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 three main factors determine the flavor of coffee beans: growing region, variety, and processing method. Among these, processing methods are quite diverse, with the three most common being washed, natural, and honey. As FrontStreet Coffee understands it, however, the most popular method today is undoubtedly honey processing. Its approach is somewhat similar to natural processing. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee explains the flavor characteristics of honey-processed beans.

The Origin of Honey Processing

Honey processing was developed by coffee farmers in Costa Rica. The background: most Costa Rican growing areas lie on steep mountains with inconvenient transport. When cherries from their farms were sent down to washing facilities at the foot of the mountains, many were found damaged, which reduced bean yield and therefore income. That is how honey processing came about.

As FrontStreet Coffee also understands it, few green-coffee buyers were purchasing high-quality cherries from the Costa Rican mountains - meaning a lack of sales channels. Those buyers purchased at extremely low, exploitative prices, so mountain farmers did not trust them. This led the farmers to invent honey processing so they could sell beans directly through self-production and self-sales, generating more income to sustain their livelihoods.

Because of its excellent flavor performance, honey processing is now widely used across Central America. Costa Rica has also developed many special honey methods - for example, the Bach beans in FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican Musician Series use raisin honey processing, while the Mozart beans use anaerobic honey processing.

What is Honey Processing?

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

As noted above, the main processing methods include washed and natural. Natural, as the name suggests, dries the beans after harvest; washed removes the pulp and then the mucilage through fermentation; honey processing is a compromise between the two. Many people, hearing "honey processing," think it uses honey, or that the coffee will taste of honey - but that is not the case. During drying, the water in the mucilage on the bean's surface evaporates, leaving a sticky, honey-like coating, hence the name.

Honey Processing Steps

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

Further, as FrontStreet Coffee understands it, honey processing is classified by how much mucilage is retained. Beans with 40% of the mucilage removed are called yellow honey; beans with 25% removed are classed as red honey; and beans that keep 100% of the mucilage are classed as black honey.

Honey-processed green beans also demand great care during drying. Because the mucilage is retained, the beans are coated in it, and during drying they must be turned constantly to prevent mold and over-fermentation.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Honey Processing

Advantages: Because honey processing is an improved form of natural processing, and the pulp is removed at the start, there is no mold problem. It also does not need large amounts of fresh water, so costs are lower.

Disadvantages: The processing steps are arguably the most complex and labor-intensive of all methods.

Flavor of Honey Processing

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, honey processing can increase sweetness while relatively reducing acidity, and the aroma becomes more delicate. Of course, that holds when the process is executed well; done poorly, it tastes unpleasantly acidic, with spicy aromas like onion or garlic. Even when done quite well, it will still carry some earthy notes, and the aftertaste is less clean, with more impurities than a typical washed coffee. Overall, honey processing carries much higher risk than wet processing.

Honey processing is also divided into three types by color: yellow honey, red honey, and black honey. What are the differences? FrontStreet Coffee explains below.

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

Black honey: Almost no mucilage is removed, so drying takes the longest - more than 14 days continuously. During the process, coverings are used to block overly strong sunlight so the sugars convert more completely.

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

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

So from yellow honey to black honey, the required drying time is longer and management becomes stricter. If one had to choose the best of the three, FrontStreet Coffee believes black honey has the finest flavor, because it retains the most mucilage, giving the richest and most intense mouthfeel.

Yellow and red honey are produced because farmers also have to think commercially, weighing costs and prices - offering consumers multiple choices is also reasonable.

Why Are Honey-Processed Coffee Beans So Popular?

As FrontStreet Coffee noted above, honey-processed beans show excellent sweetness, and that sweetness completely changes the notion that coffee is bitter, making it very popular among those new to beans. Many enzyme processing methods for coffee have also been inspired by honey processing, with even higher sweetness.

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

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

Natural Processing

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

1. Collection & Selection

After harvest, cherries are first selected by hand to remove defective ones - overripe, unripe, insect-damaged - and, of course, foreign objects other than the cherries.

