Washed, natural, honey: processing explained
How farms remove the fruit from the seed, and why it changes the taste in your cup.
Coffee beans are the seeds of a fruit called the coffee cherry. After picking, the farm removes the fruit and dries the seed. How they do this, the process, shapes the flavour as much as the variety or the altitude.
Washed
The fruit is removed before drying, and the seeds ferment in water before being washed clean. Washed coffees taste clean and bright with clear acidity. Our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe is washed, as are the Colombian and Costa Rican coffees in the Casablanca Blend.
Natural
The whole cherry dries in the sun for several weeks with the seed inside. The fruit adds sweetness and body: chocolate, ripe fruit and a heavier cup. The Brazil from Fazenda Terra Preta in our Casablanca Blend is natural, and so is Colombia Pink Whiskey.
Honey
Some of the sticky fruit layer, the mucilage, stays on the seed while it dries. The cup sits between washed and natural, with rounded sweetness and gentle acidity. It is common in Costa Rica.
Semi-washed
A traditional Indonesian method: the fruit is removed, and the parchment comes off while the seed is still damp. Our Sumatra Strawberry from Shimaren Farm is semi-washed.
Barrels and infused fermentation
Some producers add a final step to create new flavours. Colombia Pink Whiskey is finished in whiskey barrels and Colombia Rum Barrel is aged in rum barrels, while Sumatra Strawberry is fermented with strawberries.
Every origin on our map shows how its coffee is processed.