What is Dry Coffee Processing?

Your favourite kaapis aren’t your favourite for no reason. 

They’ve been harvested, processed, and offered to you with a lot of thought behind what each step means for the taste of your kaapi.

Dry processing is one such technique that coffee producers around the world use to process their coffee beans. They know what beans work best with dry processing, just like we know that our Mysore nuggets coffee tastes wonderful because of the monsooning process.

Understanding the Process

In dry processing, coffee beans that are picked from the farm are placed out in the open to dry under the sun for a long period of time. This is usually done in regions where the climate is adequately warm enough to dry the fruit without damaging the coffee bean. 

The process is significantly different from wet processing because it usually requires more hands on deck and also the coffee cherry is not separated from the bean at the initial stage.

Even the drying process requires significant care as the producers have to regularly toss and move around the cherries that are left out to dry so that they are evenly dry and no mould develops on them.

After this, the cherries are put through a mechanical hulling machine to separate the bean and the flesh of the cherry.

The green beans are then stored away till they are shipped to coffee roasters.

Some coffee producers also use machines to dry the cherries. This is important in case there isn’t a lot of sun in that particular region. 

Also known as natural processing, this method is praised for how little water it requires, i.e. in many cases, 10x less than wet processing. It can certainly be a resourceful method for coffee processing.

Dry processing is common in regions like Brazil and Ethiopia.

The Flavour Profile of Dry Processed Coffees

One aspect that is common across dry processed coffees is the fruity-sweet flavour it tends to have. 

Some tasting notes you may encounter in these coffees are honey, tropical fruits, berries, etc. The coffees brewed from dry processed beans make for heavy-bodied brews with a citrus acidity.

Even if you’ve never considered knowing more about your kaapi, where it comes from, and how it was produced, we hope this post was insightful.

For your daily dose of kaapi, explore our specialty filter kaapi collection. They are sourced from India and roasted in Australia. It’s the best of both worlds, you see.