Shadowing Practice: Washed Coffee Processing - Learn English Speaking with Video
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The wash process, sometimes known as wet process, is commonly found in many coffee growing countries around the world,
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including parts of Africa and most of Central and South America.
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The methods and equipment used to perform this type of processing are different from place to place, but the design remains universal.
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It's designed to remove the coffee fruit from the coffee seed quickly
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and thoroughly after the coffee is picked so that it can be dried clean in its parchment layer. In this video,
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we'll be exploring just one example of the wash process by
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following along with a producer washing his coffee in the highlands of Peru.
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Generally speaking, the wash process can be an efficient way to prepare coffee seeds for export in climates
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that have cool overnight temperatures and good sun exposure during the day.
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It's also a space saver for small producers who do their own wet milling
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and some of their own drying on their property, as we'll see in this video from Finca Ecologica.
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To begin, coffee is harvested ripe when the coffee is dark red, bright red, purple, or yellow, depending on the variety or cultivar.
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The cherry is selectively picked by hand and carried to a receiving point.
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At this farm, the cherry is delivered to an area around a small mechanical depulping machine, which is equipment commonly found on farms in Latin America.
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Before being depulped, it's weighed, rinsed, and given a first sort for quality.
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Some producers do what's called a float test of their coffee cherries.
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They submerge the cherries in water and scoop off any cherries that float to the top of the tank, which is a sign of a defect.
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Whole coffee fruit is then put through the depulper.
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This machine squeezes the seed out of the tough, cherry -like skin, which is known as the fruit's pulp.
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Depulping typically happens as soon as possible in the washed process, usually within 8 to 12 hours of the harvest.
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After depulping, the seeds are still covered in their sticky fruit material, which is called mucilage.
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This mucilage is removed throughout the washing process.
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The sticky seeds are typically transferred to a fermentation tank.
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The pulp leftover is usually used for compost or fuel, or it's discarded.
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Here you can see that the fermentation tank is made from ceramic tile,
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and the coffee is collected in a pile in the bottom of the tank.
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In this case, the sticky seeds are kept dry in an open fermentation style, which means they're not submerged in water during the fermentation.
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The seeds will be left like this overnight to ferment in the tank.
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Fermentation happens in every type of post -harvest processing, but in the wash process the producer tries to moderate the time
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and temperature as well as the velocity of the fermentation process.
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Fermentation is useful because it will help soften the fruit mucilage making it easier to remove in the washing.
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The next day, the actual washing begins.
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The producer first makes sure
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that the mucilage has fermented enough by inspecting a sample with his hands to feel how sticky or tacky the material is.
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He then fills the tank with fresh water to submerge the coffee.
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While the coffee is still submerged, he'll agitate it with a long wooden tool.
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The vigorous agitation in the water removes the mucilage, leaving the coffee clean in its parchment layer and ready for drying.
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You can see how the water becomes murky as it starts to fill with mucilage material.
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Farmers often repeat the process of washing the coffee by draining the murky water out
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and refilling the tank with fresh, clean water.
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The water used in this process needs to be purified, treated, or disposed of very carefully.
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The fruit mucilage left behind from the washing will contaminate fresh water or groundwater sources if it's not handled properly.
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On this farm the producer washes his coffee three times.
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While the tank is full of water he also removes any seeds
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that float to the top which is a sign that they are damaged or defective.
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Once the seeds are clean from mucilage, this producer does another quality sort.
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He brings the washed coffee to the drying patios
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and uses a portable sorting table that allows him to remove any of the remaining coffee cherry husks, as well as defective or deformed beans.
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Not all producers use tools like this, but some places like Peru, Costa Rica, and Colombia, this is a fairly common practice.
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Here you can clearly see the uniformity of the coffee that has passed through the sorting device.
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After the final sort, the producer brings the washed coffee to the drying surface and spreads it out.
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In this case you can see that the coffee is being dried on tarps on a wooden patio under a plastic cover.
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The drying environment is designed to control the temperature and airflow in order to dry the coffees efficiently while preserving the quality.
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The seeds are spread into a thin layer on the patio using a wooden rake.
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The coffee will be raked several times a day throughout the drying process to ensure that it dries evenly.
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This happens until it reaches an internal moisture of about 11%, which can take up to one or two weeks depending on the weather.
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After the coffee's dried, it's transported to a storage unit
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or a warehouse in its parchment layer where it will rest in sacks until it's ready to be exported.
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Then the parchment will be removed and the coffee will be shipped.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Washed Coffee Processing”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: coffee, seed, process, producer, mucilage. This video has 45 sentences and 934 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:08. The speaker talks at a natural 152 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 77% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wash verb | /wɑʃ/ | To clean with water. |
| producer noun | /pɹəˈdjuːsə/ | An individual or organization that creates goods and services. |
| seed noun | /siːd/ | Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs. |
| cherry noun | /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/ | A small fruit, usually red, black or yellow, with a smooth hard seed and a short hard stem. |
| layer noun | /ˈleɪ̯ɚ/ | A single thickness of some material covering a surface. |
| sticky adjective | /ˈstɪki/ | Tending to stick; able to adhere via the drying of a viscous substance. |
| wooden adjective | /ˈwʊdn̩/ | Made of wood. |
| harvest noun | /ˈhɑɹ.vəst/ | The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting. |
| float verb | /fləʊt/ | To be supported by a fluid of greater density (than the object). |
| commonly adverb | /ˈkɑmənli/ | As a rule; frequently; usually. |
| export noun | /ˈɛks.pɔɹt/ | Something that is exported. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| overnight adverb | /əʊvə(ɹ)ˈnaɪt/ | During or throughout the night, especially during the evening or night just past. |
| pulp noun | /pʊlp/ | A mixture of wood, cellulose and/or rags and water ground up to make paper. |
| defective adjective | /dɪˈfɛktɪv/ | Having one or more defects. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. |
| put through verb | To connect (a telephone caller) with the callee. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is commonly found · is picked · is harvested |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | machine, which is · tank, which is · skin, which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has fermented · has passed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as we'll, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, thoroughly /ˈθʌɹ.ə.li/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: wash /wɑʃ/, exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, freshwater /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔːtə(ɹ)/, fermentation /ˌfɜɹmənˈteɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, mechanical /məˈkænəkəl/, velocity /vəˈlɑsəti/, fermentation /ˌfɜɹmənˈteɪʃən/, agitation /ædʒ.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like wash, producer, seed.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.