Bean Glossary and Terminology
AA: Capitalized letters are grade indicators usually describing the size of the bean. In Peru, for example, AAA is the largest bean. In India, A is the largest bean.
Aquapulp: Terms for a procedure in which the sticky fruit pulp, or mucilage, is removed from freshly picked coffee beans by scrubbing in machines.
Arabica: The earliest cultivated and most widely grown species of coffee tree. It produces approximately 70 percent of the world’s coffee.
Bourbon: A botanical variety of Coffea Arabica.
Caffeine: An odorless, bitter alkaloid responsible for the stimulating effect of coffee and tea.
Caturra: A relatively recently selected botanical variety of the Coffea Arabica species that generally matures more quickly, produces more coffee, and is more disease resistant than older, traditional Arabica varieties.
Chaff: Flakes of the innermost skin of the coffee fruit that remain clinging to the green bean after processing, and float free during roasting.
Cherry: Common name for the fruit of the coffee tree. Each cherry contains two regular coffee beans or one peaberry.
Coffee Oil: The volatile coffee essence developed in a bean during roasting.
Cold-Water Method: A brewing method in which ground coffee is soaked in a small amount of cold water for approximately fifteen minutes. The grounds are then strained out and the resulting coffee is stored and mixed with hot water as needed. This method produces a low-acid, light-bodied cup of coffee that some find delectable and others find tasteless.
Decaffeination Process: Specialty coffees are decaffeinated in the green state, currently by one of four methods – direct solvent method, indirect solvent method, water only method or carbon dioxide method.
Demucilage: A term for a procedure in which the sticky fruit pulp, or mucilage, is removed from freshly picked coffee beans by scrubbing in machines.
Double Picked: The coffee in question has been subjected to hand picking twice rather than once to remove imperfect beans, pebbles, and other foreign matter.
Dry-Processed Coffee: Coffee processed by removing the husk or fruit after the coffee fruit has been dried.
European Preparation: Used to describe coffee from which imperfect beans, pebbles, and other foreign matter have been removed by hand.
European Process: See Traditional Process
Flavor Defects: Unpleasant flavor characteristics caused by problems during picking, processing, drying, sorting, storage, or transportation.
Green Coffee: Unroasted coffee.
Hard: Trade term for low-quality coffee.
Hard Bean: The term often used to describe coffees grown at relatively high altitudes, 4,000 to 4,500 feet. Coffee grown above 4,500 feet is referred to as strictly hard bean. The higher altitudes and lower temperatures produce a slower-maturing fruit and a harder, less porous bean.
Mature Coffee: Coffee held in warehouses for two to three years. Mature coffee has been held longer than old crop coffee, but not as long as aged or vintage coffee.
Mild: A trade term for high-quality Arabica coffees, often contrasted with hard or inferior coffees.
Milling: The mechanical removal of the dry parchment skin or the entire dried fruit husk from wet-processed coffee beans.
Monsooned Coffee: Dry-processed, single-origin coffee from southern India deliberately exposed to monsoon winds in open warehouse to increase body and reduce acidity.
Natural Coffee: See Dry-Processed Coffee
Organic Coffee: Coffee that has been grown and processed without the use of pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals.
Peaberry: A small, round bean formed when only one seed, rather than the usual two, develops at the heart of the coffee fruit. Frequently, peaberries are separated and sold as a distinct grade of coffee. Caracol.
Polishing: An optional procedure at the end of coffee processing in which the dried, shipment-ready beans are polished to remove silverskin and improve their appearance. Polishing does nothing to help flavor and often alters the taste, therefore most specialty coffee buyers do not encourage this practice.
Pulping: See Wet-Processed Coffee
Quakers: Defective coffee beans that remain light colored and fail to roast properly.
Robusto: Currently the only significant competitor of Coffea Arabica among cultivated coffee species. Robusto produces approximately 30 percent of the world’s coffee.
Semi-Dry Processed Coffee: Coffee prepared by removing the outer skin of the coffee fruit and drying the skinned coffee with the sticky mucilage and the inner skins still adhering to the bean. Shade Grown: Describes coffee grown under a shady canopy.
Silverskin: The thin, innermost skin of the coffee fruit. It clings to the dried coffee beans until it is either removed by polishing or floats free during roasting.
Single-Estate Coffee: Coffee produced by a single farm, single mill, or single group of farms. Single-Origin: Unblended coffee from a single country, region, and crop.
Specialty Coffee: The practice of selling coffees by country of origin, roast, flavoring, or special blend, rather than by brand or trademark.
Sun Drying: The process of drying coffee directly after picking or after fruit removal, by exposing it to the heat of the sun by spreading and raking it in thin layers on drying racks or patios.
Swiss Water Process: A trademarked decaffeination method that removes caffeine from coffee beans using hot water, steam, and activated charcoal rather than chemicals or solvents.
Tone: The appearance or color of coffee.
Traditional Decaffeination Process: A group of decaffeination methods that use solvents to remove caffeine from green coffee beans.
Varietal Coffee: A term used by many people in the American specialty coffee industry, to describe an unblended coffee from a single country, region, and crop.
Wet-Processed Coffee: Coffee prepared by removing the skin and pulp from the bean while the coffee fruit is still fresh. Most of the world’s coffees are processed by the wet method, which generally intensifies acidity.
Whole-Bean Coffee: Coffee that has been roasted but not yet ground.
