There are two different methods use for separating bean from cherry – the Dry Method and Wet Method. The Dry Method involves drying the cherry so that the fruit will fall away from the beans. The cherries are first cleaned and hand-sorted for ripeness. The cherries are then spread thin on a patio of concrete slab which receives plenty of sunlight. As the cherries dry they are turned to speed up the drying process. This can take several days and is occasionally done in a machine-dryer to minimize time cost. Once the moisture content is below 12.5%, the outer layer of the cherry can be removed to produce what’s called “green coffee”. (“Where Coffee Grow”)
The Wet Method utilizes special machinery and access to abundant water sources in order to remove the fruit from the cherry. A pulping machine removes most of the fruit from the bean, then the bean is submerged in a large tank to break down and remove the rest of the natural mucilage. This process takes roughly one day. The beans are then sat in the sun for eight to ten days in order to drop the moisture content down to 12.5%. (“Where Coffee Grow”)
Both methods conclude with cleaning, sorting, and grading. This preps the beans to be marketed to their respective buyers now that all the fruit has been removed.
Several of the same problems as seen in the Growing phase of coffee manufacturing will be true for the processing phase because the same workers usually plant, maintain, harvest, and process their own coffee beans. Workers usually work around dangerous machinery and work many hours a day. Workers often have an extremely low standard of living, practically living at their place of work in order to have shelter. With employers holding some workers’ documents, some workers are trapped into accepting these conditions with little ability to fight back. (“COFFEE’S HIDDEN KICK”)