Improving the dry processed coffee quality by blending it with wet processed coffee

Abstract

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Coffee is either processed using the wet or dry processed method. It is well known that the mode of coffee processing, by either the wet method or the dry method, strongly influences and determines the quality of the corresponding green coffees, thereby establishing characteristic flavor differences. Whereas coffee beverages prepared from coffees obtained from the wet process (often described as washed Arabicas) are characterized by their full aroma and pleasant acidity, the corresponding dry processed coffees typically exhibit a so-called full body. Dry processed coffee has a low quality as compared to the quality of wet processed coffee due to very many factors like skipping of the sorting and grading of cherries after harvesting which ultimately results in poor green and cup quality. The coffee samples were obtained from Rwenzori region in the areas of Kabarole and Kasese areas. The samples used were of the Arabica type of coffee. The overall average quality of the dry processed coffee after cupping was 71.70 and the overall average quality of the wet processed coffee was 82.40 after cupping. Wet and dry processed coffee in different ratios were mixed together in order to make a blend and it was observed that the higher the quantity of wet processed coffee in the blend, the better the quality. The overall quality of the different ratios of wet processed coffee to dry processed coffee, that is 1:1, 3:2 and 7:3 were 80.83, 82.08 and 85.50 respectively, and all were greater than the quality of dry processed coffee. Therefore the low quality of dry processed coffee was improved by blending it with wet processed coffee.