The final step in post-harvest processing needs to be considered as important as all the steps leading up to it in producing a high quality and consistent final product. As a specialty coffee exporter, we often make the question: how can we know that a coffee that tastes great before export will still taste great when it is roasted and served on the other side of the world months later? Science is telling us more and more that the ability of a great coffee to keep tasting great months after arrival, comes from how that coffee was dried.

Diverse scientific studies from several authors have shown that fermentation in washed coffee is  a key factor for flavor development and, along with terroir and genetics, are perhaps the three factors that most influence the way that a washed coffee tastes after roasted. In washed coffee, fermentation of the fruit (mucilage) is conducted mainly for the easy removal of mucilage from the parchment when put in contact with water and agitation, stopping the fermentation process and preventing any alcohols to be produced in the seed inside the parchment. How and for how long a producer ferments coffee can affect the final cup quality – sometimes positively but sometimes negatively. Unfortunately, how fermentation plays a part in flavor development is something that has not been sufficiently studied.