The ABC's of Washed Coffee

So what all goes into the Washed Process? Here's the short version:

Once the coffee cherries are plucked and brought to the washing station, placed in a bath, and washed together. This creates what's called the First Separation as the lighter, less ripe cherries float to the top of the bath while the heavier ones sink to the bottom.

What follows are de-pulping and fermentation.  The cherry shells are mechanically removed, revealing the coffee seeds and go through another round of washing that separates the coffees into varying grades of quality.

Next, the beans are dried (either inside a large machine, or out in the sun), and taken through a final milling in which the coffee beans are brushed free of the crinkly parchments covering them.

A Density Table gives the beans a good shaking, separating denser, higher quality beans from the less dense, before the beans get their close-ups in front of a specially trained team of coffee inspectors. The inspectors sort through all the beans - thousands and thousands - looking for chips, holes, mildew, debris, and color imperfections, and giving a pass only to those beans that pass strict quality control standards.

Photos by: CHRISTIAN DEL ROSARIO