Japan Has a New Secret to Making a Better Cup of Coffee

Thankfully, a company in Japan has reportedly found a new technique to making the perfect full-bodied coffee. Key Coffee recently revealed its new processing technique, which involves chilling whole coffee cherries imported from a farm in the Toraja region of Sulawesi, Indonesia right after they are harvested, reports Nikkei Asian Review. The coffee cherry is the fruit that coffee trees produce. The cherry-like fruit turns bright red as it ripens, and the pits of the coffee cherries end up becoming the coffee beans we all recognize.

Instead of the usual process of stripping the coffee beans of their outer skin or husk after harvest, the new technique, called the “Key Post-Harvest Processing,” matures the entire cherries at near-freezing temperatures.

Key Coffee claims that the method allows the beans to mature in a way that increases their levels of sucrose, organic acids, and free amino acids. Based on their research, the in-cherry maturation gives the roasted beans their fuller aroma and taste, which the company claims all coffee lovers would prefer over conventional coffee.

The new product, which is scheduled to hit shelves in Japan by the latter half of this year, will not be cheap as it will be priced in the same range of its high-grade Toarco Toraja brand, which can cost up to $20 for a pack almost half the size of a typical bag of coffee.