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Sustainability
Cafeology
Drying

The furnace, kept at a constant temperature, maintaining optimal drying

to dry the coffee in a controlled manner times. For example, you
would not leave a 13%
moisture coffee overnight
because it will likely be
overdried in the morning, but
a 20% moisture will be fine
because it will not get below
11% by morning.

Coffee was dried for
generations without
mechanical dryers but their
addition has many

advantages. Firstly, coffee
dries much faster than it
would in the greenhouse, on
raised beds, or tarps. Quicker
drying frees up drying space
so the next batch of picked
cherries can be pulped and
start drying (drying is the
biggest bottleneck in
production).

Secondly, there are financial
benefits. Faster drying will
save money and allow for a
gets dryer, and lighter green once it’s complete faster return on investment.
(10.5-11.5%) and white (hard to touch) if the If coffee cannot be dried fast
coffee is overdried. The moisture reading is enough, Roberto must pay to
recorded and, depending on the result, the batch send his coffee off to be
will be resampled again, throughout the day at dried by another miller.
varied intervals. If the coffee is still too moist, the Additionally, time is money
batch will be left longer between samples, and time saved drying
conversely if it is nearing completion, sampling (especially workers manually
needs to be more frequent turning coffee) is time better
Additionally, if it is late in the day, a decision spent doing other work on JULY/AUGUST. 2024 | ISSUE 37

needs to be made as to whether the dryer can be the farm. Finally, the
run overnight or if it needs to be switched off and mechanical dryer allows for a
turned on in the morning. These decisions are lot more control over the
made on a case-by-case basis and are crucial to final moisture of the coffee.

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