Pre-Drying Means Exactly What?

I saw this New York Times article, about how Folgers plans to "pre-dry" or "pre-roast" their beans in order to make them taste better, tucked in a drawer at the Beaumont location; one of the baristas had taken a moment to write "WTF?" in the margin.

For elucidation, I'll turn it over to someone quoted in the piece, Jim Trout, "innovation leader for research and development" at Folgers' parent company Proctor & Gamble:

“It’s like thawing a turkey before you cook it. If you don’t, the outside will be burnt and the inside will still be raw. This way it cooks evenly all the way through.”

I have never heard of wet beans. I mean, how would they be wet, unless they'd just come from the cherries, which I can assure you is not how Folgers receives them at their roasting facilities, or if the bags of green beans get wet. I mean, the beans have some level of moisture in them, and do lose a small percentage of their weight during roasting. But pre-drying? Anyone know what this means?

Comments

[Mary]

There's an informative post about Folger's pre-drying procedure at:
www.coffeehabitat.com/2008/0/folgers.html

[Mary]

There's an informative post about Folger's pre-drying procedure at:
www.coffeehabitat.com/2008/0/folgers.html

[Marc]

The link posted by Mary above is broken - here's the correct one:

http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2008/09/folgers.html

[Mariano Martins @ Brazil]

Well, as an specialty (gourmet) arabica farmer, news like that make me worried. Evertytime some new procedure like that comes along, to improve the taste of robusta beans, Arabica producers take it on their asses.

On the last two years, the spread (price difference) from robusta to arabica - for the producer - has been of about 20% to 25%. Historicaly, this spread was of about 40% to 50%.

What means that at current market prices, brazilian robusta producers are anjoying a fat profit margin of about 20%, while arabica producers are having shitty -5% to -10% margins.

Some coffee entrepeneurs have even sold their properties in the highlands (where Arabica flourishes), moving to lower and more humid places where they can grow robusta.

Shit, man. Arabica prices have to go up, or we will have SERIOUS problems on the supply side on the next 2-5 years. And ideas like Folger's don't really help.

And this is not just a Brazilian complaining. Colombians are saying the same thing.

Well... Life sucks... Specially for an arabica coffee farmer. :)

Twitter: marianofgv