What is a pulping machine?

A pulping machine is the equipment used at a wet mill to mechanically remove the outer skin from coffee cherries at the start of washed, honey, or pulped natural processing.

Common types include disc pulpers (using a rotating abrasive disc), drum pulpers (using a rotating drum with a rough surface), and eco-pulpers or demucilagers (stripping both skin and some or all of the mucilage in a single pass). The gap setting must be matched to the average cherry size of the incoming fruit - different varietals and different harvests may require adjustment.

A correctly calibrated pulper produces cleanly pulped beans with minimal cutting, chipping, or skin carry-through. Water is typically used to transport cherries through the machine and to separate floating skins and underripe cherries from the pulped beans after processing. A poorly maintained or incorrectly set pulper is one of the quickest ways to introduce defects at the very start of the processing chain.