S2: Episode 8: Washed Coffee: Nothing To Do With Soap!
If you’ve ever pondered the significance of the word ‘washed’ in a coffee’s description, you are not alone. In this episode we lift the lid on some ‘good to know’ coffee jargon that can have a profound effect on the flavour in your cup. This week’s FACQ poses an important question about the environmental impact of the washed coffee process.
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Hello and welcome to The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster and writer on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
This week's episode is all about washed coffee - or to be more precise the washed coffee process, which has nothing at all to do with soap or laundry...and later I’ll be answering an important question about the impact of the washed coffee process on the environment so stay tuned for that…
When you’re presented with pre-packaged, already ground coffee it is easy to forget that your coffee is the product of a plant. Coffee beans are actually seeds which develop inside the fruit, or cherry, of the coffee plant. Coffee cherries are similar to the eating cherries you may be familiar with - albeit a little more elongate in shape and a lot less fleshy. They are also usually red in colour, although there are varieties of coffee that produce yellow, orange or even pink cherries instead. The transformation from ‘seed-of-a fruit’ to ‘beans-that-can-be-roasted’ is achieved by green bean processing and is a bit more complicated than you might think. Washed, natural, pulped natural, honey, anaerobic fermentation and carbonic maceration are all different processing methods that can be used to remove the beans from the cherries. Since each processing method has a different impact on the flavour of the coffee beans it produces it’s a good idea to understand a bit about the different methods. So without further ado, lets take a look at the method which has historically been associated with the highest quality and finest coffees - aka washed coffee…
When appropriate I mix up the order of the usual segments, so firstly washed coffee and the bean
I think its important to say that the ‘washed’ process uses plain water to process the cherries. No soap or other chemicals are involved. Also, a lot of water is used in the wet processing of coffee. It begins with an initial quality screening of the freshly picked cherries by placing them in a tank of water. This washes off any dirt and also floats off unripe cherries, twigs and leaves which are less dense than the fully ripe cherries. The ripe cherries are then passed through a depulping machine which, using water in the process, pulls the skin off the fruit leaving the fruit pulp, or mucilage, sticking to the outer casing of the seeds. To remove this pulp the seeds are then placed in another tank of water for between 18 to 36 hours to ferment and allow microorganisms to break down the mucilage. Managing this stage of the process requires real skill as it is easy to over-ferment the coffee and introduce defective flavours to the beans. When the mucilage is sufficiently loosened from the seed casing, the coffee is washed again to remove it. Following the fermentation and washing stages the coffee is then dried - either in the sun on tables or patios, or by a mechanical dryer - which is essentially an enormous low temperature, low speed tumble dryer. When the beans have been dried to around a 10-12% moisture content they are then stored in sacks until they are prepared for shipping, at which point they will be be graded for quality - but that’s a whole other episode!
Next washed coffee and the taste
Washed coffees are prized for their consistency from cup to cup and their clean flavour. Using the washed process on the cherries also allows the true flavours of the coffee’s variety and terroir to be expressed. These coffees often have a bright complex acidity and floral aromas. However if a coffee is intrinsically dull, this process will expose that too. Its important to note that a washed coffee should never taste over ripe and fruity in the style of a natural process coffee. And in fact if a washed coffee tastes like a natural coffee, fermented grass or a farmyard it means that the beans were left soaking too long and became over fermented. This means that the coffee is actually defective - and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!
Finally washed coffee and the brew
The complex and subtle fruit flavours of washed coffees are best expressed by brewing though any of the various filter or vacuum brewing methods. These allow the coffee's flavours to shine through without too much modification being imposed by the method. Other brewing methods such as espresso, stovetop and ibrik can be too harsh on a washed coffee's flavour. This leads to the destruction of the more delicate flavours of the coffee or else creates a gross caricature by over-emphasising a single aspect of it’s taste, such as it’s acidity or bitterness. Not pleasant! And does no favours either to the coffee itself or all the hard work and effort that went into making it the best it could be.
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
It sounds like a lot of water is used during the washed coffee process - surely that has an environmental impact?
Yes it does. The amount of water required to process coffees this way is problematical in countries which experience water shortages. Also local water systems may become polluted if untreated coffee processing wastewater is discharged into them. For these reasons, other green coffee processing methods such as the natural or pulped natural process are arguably more environmentally friendly than the washed process. For those of us who prefer the flavour of washed coffees the good news is that awareness of these issues has produced innovations in processing machinery to reduce the amount of water needed and the development of better practices to reduce the environmental impact of washed coffees in general.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about washed coffee. I hope you now realise why processing methods frequently feature in coffee descriptions. Are you coffee savvy enough to have a favourite processing method? Send me a text using the link in the show notes and let me know. In the next episode the spotlight is turned on the unsung hero of coffee brewing, the coffee grinder. We’ll be getting into the nitty gritty of grinder maintenance so be sure you hit follow so that you don’t miss it. If you know someone who loves coffee as much as you do, tell them about the show and rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. If you have a question about coffee or a topic that you would like me to cover please get in touch. I’m on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide or email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for sharing your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee!
The Coffee Drinker’s Guide is a Blue Sky Coffee Project.