How to preserve green coffee to keep its flavor
As home roasting becomes more and more popular, finding a solution to preserve green coffee becomes a concern. How should we preserve green coffee to keep its flavor? Let’s explore these methods in 43 Factory Coffee
How to preserve green coffee?
What is green coffee?
Green coffee (also known as raw coffee beans, green coffee beans), English is Green Coffee, in the US is called Raw Coffee, which is unroasted coffee beans. Green coffee is the finished product after the process of harvesting and preliminarily processing fresh coffee.
Unroasted coffee beans are called green coffee
Why should we preserve green coffee?
Green coffee must be stored properly to retain its freshness and quality. Since green coffee is dried to its target moisture content (about 11% or 12%) before shipping, it is important to ensure that the coffee does not absorb any excess moisture during storage. manage. This can degrade the quality or even lead to mold growth. In addition, improperly stored green coffee can also cause strange odors that affect the natural flavor of this coffee.
Necessary factors to preserve green coffee
Humidity
Green coffee beans that are too moist can become moldy, while green coffee beans that are too dry can lose their flavor and aroma. According to ICO – International Coffee Organization, the standard humidity for the proper storage of green coffee is from 11% – 12.5%.
Another important thing, the humidity must be constant throughout the storage period. This means that you need to control the temperature of the warehouse and during transportation as well. Oxygen is also a factor to be considered, if air can circulate in and out of the coffee bags, the coffee has a relatively high risk of moisture.
Green coffee beans have been shipped in jute or burlap sacks for decades. These materials are easy to find and cheap, but they are not airtight. They allow moisture to enter into direct contact with the coffee, resulting in oxidation and loss of quality. The alternative here is a single-layer plastic bag, which is popularly a GrainPro bag with 2 layers of zip lock – a product that ensures the shipment of green coffee to limit air exposure during transportation. Therefore, it still retains the original delicious taste.
Green coffee beans have been shipped in jute or burlap sacks
Temperature
As recommended, green coffee is best stored at room temperature, between 20-25 degrees Celsius.
Avoid direct light to preserve green coffee
Once the green beans have reached the standard moisture content, keep them out of direct sunlight, this helps the coffee maintain its quality longer.
Pests
Pests that remain in the coffee bag can continue to infest the coffee. Cloth bags are favorable conditions for pests and insects to breed.
By removing the seeds with a specialized machine, the manufacturer will minimize the possibility of remaining infected seeds during storage and transportation.
You can remove pest-infested seeds with a color machine or by hand
Use eco-friendly packaging materials
Each type of packaging has different functions, jute fabric is easy to find and cheap. Plastic packaging is safer when transporting green coffee over long distances and is not environmentally friendly. Therefore, you should find a supplier of plastic bags that can be reused many times, for the purpose of reducing waste to the environment.
In addition to being stored in bags, green coffee can also be poured into loose piles (stored separately in silos). This method of preserving Specialty coffee will save packaging and storage volume, coffee beans are not compacted, reducing looseness like being stored in bags, and the preservation time is also longer. The advantage of this method is that it can also avoid compaction that reduces the bulk of the green beans.
To have a delicious cup of coffee, you should preserve green coffee beans properly