneficio where the pulp (skin) of the cherry is removed mechanically (de-pulping). In Colombia most farms process their coffee cherries in their own beneficio. After the skin of the cherry is removed, the beans are placed in fermentation tanks so that the mucilage gets fermented. The fermented mucilage is then removed by washing the beans with clean water. The fermentation process usually lasts between 12 and 16 hours, depending on the weather (temperature and humidity) and the amount of coffee in the tank.

Today, some coffee growers use mechanical mucilage removers (known as BECOLSUB's in Colombia) to mechanically remove the mucilage from the parchment instead of waiting to ferment the mucilage. These machines use only 1/40th of the amount of water traditionally used to ferment the mucilage and to wash the parchment coffee. The advantage of this new method is that it reduces contamination of water sources.

The pulp removed is used by some coffee growers to produce compost to fertilize their coffee trees.

Most quality conscious coffee growers also classify their parchment after de-pulping, either using mechanical methods (such as a zaranda) or by using water to sort it by density.

Drying

After the beans are free of mucilage, the washed parchment is taken to drying patios or beds to dry. Today most small growers use parabolic drying beds (such as the one seen in the picture on the left). These parabolic drying beds have a plastic floor with holes so that the water present in the parchment can be released rapidly. Thanks to this system parchment coffee can be dried more evenly and growers avoid having to pick up the coffee in plastic bags when it rains (which increases the chances of cup defects).

The drying process usually takes between 7 to 14 days depending on the weather, until it reaches a humidity level between 10 - 12%.

Larger farms use mechanical dryers (fueled by coal, gas, diesel or coffee parchment), which reduce the drying time to only 20 to 24 hours.