What's the Difference Between Natural and Pulped Natural Coffee? What Does Natural Coffee Taste Like?

Understanding Coffee Processing Methods

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Single-origin coffee has grown hugely popular in recent years, with more and more people brewing at home. But when buying beans, you keep running into confusing packaging terms: washed process, natural process, honey process. What are these methods, and how do they shape the flavor of your coffee?

What is a "Coffee Cherry"?

First, the basics. Coffee beans are the seeds inside the coffee fruit. The trees bear fruits that turn bright red when ripe, and their cherry-like look earned them the name "coffee cherries."

Processing exists to strip away the external structures — outer skin, pulp, mucilage, parchment, and silver skin — leaving the seed in the familiar coffee-bean form. The natural, washed, and honey processes you see on packaging are simply different names for how the skin, pulp, and mucilage are removed.

So who decides which method to use? There are multiple considerations, but the most common is the natural conditions of the region — water availability and sunlight — which determine the most economically viable method. (Estates with sufficient resources may of course choose a method purely for flavor.)

Natural Process – The Oldest Processing Method

Widely used in regions with abundant sunlight but limited water and less economic development (Ethiopia, for example), the natural process lets the whole cherry dry intact, so the bean matures inside the fruit. Naturals tend to amplify the bean's inherent character: rich body, intense flavors, vibrant sweetness and acidity.

Removing Floating Beans

To remove underdeveloped, inferior fruit, the cherries are poured into large water tanks. Mature, full fruits sink to the bottom while poor-quality ones float. The floaters are scooped off the surface, and this step is done.

Sun Drying

The fruits are spread evenly on drying patios and turned several times daily, covered at night to prevent moisture absorption. The process typically lasts about 2-3 weeks (depending on local climate) and is complete when the moisture inside the beans drops to 10-14%.

Removing the Outer Shell

Once drying is complete, the outer layer of the seed has become dry and hard. A hulling machine removes it, and the process is finished.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages: Apart from the floatation step, the natural process needs no water — one tank of water can be reused many times — making it very cost-effective.

Disadvantages: Because the fruit dries outdoors, impurities such as dead leaves and twigs often get mixed in. And since drying depends on the sun, the degree of dryness is hard to control — over-drying can damage the beans, and sun-drying the whole fruit invites mold and rot.

Honey Process – The Trendiest Processing Method

The honey process, also called semi-natural, is an improved natural process. Its flavor is shaped, delicately and profoundly, by the sugars left in the mucilage layer: the more mucilage retained, the more intense the flavor.

Removing Floating Beans (Same as Natural Process)

Cherries go into large water tanks; underdeveloped and inferior fruit floats while mature, full fruits sink. Scoop off the floaters, and this step is complete.

Removing Skin and Pulp

A pulping machine strips the outer skin and pulp of the fruit, leaving the mucilage, parchment, and silver skin.

Unlike the washed process, farmers can choose how much mucilage to retain, which is graded into yellow honey, red honey, and black honey.

Yellow Honey – (30-40% of the mucilage retained) Drying is sped up under minimal shade (clouds, shade trees), giving the beans a yellow appearance.

Red Honey – (50-60% retained) Takes longer, with partial artificial shading to soften the drying and extend the time.

Black Honey – (70-80% retained) The longest of all, usually requiring full artificial cover to reduce drying intensity and stretch out the process.

There are also White Honey (10-15%) and Gold Honey (90-100%). The more mucilage retained, the sweeter and thicker the mouthfeel. The mucilage-covered beans are still sun-dried, spread directly on patios until moisture drops to 10-14%.

Removing Mucilage and Parchment

Special machinery removes the mucilage and parchment, completing the processing.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages: Since the pulp is removed at the start, there are no mold problems, and the process needs no large volumes of fresh water — relatively low cost.

Disadvantages: Of all the methods, this one demands the most complex steps and the most labor.

FrontStreet Coffee's Pour-over Brewing Recommendations:

Xiaofuji 3.5 V60 dripper, water temperature 89°C, ratio 1:15, total time two minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Honey processing has an interesting family tree. Its forerunner was Brazil's semi-dried "pulped natural" method — pulping the cherry before drying — which both shortens the drying period and tames the off-flavors of improper fermentation. FrontStreet Coffee's Cerrado is a classic Brazilian pulped-natural coffee with unmistakable cream, peanut, nut, and chocolate notes. Brazil's success caught Costa Rica's attention: borrowing the semi-natural idea and refining it by how much mucilage is retained and how long the beans dry, Costa Rica created honey processing proper, which then subdivided into black, red, yellow, and white honey.

At the deepest end sits black honey. FrontStreet Coffee's Blackberry lot uses black honey processing — almost none of the mucilage is removed, and drying lasts at least two weeks, with shade covers used to keep the intense sun from drying the beans too fast so the sugars fully convert. The beans must be turned at irregular intervals to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation, which makes black honey the most labor-intensive of all. Roasted medium-light, the ground coffee releases a strong fresh floral aroma, and the cup shows grape, berry, and ripe blackberry flavors.

Beyond ordinary honey, some estates push further with raisin honey processing — a departure from the traditional yellow-red-black ladder. The whole cherries are pre-dried on raised beds for at least three days until they resemble raisins; only then are the skin and pulp removed and the honey steps completed. Retaining 100% of the mucilage makes it even harder than black honey, demanding strict timing. The reward is a richer, dried-fruit sweetness. FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart lot shows it beautifully: in pour-over, cold brew, or moka pot you will find osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin aromas.

And for a blend that celebrates the style, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Sugar pairs Panama Geisha — contributing its classic orange-blossom honeyed tone — with a Costa Rican raisin-honey component (100% mucilage retained, zero-water processing: cherry floated in large tanks to sink the ripe fruit and discard floaters, dried on raised beds for at least three days, then pulped with mucilage intact and dried with constant turning for evenness). The cup carries Geisha's tea-like florals plus grape and dried blueberry aromas, soft acidity, an almond finish, and obvious sweetness.