The Difference Between Honey Process and Natural Process: Why Are Honey Processed Coffee Beans So Popular? The Significance of Honey Processing

FrontStreet Coffee often says that there are three main factors that determine the flavor of coffee beans: coffee growing region, variety, and processing method. Among these, coffee processing methods are quite diverse, with the three most common being washed processing, natural processing, and honey processing. However, according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the most popular coffee bean processing method currently is undoubtedly the honey processing method. Its processing approach is somewhat similar to natural processing. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will explain the flavor characteristics of honey-processed coffee beans.

The Origin of Honey Processing

The honey processing method was developed by coffee farmers in the Costa Rican growing region. The background for its development was that most coffee growing areas in Costa Rica are located on steep mountains with inconvenient transportation. When coffee cherries from their farms were sent to washing processing facilities at the foot of the mountains, they found that many coffee cherries were damaged, which would reduce coffee bean production and consequently decrease income. This is how the honey processing method was developed.

Additionally, according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, there were few green coffee buyers purchasing high-quality coffee cherries from the Costa Rican mountains, meaning a lack of sales channels. These coffee buyers would purchase at extremely low, exploitative prices. Therefore, mountain coffee farmers didn't trust these buyers, which led them to invent the honey processing method to sell coffee beans directly through self-production and self-sales, generating more income to sustain their livelihoods.

Currently, due to its excellent flavor performance, honey processing is widely used in Central American coffee growing regions. Furthermore, Costa Rica has also developed many special honey processing methods. For example, the Costa Rican Musician Series' Bach coffee beans and Mozart coffee beans in FrontStreet Coffee's store are made using raisin honey processing and anaerobic honey processing respectively. You can purchase them directly from FrontStreet Coffee's Taobao store or FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

What is Honey Processing?

Honey processing, called Honey Process or Miel Process, is a method where the pulp is removed and the beans with the inner parchment are then dried.

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, the main coffee bean processing methods include washed processing and natural processing. The natural method, as its name suggests, is a method of naturally drying coffee beans after harvest; the washed method involves removing the pulp and then removing the mucilage through fermentation; honey processing is a compromise between these two methods. Many people, upon hearing the name "honey processing," might think it's a process using honey for processing, or that the processed coffee will have a honey flavor, but this is not the case. During the drying process, the water in the mucilage on the surface of the coffee bean evaporates, making it as viscous as honey, hence the name.

Honey Processing Steps

1. First, place all coffee cherries in water to select floating beans and defective beans, keeping only the good coffee cherries, just like the first step of washed processing.
2. Take the selected coffee cherries directly to raised beds for drying for at least three days to reduce the moisture content of the coffee cherries to 20%.
3. Then put the dried coffee beans into a depulping machine to remove the skin, pulp, and fruit flesh, leaving the mucilage. This is why honey-processed coffee beans are sweet, because the mucilage is the part with the highest sugar content in coffee cherries.
4. Then dry the coffee beans with retained mucilage until the coffee moisture content drops to 11%, at which point they can be stored in the warehouse.

Furthermore, according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, honey processing is also classified based on the amount of mucilage retained. For example, coffee beans with 40% of mucilage removed are called yellow honey; honey-processed coffee beans with 25% mucilage removed are classified as red honey; and there are also honey-processed green coffee beans that retain 100% mucilage, classified as black honey.

The honey-processed green coffee beans also require great attention during the drying process. Because honey-processed coffee beans retain mucilage, they will have a lot of mucilage, and during the drying process, they need to be constantly turned to prevent mold and over-fermentation.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Honey Processing

Advantages: Because honey processing is an improved method of natural processing, since the pulp is removed at the beginning, there won't be mold problems. Additionally, it doesn't require large amounts of fresh water, making costs lower.

Disadvantages: The processing steps can be said to be the most complex and labor-intensive among all methods.

Flavor of Honey Processing

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, honey processing can increase the sweetness of coffee while relatively reducing its acidity, and its aroma will also be more delicate. Of course, this is when the honey processing is executed well; if executed poorly, it will taste unpleasantly acidic, with spicy aromas like onions or garlic. Even when executed quite well, it will still have some earthy notes, and the aftertaste will be less clean, with more impurities than general washed processing. Therefore, overall, using honey processing carries much higher risks than general wet processing.

