For Grade 1 or "Specialty" quality standards, the coffees are hand-sorted four times during "full washed" processing (see below). With the "Royalty" quality standard on our part (according to the two-king principle), an extra (5) hand-sorting work is done, as the farmers only want to give us their best.
Full Washed
At harvest time, ripe coffee cherries are always picked by hand and (1) sorted. In a water container / large bucket full of water, these cherries are (2) checked to see if they have any defects. These then float to the top of the water and are immediately taken out of the water. They are turned over several times by hand until nothing is left floating.
Then the cherries are thrown into the pulper machines while still wet. Here the beans are separated from the pulp and the result is packed into a rice bag (approx. 60 kg capacity). Depending on the type of bean or the altitude of the garden, the beans are fermented in the bag for 16 to 36 hours (below 1200 m 16 to 24 hours are needed and between 1500 to 1600 m 16 to 36 hours). This processing step is important so that the fruit mucilage can detach from the beans, as this has a high influence on the sweetness in the taste after roasting.
After fermentation, the beans are thoroughly washed and dried. Here the beans are sorted again (3) where defective shapes become visible. This drying takes about 7 to 9 days (from 8 am to 4 pm, if there is no rain in between) until the moisture content of the beans reaches 11 to 12 %.
In this form, the farmers store their goods individually in their houses until a potential buyer (e.g. like us) contacts them. Then the huller is used to separate the green beans from the pergaminus shell. Then, again (4), the beans are sorted by hand so that, if possible, only the best beans remain as the "Specialty".
Due to the manual work (with room for human error), it is possible for farmers to miss up to 2-3 defective beans at 100 g or 10 at 1 kg for the "Specialty" grade.
Semi Washed
In principle, almost the same applies as with the "full washed" process.
The only difference is that after washing, the green coffee is dried for at least 1 day (here, too, manual sorting applies) or until a moisture content of 40 % is reached and this (in the wet state) is then thrown directly into the huller. The beans are then dried further (again hand sorting) until the moisture content reaches 10 to 12 %.
In this process, the green coffee colour is greener than in the "full washed" process.
Honey
Depending on how long the fruit mucilage sticks to the bean and how long and intensive the drying process is, the parchment husk turns white, yellow, red or black and is described accordingly as honey white, honey yellow, honey red or honey black.
Just as with "Full Washed", the beans are dried immediately after processing with the pulper machine (without fermentation).
Natural
Here, as with Full Washed, the cherries are filled into a water container so that the floating cherries can be better identified and removed. Immediately afterwards, the non-floating cherries are dried until a moisture content of 30 % is reached (20 to 30 days for Arabica and 15 to 20 days for Robusta).
Then comes the fermentation phase of 24 to 36 hours.
And in addition, another drying phase until a moisture content of 10 to 12 % is reached. This is the most elaborate method (more than "Semi Washed"), which requires particularly long-lasting good weather.
Pulped Natural
Similar to Full Washed, but here this fermentation phase is deliberately set at 48 hours and without washing, the beans are further dried to 12% moisture.
This process produces intense fruity flavours.
Anaerobic
As in the fermentation of wine, the selected coffee cherries are kept in an airtight container for 48 hours after washing and allowed to outgas. After that, the beans are further dried and processed as in "Natural".
This process was only learned and gratefully implemented by a few farmers for the 2022 harvest season. The result is an even more intense acidity than with "Pulped Natural" and "Natural".