What's the Difference Between Natural, Pulped Natural, Washed, and Honey Processing? Flavor and Taste Characteristics of Natural Coffee Beans?

Natural Processing Method

The natural processing method, as the name suggests, involves spreading harvested coffee cherries on the ground (on specialized drying nets or patios) and using intense sunlight (about 2-3 weeks) to dehydrate the coffee cherries until they reach the target moisture content. Then, machines are used to remove the dried fruit husks to obtain the raw coffee beans we need. The greatest advantage of natural processing is that it doesn't depend on water resources—as long as there's sufficient sunlight, it works—making it the oldest and most cost-effective processing method.

Since natural processing doesn't require advanced technical skills, basically every small farming household can process their own coffee, and there are also specialized processing stations that collect coffee cherries from nearby areas for centralized processing. This results in significant quality variations in natural processed coffee. Some quality-focused processing stations invest considerable money and effort into processing each batch of natural beans, starting with the fresh coffee cherries by screening out unripe fruits, overripe fruits, defective beans, and some debris like stones, which can affect the overall flavor profile of the naturally processed coffee.

During drying, they use raised drying beds for spreading and drying, with the purpose of keeping the cherries away from the ground to avoid contamination by crawling insects, dust, and bacteria. Furthermore, during the natural drying period, dedicated personnel regularly check the drying degree of the coffee cherries and pick out worm-infested fruits, cracked fruits, and moldy fruits to prevent these from affecting the fermentation and drying degree of other coffee cherries. Generally, producers with higher quality requirements for natural beans adopt this refined processing method to ensure the coffee's flavor expression. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry coffee beans exhibit distinct tropical fruit flavors, full fermentation notes, and sweetness.

Differences Between Natural and Washed Processing

The biggest difference between natural and washed processing is that washed processing removes all outer layers of the raw coffee beans before drying, while natural processing doesn't remove any coffee cherry structure, instead spreading the entire fruit directly on concrete ground or ventilated drying beds for drying. Because the beans dry with the pulp attached, they have more time to contact the sugars in the pulp, allowing more substances to penetrate the seeds, resulting in higher sweetness, body, and fruit flavors (such as passion fruit, strawberry, and tropical fruit flavors), with a richer mouthfeel.

Semi-Natural Processing

In addition to washed and natural processing, different producing regions have developed post-harvest processing methods that fall between these two according to local conditions, such as Brazil's semi-natural processing.

In 1990, Brazil's coffee research institution developed the semi-natural processing method based on the local arid climate characteristics, also called Pulped Natural. Before drying, the coffee cherries have their pulp and skin removed first, leaving only a thin layer of mucilage to be sun-dried for 1-3 days, then machine-dried to 12% moisture content, and finally placed in storage containers for maturation. The semi-natural method not only saves water resources but also shortens processing time and reduces negative flavors from the processing process, significantly improving the quality of Brazilian beans. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Red Bourbon daily coffee beans are selected from the Cerrado region and processed using this semi-natural method, presenting classic Brazilian flavors of chocolate, caramel, cream, and peanuts, along with a rich body.

Honey Processing

In addition to Brazil's semi-natural processing, honey processing has become very popular in recent years as another derivative method based on natural and washed processing. Producers using honey processing first pour fresh coffee cherries into water tanks for floatation, removing unripe fruits and impurities, then use a pulping machine to remove the outermost layer of the fruit. Unlike washed processing, after the coffee cherries are depulped, they don't use large amounts of clean water to rinse and remove mucilage; instead, they retain the mucilage for drying. Because the mucilage contains sugar and has a sticky, viscous state that easily reminds people of honey, it was named honey processing. Compared to washed processing, honey processing doesn't require large amounts of fresh water and related equipment. Compared to natural processing, it reduces defect and negative flavors that come from long exposure to sunlight. Coffee processed using honey processing typically presents rich tropical fruit flavors and fermented sweetness in cupping, with an overall clean mouthfeel and bright acidity.

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