Producing a quality cup of coffee involves not only producing high quality cherries, but also proper post harvest activities to come up with good quality GCB. Coffee cherries should undergo proper post harvest activities to come up with good quality coffee green beans and eventually good cupping quality. Cupping quality of coffee describes the effects of chemical attributes on the final taste and aroma once the beans get roasted and brewed. Hence, improvement of the existing coffee de-pulpers, dryers, and moisture meters have been done by the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) through the DOST-PCAARRD project “Development of Improved Postharvest Technologies for Coffee”.
The Greenhouse-type solar dryer (GTSD) is a solar greenhouse dryer with supplementary heating by biomass-fired furnace during prolonged cloudy and rainy periods. It has a dimension of 7.2m x 5.1m x 2.67m (LxWxH), roofing material is UV stabilized polycarbonate plastic sheet, 0.9 meters walkway, 2 drying beds made of 1mm food grade stainless screen, and fans to exhaust heated air. It can dry a maximum of 180 kg of parchment coffee in 4 days, and the final product has 12-14%MC. The improved coffee depulper has a twin drum machine and is designed with 2hp single phase motor and large capacity holding hopper. It can depulp different varieties of coffee at 96% pulp-parchment separation efficiency for primed Arabica, 86% for primed Robusta, 85% for stripped Liberica, and 94% for primed Liberica. Speed of process is 336 kg/hr for primed Arabica, 220 kg/hr for primed Robusta, 207 kg/hr for stripped Liberica, and 325 kg/hr for primed Liberica. The non-destructive moisture meter (NDMM) for coffee is a portable device weighing 2.5 kg, developed using a capacitive sensor oscillator circuit to measure moisture content of both GCB and parchment coffee. It can measure MCs of Arabica, Liberica and Robusta without the need to grind or crack the sample. Its measuring range for GCB is 6-8% MC while 10-45% MC for parchment coffee.