Additionally, honey processing is also divided into three types by color: yellow honey, red honey, and black honey. What are the differences between them? FrontStreet Coffee will now explain this to coffee enthusiast friends.

What's the Difference Between Yellow, Red, and Black Honey?

Black honey: Almost no mucilage is removed, so drying takes the longest time, requiring more than 14 days continuously. During the process, to avoid drying too quickly, coverings are used to block too strong sunlight, allowing for more complete sugar conversion.

Red honey: 25% of mucilage is removed (specific practices vary between estates), sun-dried for about 12 days, and shade nets may also be used during the process. Coffee is turned several times daily, not as frequently as yellow honey.

Yellow honey: 40% of mucilage is removed, dried with the most sunlight exposure for about 8 days, with coffee placed on racks and turned every hour.

Therefore, from yellow honey to black honey, the required drying time is longer, and management requirements become more stringent. If one must choose the best among the three, FrontStreet Coffee believes that black honey has the best flavor because it has the most parchment, resulting in the richest and more intense mouthfeel.

The production of yellow and red honey is because coffee farmers also need to consider from a commercial perspective, considering costs and prices, providing consumers with multiple choices is also feasible.

Why Are Honey-Processed Coffee Beans So Popular?

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, honey-processed coffee beans have excellent sweetness in flavor performance, and this sweetness completely changes the concept that coffee is bitter among coffee enthusiasts, making it very popular among those new to coffee beans. Additionally, many enzyme processing methods for coffee beans have been inspired by honey processing, with even higher sweetness in flavor.

Furthermore, FrontStreet Coffee also mentioned above that there are three types of honey processing in total, among which black honey-processed coffee beans have the highest sweetness and best flavor, corresponding to more stringent processing conditions. This also means that coffee beans can have stable quality assurance, and naturally, coffee enthusiasts are willing to pay for deliciousness, which is another reason why honey-processed coffee beans are popular.

So what exactly are the differences between honey processing and natural processing? FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above that honey processing emerged by combining washed processing and natural processing methods. So what is natural processing like?

Natural Processing

Natural processing is one of the oldest and most traditional processing methods. Coffee cherries are dried in the sun immediately after harvesting. It's more common in areas with abundant sunlight or scarce water resources, such as Ethiopia where nearly 70% of coffee cherries undergo natural processing.

1. Collection & Selection

After harvesting, coffee cherries are first manually selected to remove defective coffee cherries, including overripe, unripe, insect-damaged ones, and of course, foreign objects other than the cherries.

2. Drying

The selected coffee cherries are sent to drying areas for drying. Different regions may use different drying racks—some may use waterproof tarps, others raised beds, and some concrete floors. The drying time averages 3 to 4 weeks until the coffee moisture content drops to 11% to complete the drying process.

3. Hulling

After drying is complete, coffee cherries are sent to processing plants for hulling and even polishing. The skin, pulp, and other parts are all removed in this step.

4. Selection, Sorting & Storage

The hulled green coffee beans undergo another selection to remove poor-quality coffee beans. This reflects the quality of the coffee drying process—over-dried coffee beans are more fragile and may break into fragments during hulling; under-dried coffee beans have too much moisture, with overly active water content that easily breeds bacteria and causes mold.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Natural Processing

Advantages: As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, natural processing is relatively simple to operate, meaning it doesn't require too much cost. Therefore, natural-processed coffee beans have irreplaceable fermented flavors. Now coffee farmers also value natural-processed coffee beans, such as placing coffee beans on racks for drying and frequently turning them to prevent contamination. Because of this, FrontStreet Coffee's store now has so many high-quality natural-processed coffee beans.

Disadvantages: FrontStreet Coffee also mentioned that natural-processed coffee beans have very strict weather requirements, and the drying degree of coffee cherries is difficult to control. If the drying field is not clean, it's easy for coffee beans to pick up impurities, leading to an increase in defective beans. During the drying process, coffee cherries include both fruit and pulp, making them prone to mold and rot. Fortunately, with technological development, coffee farmers are pursuing higher-quality natural-processed coffee beans and have begun using instruments and manpower to closely monitor the fermentation and drying degrees of coffee, removing any abnormal coffee found. Of course, this operation costs more but is more meticulous, hence also called "specialty natural processing."

