Type of processing affects crema?

[hbuchtel]

Excellent point, gotta keep the DP to WP ratio up! Which I just learned from my current blend. Previous blend I'd used DP Harrar with 50:50 DP & CD Brazil. Current blend switched out the DP Harrar for WP Kenya and kept the Brazil 50:50 DP CD and consequently have taken a crema persistency hit. Tastes great but crema isn't as great boo-hoo.

Mike wrote this over in the 'Favorite Blends' thread, what is up with this? Dry Process greens produce more persistent crema?

Sounds interesting!

Henry

ps. What does 'CD' stand for?

[keno]

I'm not sure about crema, but I've heard (and experienced) that dry processed and natural processed coffees (e.g., most Brazilians and Ethiopians) result in coffee with more body and better mouthfeel. Italian espresso blends traditionally contain a lot of dry processed Brazilian coffee for this reason. My understanding is that dry processed coffees have better body because the mucilage (pulp) is not immediately stripped from the bean during processing as with wet processing. The pulp is dried on the bean and not all of it is removed, resulting in better body (but that's why dry processed beans also produce more chaff).

There are others on HB who I'm sure can provide much more detailed info.

Cheers,
Ken

[miKe mcKoffee]

ps. What does 'CD' stand for?

Pulped Natural.

From Sweet Maria's website and Tom's write up of certain Brazils.
"Pulped Natural (Cereja Descascada-CD for short). Pulped natural coffees, prepared by the fairly recent demusilage system created in Brazil. Ripe cherries are pulped but the mucilage (fruity layer under wthe outer peel) is not removed. Parchment coffee (green coffee in the outer parchement shell) dries in contact with the sugar-rich mucilage which transfers natural sweetness to the beans and preserves the full body typical of the best Brazilian coffees."

[miKe mcKoffee]

Mike wrote this over in the 'Favorite Blends' thread, what is up with this? Dry Process greens produce more persistent crema?

I'm definitely not sure on this but seems to be the case. More will be revealed by more experienced blenders I hope! Barring that time and testing the theory of what I seemed to have observed recently.

[another_jim]

DP and Semi-Wet Process* beans are certainly more espresso friendly in terms of sweetness and creamy mouthfeel**. Unless you have some very unusual WPs, a blend won't quite make it on the lusciousness meter without around 50% DP.

Crema is more complicated, and I'm not sure I understand the ins and outs of it. IMO, for homeroasters, crema seems a non-issue, since every coffee has good crema in the first week after roasting. However, I think even in the first week, DP and robusta laced blends will hold up a teaspoon of sugar, which is the old school Italian crema test, while a pure WP won't.



*Not sure if the Brazilian CD abbreviation Mike mentioned will catch on for this; I'm rooting for a simple SP. SWP is taken by the decaffeinators.
** High quality WP Javas also have a pure butter mouthfeel, whereas the DP Sumatras can taste gritty, but this is the only exception to the rule that I know of.

[miKe mcKoffee]

Crema is more complicated, and I'm not sure I understand the ins and outs of it. IMO, for homeroasters, crema seems a non-issue, since every coffee has good crema in the first week after roasting. However, I think even in the first week, DP and robusta laced blends will hold up a teaspoon of sugar, which is the old school Italian crema test, while a pure WP won't.

Just so there's no confusion was indeed not talking about initial crema creation, was still 85-90% a week out. Crema just seemed less persistent and to dissipate a bit faster than previous blend with higher DP %. I didn't test with sugar but did test by running tip of demi-spoon through crema observing recovery as done in judging.