2. Drying

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

3. Hulling

Once drying is complete, the 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 beans undergo another selection to remove poor-quality beans. This reflects the quality of the drying: over-dried beans are more fragile and may break into fragments during hulling, while under-dried beans hold 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 noted above, natural processing is relatively simple to operate, so it does not demand much cost. Natural-processed beans therefore have an irreplaceable fermented flavor. Farmers now also value natural-processed beans, placing them on racks to dry and turning them frequently to prevent contamination. Because of this, FrontStreet Coffee's shop now carries so many high-quality natural-processed beans.

Disadvantages: FrontStreet Coffee also noted that natural-processed beans have very strict weather requirements, and the drying degree of the cherries is hard to control. If the drying floor is not clean, the beans easily pick up impurities, raising the defect count. During drying, the cherries include both fruit and pulp, making them prone to mold and rot. Fortunately, as techniques have advanced, farmers pursuing higher-quality natural coffee have begun using instruments and manpower to closely monitor fermentation and drying, removing any abnormal coffee. This costs more but is more meticulous - hence the term "specialty natural processing."

Flavor Performance of Natural-Processed Coffee Beans

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

Differences Between Honey Processing and Natural Processing

As FrontStreet Coffee describes, both honey- and natural-processed beans undergo sun-drying and fermentation, so both express a fermented feel and obvious aromas. Honey-processed beans, though, will be sweeter. Through cupping and brewing, FrontStreet Coffee believes that compared with washed and honey processing, natural coffee has the lowest acidity, the highest sweetness, and slightly lower cleanliness; in flavor it produces more berry-like notes and is more complex.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee shares brewing tests of its natural-processed Costa Rica Fire Phoenix Sapphire beans and its raisin honey-processed Costa Rica Canet Estate Bach beans.

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 let the bean retain its rich fruit flavors and sweetness, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster used a medium roast.

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 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, and the beans entered the dehydration stage. When the drum temperature reached 166°C, 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 - the prelude to first crack. At 9'00", first crack began, the damper was adjusted to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not too low to lose the crack sound), with 2'05" of development after first crack, unloaded at 195°C.

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

FrontStreet used a Yangjia 800N semi-direct flame roaster (300g batch size). The specific approach: preheat the 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" the beans turned yellow, grassy smell disappeared, entering the dehydration stage. At 166°C, heat was reduced to 135, damper maintained at 4. At 8'05" dehydration was complete, the bean surface showed wrinkles and black spots, and the toast aroma turned to coffee aroma - the prelude to first crack. At 8'38" first crack began, damper fully open to 5, heat unchanged. Development 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 a 30-second bloom. When pouring with a small stream to 127g, pause. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 240g and stop. When the water level drops and is about to expose the bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the bloom.) Extraction time is 2'05".

Flavor Descriptions:

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

Costa Rica Musician Series Bach Flavor Description: It smells of rice-wine fermentation, tastes of ripe tropical fruits with berry sweet-and-sour, and carries nut, cocoa, and cream flavors, a caramel aftertaste, and light floral notes in the finish.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Honey processing has its roots in semi-washed coffee, and FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado is the classic starting point: a semi-washed Brazilian bean with the clear creamy, peanut, nut, and chocolate flavors that come from pulping before drying - shortening the drying time while avoiding the off-flavors of poor fermentation. Brazil's success caught Costa Rica's attention, and growers adapted the method - tuning how much mucilage is kept and how long the coffee dries - into honey processing, which then branched into black, red, yellow, and white honey.

For the darkest, richest expression, FrontStreet's Costa Rica Blackberry uses a distinctive black honey process that removes almost no mucilage and dries for at least two weeks under cover so the sun does not dry it too fast and the sugars convert fully. Roasted medium-light, it releases dense floral aroma and, on the sip, notes of grape, berry, and ripe blackberry.

Two more make the family clear. FrontStreet's Strawberry Candy pairs a Panama Geisha with a Costa Rican raisin-honey coffee that retains 100% mucilage through a zero-water process - giving Geisha's floral-tea character alongside grape and dried blueberry, soft fruit acidity, an almond finish, and clear sweetness. FrontStreet's Costa Rica Mozart, meanwhile, is a raisin-honey innovation: the cherries dry on raised beds for at least three days before pulping, delivering a richer tropical sweetness and osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin aromas whether brewed as pour-over, cold brew, or moka pot.