*3.2.1 Sun (natural) drying*

This drying method is the most common, widely practised in many countries and the cheapest way of drying the parchment coffee or the whole coffee cherry. This activity is highly dependent on climatic conditions and seasons. The removal of the mucilage and pulps at an early stage in wet-processing reduces the time needed for drying. There are different kinds of sun-drying methods. Coffee is typically dried on large patios made of cement or asphalt concrete with a 0.5–1% slope to drain the water. Using the natural sunlight, drying of coffee takes 7–15 days for parchment coffee and 12–21 days for coffee cherries in patios. This duration varies depending on the weather conditions. The parchment coffee needs special attention than cherries to reduce physical damage (cracking). Raking is required to allow the coffee to dry uniformly, but it should be carried out carefully. In some tropical countries, during the hottest hours of the day, covering sheets used to avoid the

### *The Harvest and Post-Harvest Management Practices' Impact on Coffee Quality DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89224*

cracking of the coffee beans because of overheating. The physicochemical characteristics of coffee that are dried on various types of drying grounds and the thickness of the layers (thin and thick) were evaluated by Reinato et al. [49]. Their result showed the wet-processed parchment coffee dried on thin layer which resulted in the best beverage quality.
