Coffee Processing Methods

By the time coffee reaches you in its roasted form, it has gone through a long journey. First, as a coffee cherry which is harvested and processed, then as a green coffee bean prepared for roasting.

Processing refers to the complex steps taken to remove the fruit of the coffee cherry and to dry the seed (or bean within) to prepare it for roasting. Coffee is traditionally processed in three ways: natural, washed, and honey. 

Natural Coffee

The most traditional way of processing coffee, this basic approach to processing originated in Ethiopia and involves picking the coffee cherry (fruit) and drying them in the sunshine while the fruit remains on the bean, undisturbed. 

Natural coffees typically have a heavy red ripe fruit flavor, such as blueberries or strawberries. Sometimes the flavor can be described as winey or boozy.

Washed Coffee

In this method, once the ripe red cherries are picked from the coffee trees, they are washed to remove stones and then run through a depulper that removes the flesh of the fruit leaving behind only the beans of the coffee cherry. The removed fruit flesh is then used for bi-products like coffee jelly, and cascara tea, or returned to the orchard as mulch on the farm. The coffee beans are then placed in a fermentation tank to ferment. This process allows the flavors to intensify due to the natural sugars surrounding the bean. After the fermentation period, the beans are washed so that any extra flesh still on them is removed before drying.

With washed coffees, the focus is solely on the bean. Not the process or the outer fruit. The taste 100% comes from the natural sugars and nutrients absorbed throughout its growing cycle, not the fruit on the outside. This means that the soil, weather, variety, ripeness, fermentation, washing, and drying all matter.  Whereas with the natural or honey-process much of the flavor comes from the fruit and sugars from outside the coffee seed, which requires a flavorful coffee cherry. Washed coffees reflect the utmost care, attention to detail and the skilled hands required of farmers to grow specialty coffee as an integral part of crafting its taste. With washed coffees, environmental conditions, and growing region add to the flavor -highlighting the true character of that coffee like no other process. It’s why so many 100% Kona coffees are washed.

This processing method results in a bright acidity in your brewed coffee with a complex clean profile. 

Honey Process

With honey processing, there is no actual honey used. The name comes from how sticky the beans are during the process. When done right it can taste like someone has put honey and sugar in your cup of coffee.

To process a honey coffee, after the coffee is depulped, the sugars are left on the bean to dry - bypassing the fermentation stage of the wet processing. After this, the drying takes place with most of the fruit sugar still present on the bean.

Each method greatly changes the flavor of the final coffee

This method of processing coffee is the best of both worlds between a washed coffee and a natural processed coffee: it’s fruity, but not as exaggerated as a natural. It often has a more rounded acidity than washed coffees, with intense sweetness and a complex mouthfeel.

With each of these processing methods, one method may take longer than another, while, another method may require the use of more natural resources than another. Ultimately the method used for processing coffee greatly changes the flavor of the final coffee. We believe that coffee processing is one of the most important elements of curating coffee. As specialty coffee growers, we want to produce the best-tasting, 100% Kona Coffee and so special attention is given to each step in crafting our experience coffees.