TERRA FLORA COFFEE
Our deepest desire in coffee roasting is to highlight and celebrate the origin of the beans that we purchase.
This means we roast to showcase the flavors that make each roast unique. Every country and every farm has a terroir and a processing method unlike any other. Coffee is grown largely on collective small-scale farms by people with stories of their own.
Highlighting individual farms and coffee growers by sharing their stories with you is paramount to forging a new coffee culture--one that values direct partnerships.
When we care about who we buy from and how we buy it, every batch we roast has a greater impact on farmers. Each day you can enjoy your cup knowing those who grow your coffee are gaining greater representation and thus more value for their products.
We constantly strive to work with importers who put farmers first, and who focus on ethical and sustainable markets. Our team is dedicated to source transparency and ensuring your coffee comes from a place of honesty and quality.
COFFEE PROCESSING
Coffee fruit, before the bean is removed, is called a cherry. The way in which a coffee cherry is processed to remove the fruit and skin greatly determines what flavors are expressed in the brew. It is something that as coffee drinkers, we don't necessarily pay attention to; it is an awareness that is changing, however, as we become more thoughtful about the flavors in our collective cup of coffee.
There are several methods of processing, but the two main styles are wet/washed and dry/natural.
Wet Processing Flavor Profile Tendency:
Clean, bright, fruit forward flavors
Dry Processing Flavor Profile Tendency:
Full bodied viscosity, low acidity, sweet, deep earthy flavors
Dry, or natural, processing involves placing coffee cherries on a flat surface, most often tables, rooftops, or cement floors to be sun-dried so that the bean can be separated (hulled) from the cherry by hand. In larger scale operations, drying and hulling are done mechanically.
Wet, or washed, processing takes place when coffee cherries are mechanically de-pulped and then fermented in water baths to remove mucilage. After fermentation, they are laid out to dry by the sun or dried through mechanical means.
Some producers are using a mixture of drying methods such as "Pulp Natural." This is when beans are de-pulped (wet processing), but fermentation is omitted, and they are set out to dry (dry processing). In this way, the coffee has characteristics of both processes.
No single method is better than the other in terms of flavor, rather it is a matter of personal preference. For growers, the preferred method mostly depends on the availability of resources, mainly water. Dry processing would not work in a high humidity region such as Guatemala as beans would be fermented. Likewise, wet processing isn't possible in an arid region like Ethiopia, where water is hard to come by.
