 Coffee drying in the sun
The coffee is then dried, either by the rays of the sun or mechanically. The process for sun drying coffee can take 3-5 days or almost two weeks depending on the weather. It is very important that the drying coffee is turned many times each day and does not come into contact with any water after the washing process is complete and the drying process is underway.
All of the coffee that we buy at Equal Exchange is dried by the sun on concrete patios or raised screens - carefully turned and protected from the elements by our producer partners.
When the coffee has been dried down to 12% moisture and a thin shell called parchment encapsulates each coffee bean, the producers pull the coffee off of the patios or trays, put it into coffee sacks, and divide it in their warehouses to prepare for export.
Dry Processing vs. Wet Processing
Coffee is processed in many different ways throughout the world. In some cases, coffee cherries are not de-pulped, but harvested when ripe and laid out to dry. Or, the coffee cherries may be left to partially dry on the tree, then picked and placed on patio to dry in the sun. In both methods, the cherries are left to dry in the sun for 2-3 weeks and then put through a hulling machine to remove the dried pulp, parchment and silverskin. This type of processing, called "dry processing," is thought to produce a heavy bodied cup of coffee and the appearance of the green coffee is greenish brown. Within the coffee industry these beans are sometimes called naturals.
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Farmer Partners 
