Washed, Natural, Honey, pulped what does it all mean?

We’ll help demystify these processes that you may have seen on your coffee packaging…

So lets start at the beginning, coffee is the bean from the centre of a coffee cherry, a fruit!

Prior to roasting the beans need to be stripped of the cherry and dried to around 11-12% moisture, to reduce the chance of mould.

Washed Process – The focus on this process is the bean with no other flavours imparted, the pulp & mucilage are removed before washing & drying. The end result is usually a cleaner taste that showcases the varietal and the environment in which it was grown. Such as soil, altitude, ripeness & fermentation.

Fermentation is done in tanks of water for 12-48 hours where any residual mucilage is naturally removed, the beans are washed again in clean water this concludes the fermentation process for washed coffee.

Natural Process – This is also known as dry processed, the fruit is kept on the bean and dried whole.

This process has often been regarded as perhaps a lower quality method due to inconsistences in ripening & ultimately flavour, however when done correctly arguably it can be one of the best tasting coffees.

This process can evoke notes macerated fruits, compote or even tropical fruit notes.

Honey Process – Also known as pulped natural, this process leaves a certain amount of mucilage or pulp on the coffee bean, so it could well be considered as a mid point between washed coffee & naturally processed coffee.

Mucilage is quite sweet & sticky which is why it is known as ‘honey’ process.

You may have seen or heard of yellow, red or black honey process, this can be an indication of how much mucilage has been left on the bean from a little to a lot, leading to a fuller bodied cup.

Drying times, sunlight & humidity are also factors that influence honey processed coffees because of this a lot more time and effort is required to produce a quality end product.

Yellow or gold will be dried with more sun & less shade, whereas red & black will have shade slowing down the drying and increasing the humidity and ultimately the flavour.