Do you like your coffee wet? Or dry?
December 6, 2008

Coffee drinkers can now select "wet" or "dry" when they order Kafe Lespwa.

Until this season, all Kafe Lespwa growers used a "dry method" of processing their harvest. In short, this means removing the coffee cherry's outer pulp only AFTER the beans are fully sun-dried.

This summer, some growers switched to a "wet method" for their harvest: they removed the pulp BEFORE drying the beans. And when the Baradères growers' association, the Kafe Devlopman Barade, gathered the harvest of all its members, they kept the two differently processed batches of coffee separate.

We've preserved that difference all the way to the bags of Kafe Lespwa offered to consumers.

So... What difference does wet or dry processing make? Why did some growers switch to the wet method? And what's the significance of this change?

Most Arabica coffee on the market is wet processed. Typically this involves specialized machines. The wet method is generally believed to improve coffee quality, and chemical analyses suggest why: flavor compounds in coffee are affected differently by the type of processing.

But taste is subjective. Some of us think the dry-process coffee tastes significantly better. Try some of each and see what you think.

At any rate, Kafe Lespwa growers recognize that wet processing is the global market's preferred method. So, some of them switched to it this year for the first time, as part of their effort to build quality.

That is commendable, but what's remarkable is that these growers used a wet processing method WITHOUT machinery.

All Kafe Lespwa is processed by hand. No machines are used. And, it turns out to be much more work wet-processing coffee by hand than dry-processing it by hand. But some growers did it anyway.

This is a testament to how hard the farmers are willing to work to improve quality and meet market demands. But the farmers also know that, no matter how hard they work, they can significantly expand the business only by shifting to wet processing as performed with the proper machinery.

And this is where you come in. In addition to purchases of coffee, you can greatly help the growers by making tax-deductible donations.

When the growers are ready, Just Haiti wants to use those donations to provide the growers' association with a loan for purchasing wet-processing machinery and related items needed to truly grow the business. [September 2009 update on status of loan]

Whether you select "wet" or "dry," whole bean or ground coffee, you can know that all proceeds from sales go to further the association's business.

[For a detailed discussion of dry and wet processing, see this web page of the International Coffee Association.]