Giling Basah Process

Giling Basah refers to a type of post-harvest processing which takes coffee from the seed that comes out of the fruit, to the green beans that go into our roaster. This process is used in countries where the usual methods of drying coffee are inhibited by high humidity and cloud cover, namely Indonesia and Sumatra. Giling Basah is sometimes referred to as semi washed or wet hulled. Whilst this process was created out of necessity, I have found it is characterised by coffees that maintain clarity but also develop very intense flavours. The coffee we have available from the Tana Toraja mountains is full of juicy mango flavour whilst maintaining a lot of clarity and balance.

The process itself starts by mechanically removing the fruit of the cherry. The next step is where the process differs from a washed process: The parchment layer that is left on in the washing process is removed prior to drying in a Giling Basah. This is called wet-hulling. what this allows is for the sometimes lengthy process of drying coffee to happen much faster. Once the coffee reaches between 11-12% moisture it is ready for roasting!