Dry and wet processing methods

One distinction of today's Kafe Lespwa is that ALL the coffee is entirely processed by hand. No machinery is used.

In dry processing—the traditional method of Kafe Lespwa growers—the coffee cherry's outer pulp is removed only after the beans are fully sun-dried.

In typical wet processing, specialized machines remove and wash away the pulp before the fresh-harvested cherries are dried.

Most Arabica coffee is wet processed, and this method is generally believed to improve coffee quality. Some chemical analyses suggest a reason: flavor compounds are affected by the type of processing.

Kafe Lespwa growers recognize that wet processing is the market's preferred method. In the fall of 2008, some of them used wet processing for the first time—and they did it without access to the machinery nearly always used for this purpose!

It took much more time and effort than dry processing, but this is a testament to how hard the farmers are willing to work. But they also know that, no matter how hard they work, they can significantly expand the business only by shifting to machine-assisted wet processing.

This is where our supporters have jumped in to help. Through tax-deductible donations, Just Haiti in 2009 provided the growers' association with the first of two planned loans for purchasing wet-processing machinery and related items needed to truly grow the business.

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