Flavor Performance of Natural-Processed Coffee Beans

Because of long-term sun exposure, natural-processed coffee beans have more intense flavors and richer layering, with wine-like fermented aromas, and also higher sweetness.

Differences Between Honey Processing and Natural Processing

As described by FrontStreet Coffee, both honey-processed and natural-processed coffee beans undergo sun-drying and fermentation processing, so their flavor expressions both have fermented feelings and obvious aromas. However, honey-processed coffee beans will have higher sweetness than natural-processed coffee beans. Through cupping and brewing, FrontStreet Coffee believes that compared to washed-processed and honey-processed coffee, natural coffee has the lowest acidity, highest sweetness, but slightly lower cleanliness. In terms of flavor, it produces more berry-like notes and is more complex.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share brewing tests of natural-processed Costa Rica Fire Phoenix Sapphire coffee beans and raisin honey-processed Costa Rica Canet Estate Bach coffee beans with coffee enthusiast friends.

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Fire Phoenix Estate Sapphire Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Central Valley, Fire Phoenix Estate
Altitude: 1600m
Variety: Caturra, Catuai
Grade: SHB
Processing: Natural

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Bach Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazú, Canet Estate
Altitude: 1950m
Grade: SHB
Variety: Caturra
Processing: Raisin Honey Processing

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Data Sharing:

Fire Phoenix Sapphire: This Costa Rica Fire Phoenix Sapphire possesses rich berry and tropical fruit aromas. To allow this bean to retain its rich fruit flavors and sweetness, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster used a medium roast approach to roast this bean.

FrontStreet Coffee used a Yangjia 800N roaster (300g batch size). The drum temperature was set to 170°C when loading, with the damper open at 3 and heat at 110. The return temperature point was at 1'36" at 97.9°C. When the drum temperature reached 140°C, the damper was opened to 4. At this point, the bean surface turned yellow, the grassy smell completely disappeared, entering the dehydration stage. When the drum temperature reached 166°C, the heat was adjusted to 80°C, damper unchanged. At 8'17", the bean surface showed ugly wrinkles and black spots, with the toast aroma clearly turning to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, one must listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'00", first crack began, damper adjusted to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not too low to lose crack sound), with 2'05" development after first crack, unloaded at 195°C.

Bach: FrontStreet Coffee's Bach green coffee beans appear yellow-green, typical of honey-processed coffee beans. They smell like fresh citrus fruit aromas with light fermented fruit fragrance.

Frontsteet used a Yangjia 800N semi-direct flame roaster (300g batch size). Frontsteet's specific roasting approach was: preheat drum to 200°C when loading, adjust heat to 160, damper open to 3. Return temperature at 1'36", maintain heat. At 140°C, keep heat at 160, damper open to 4. At 4'50" turned yellow, grassy smell disappeared, entering dehydration stage. At 166°C, heat reduced to 135, damper maintained at 4. At 8'05" dehydration completed, bean surface showed wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma turned to coffee aroma, as prelude to first crack. At this point, pay attention to listen for first crack sound. At 8'38" first crack began, damper fully open to 5, heat unchanged. Development time after first crack 1'45", unloaded at 193.8°C.

Pour-over Parameters:

Dripper: Hario V60
Water Temperature: 90°C
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:16
Grind Size: Medium-fine grind (EK43s setting 10: 80% pass through China standard #20 sieve)

Brewing Method:

Segmented extraction. Use 34g of water for bloom for 30 seconds. When pouring with small water flow to 127g, segment. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 240g and stop pouring. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time is 2'05".

Flavor Descriptions:

Costa Rica Fire Phoenix Estate Sapphire Flavor Description: Entry reveals strawberry, tropical fruits, fermented wine aroma, honey and cocoa in the finish, overall smooth mouthfeel, distinct flavor layers, with obvious aftertaste.

Costa Rica Musician Series Bach Flavor Description: Smells like rice wine fermentation aroma, tastes like mature tropical fruits, berry sweet and sour, with nut, cocoa, cream flavors, caramel aftertaste, and light floral notes in the finish.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473