What you should be able to do
- Compare washed, natural, honey, wet-hulled and controlled-fermentation approaches.
- Recognize basic green-coffee quality and storage risks.
- Connect processing choices with roasting and sensory implications.
- Create a simple green-coffee intake checklist.
Green coffee is a raw material
Roasting starts with the condition of the green coffee. Moisture, water activity, density, screen distribution, defect count, age, packaging, storage temperature and odor contamination can all change roast behavior and cup quality.
Washed processing
Washed coffees typically remove much of the fruit before drying. The method can support clarity and acidity when fermentation and drying are well controlled. Poor fermentation, dirty water or uneven drying can still create defects.
Natural and honey processing
Natural processing dries the coffee with the fruit attached, while honey-style processing retains varying amounts of mucilage. These approaches can increase fruit intensity or sweetness, but require careful drying to manage fermentation, mold and inconsistency.
Wet-hulled / giling basah
Wet-hulled processing is strongly associated with parts of Indonesia. Parchment is removed at a higher moisture content than in conventional fully washed systems, after which the exposed seed continues drying. This creates distinctive physical and sensory characteristics and requires thoughtful storage and roasting.
Controlled fermentation
Anaerobic, carbonic, inoculated and other fermentation approaches can create dramatic sensory profiles. Do not reduce them to marketing terms. Capture process duration, temperature, microbial approach when known, drying method, and lot-level cup evidence.
Green intake discipline
A practical intake log can include supplier, origin, producer/cooperative, crop year, process, arrival date, bag type, visual condition, moisture, water activity if available, sample roast date, cupping result and release decision.
Apply the lesson
Design a one-page green-coffee receiving form. Include at least ten fields and define three conditions that would trigger quarantine or additional review before production roasting.
Open Coffee Lab ↗Test your understanding
Pass at 70% or higher, then mark the module complete. You can retry as many times as needed.
Progress is stored locally in this browser. Completing a module does not issue a formal certification.