Green Coffee, Defined

Ecological? Colored Green? Raw? From Mars? ?

What is green coffeeGreen coffee refers to the processed seed of the coffee tree fruit. Coffee is a flowering shrub that produces fruit. The seeds of the fruit are processed, roasted,...? Sometimes the most basic question is the best, and when we skip basic definitions we might end up with basic misunderstandings! So what is the definition of green coffee?

Green coffee is raw coffee, before it is roasted. That’s the quick answer.

Why is it not stupid to ask, “what is green coffee?”

Because “green coffee” implies that it is produced with care for the environment, which could be true (and is with the coffee we buy at Sweet Maria’s). But it is not necessarily true.

Is Coffee Green?

Coffee can be produced by taking out native forests, removing primary/secondary shade trees. Coffee can be produced in steep terrains without regard for soil erosion. Coffee can be produced using chemical fertilizers to boost fruit set, or using fungicides and pesticides to protect it.

Generally this is not the way coffee is produced by small-holder farmers, those with less than 2 hectaresWe use this metric term often to discuss the size of coffee farms. 1 Hectare = 10000 Square Meters = 2.471 acres: We use this metric term often... of land. One simple reason is that it is not cost effective to use chemical inputs and sprays, and they simply cannot afford it. When they are used, they are used with care and sparingly. This is a huge generalization I know, but after 20 years traveling to coffee farms, it is my experience.

The other thing I know from my travel experience is that coffee farming practices and post-harvest processes are different everywhere. (Another reason that my generalization is a bit problematic!) What happens in AcehThe northernmost district in SumatraL Aceh District is north of North Sumatra and produces some very classic Sumatra coffees. The center of coffee in Aceh is Lake Tawar... IndonesiaUSDA is (obviously) the United States Department of Agriculture. USDA also had coffee plant breeding programs in the past and one variety they distributed to Indonesia and was..., San Pedro Necta GuatemalaGuatemalan coffee is considered a top quality coffee producer in Central America. Due to our proximity to Guatemala, some of the nicest coffees from this origin come to..., and Othaya Nyeri KenyaKenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both in the cup, and the way they run their trade, everything is topnotch.: Kenya is the East... are completely different.

A coffee farmer from one place, transplanted to another, would be completely bewildered. And a technique from one place would likely fail in another. On no level is coffee a monolith, yet we use the same words to describe the “coffee producer” on a global scale.

Green but not Green

So what else does “green coffee” imply that needs clarification? That is actually green in color. It may be, or not. And it might be a range of other colors too.

The appearance of green coffee is hugely diverse. A typical wet-processed (aka washed) coffee is usually greenishA smell or flavor of fresh-cut green plants, vegetable leaves or grass, usually indicating fresh new-crop coffees that have not fully rested in parchment.: A smell or flavor..., and the green will fade as it ages and loses quality. Coffee that is too fresh, dried to the requisite moisture level (usually 10.5% or so) yet just a couple weeks off the tree, might be a deeper green. Yet the cup quality will often have grass or herbalA flavor descriptor in coffee reminiscent of herbs, usually meaning aromatic, savory, leafy dried herbs. Usually, more specific descriptions are given, whether is is a floral herb, or... green notes. So greener is not better.

Different varieties and drying regimens will shift the range of green hues. And the lingering silverskinOn dried green bean coffee, the thin inner-parchment layer that clings to the bean and lines the crease on the flat side. Silverskin becomes chaff and falls off..., an inner layer clinging to the seed in the fruit, will give the coffee a different, more yellow appearance.

Some coffee is still polished at the mill, a final step before bagging and export, to create a uniform look and better appearance to please the buyer. This removes most of any clinging silverskin.

It also can ruin the coffee, as the friction burrs of the polisher heat the coffee and can hurt the cup quality if too much heat is produced. We ask that our coffees are not polished before export.

Not Green but Green

Dry processDry process coffee is a method for taking the fruit from the tree to an exportable green bean. The whole intact coffee cherry is dried in the sun... coffees are a different beast. Since the seed is dried in the outer fruit layer, the whole thing intact, it has more silverskin attached and takes on a place yellowish hue. Yet we still call dry-processed, unroasted coffee “green coffee”

Then there are some exotic processes like Monsooned coffeeA method of ageing coffee in India where the unroasted coffee is exposed to humid monsoon winds.: Monsooned coffees are stored in special warehouses until the Monsoon season..., usually from IndiaS-795 is a variety based on the " S-Line" coffees of  India, and stands for Selection 795,  It has a very fine cup, one of the best in..., swollen parchmentGreen coffee still in its outer shell, before dry-milling, is called Parchment coffee (pergamino). In the wet process, coffee is peeled, fermented, washed and then ready for drying... yellow in appearance. Or Aged coffeeAged coffee is not the same as old coffee. Aged coffee typically has very strong earthy flavors, and can be very pungent, leather or tobacco aromas and flavors.:... from SumatraIndonesians are available as a unique wet-hulled or dry-hulled (washed) coffees. Giling Basah is the name for the wet-hulling process in Bahasa language, and will have more body... which is a orangey-brown color.

And I guess we should include decaf coffee, which can be hard to roast since it is already a brown color, close to the final roasted result. But we call brownish decaf coffee “green” too.

So yeah, green coffee: not necessarily green-ish, or eco green, while it is often kinda green. That’s why even the simplest question about coffee is not a bad question at all! – Thompson