What is the difference between wet and dry processing of coffee beans?
In some climates, where sun and labor are plentiful, coffees can be sun-dried in the open air (dry process). This requires more labor and a long period of dry, sunny weather. The advantage of this process is that the beans ripen fully and develop many mature flavors such as a chocolate, nutty, or vanilla taste tone. In regions where this cannot be done, the beans are soaked to wash away their fruit (the coffee “cherry”) and then kiln-dried. This process is largely automated, and as a result, there is less apt to be foreign material in the first lot production. Sun dried coffees might pick up a stray stone or twig, for instance. However, some sacrifice is made in losing the fully ripened flavor.
