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What is Coffee Processing?

Coffee processing is the process of transforming coffee cherries into green coffee beans.

Three Main Processing Methods

Generally speaking, there are three processing methods:

• Natural process
• Washed process
• Hybrid processes between natural and washed: including semi-washed (wet-hulled), Brazilian pulped natural, and honey process

Natural Process

Selection → Drying → Hulling → Sorting and grading

Washed Process

Selection → Pulping → Fermentation → Washing → Drying → Hulling → Sorting and grading

Wet-Hulled Process

The wet-hulled method is common in Indonesia and differs from typical washed and natural processing.

In washed, honey, or natural processing, the parchment stays on until the bean dehydrates and hardens, with moisture dropping to 12%, or is stored for 1-3 months of aging before being removed.

The wet-hulled process, however, strips the parchment while the bean is still moist and soft—at moisture as high as 30-35%—exposing the green bean surface directly to continue drying. The method was developed to adapt to Sumatra's humid climate, where accelerating drying is essential. The shortened drying time reduces the fermentation period, significantly lowering acidity while raising body weight, and creates distinct caramel and fruit aromas with slight woody, herbal notes—this is FrontStreet Coffee's signature "regional flavor" in Mandheling.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling: it grows on hillside slopes around 1,500 meters, where the humid tropical rainforest climate brings abundant rainfall and volcanic soil supplies nutrients. Because of the year-round humidity, the wet-hulled method is used to shorten drying. Brew it with 88-89°C water, a sugar-sized grind, a Kono dripper, and a 1:14 ratio—30 seconds of pre-infusion followed by a single-stage pour—for distinct dark chocolate and cream flavors with high clarity.

Pulped Natural Process

Natural-process quality is hard to control, while washing consumes enormous water—averaging 10-20 tons of water per ton of cherries to yield roughly 200kg of beans. Countries with limited water cannot afford it. In the 1990s, Brazil used its unique dry climate to invent the pulped natural process.

After successive refinements, in Dr. Ernesto Illy's version, pulped natural works like this: cherries are first sorted through water channels to remove defective floaters, then the skin, pulp, and part of the mucilage are removed, followed by one hour of washing. Because soaking and fermentation are so short, the mucilage is not completely washed away, leaving residue on the parchment. The sticky parchment beans are then spread on drying patios—preferably breathable raised African beds—to dry.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's West Java Amanni Estate honey-processed natural: hand-picking ensures fruit consistency. After harvest, the outer skin is removed while the pulp is retained for natural drying—hence "pulped natural." After about one month of drying, washing and other finishing steps follow, then half a month of storage before packaging. The whole point of this process is to create more complex, full-bodied flavors.

Honey Processed Coffee Beans

When Brazil's pulped natural process spread to Central American countries such as Costa Rica and El Salvador, it was refined and became known as honey processing.

Honey process means drying green beans with the mucilage still attached. After the outer pulp is removed, a layer of viscous gel remains on the bean. In traditional washing this would be rinsed away with clean water, but water-scarce high-altitude regions developed this method of drying directly with the mucilage on.

Compared with washed coffee, honey-processed coffee has higher sweetness and sugar content, with relatively heavier body (at the same roast degree).

Depending on how much mucilage is removed, the drying duration (or drying thickness), and the turning frequency, honey processing divides into black, red, orange, yellow, and white honey.

By mucilage retention:

• Black Honey: about 80% of the mucilage retained (some estates remove almost none), requiring the longest drying of over 14 days; coverings block intense sunlight so the sugars convert more completely.
• Red Honey: about 25% of the mucilage removed (practices vary by estate), dried for about 12 days, sometimes under shade structures.
• Yellow Honey: 40% removed, dried with maximum light exposure for about 8 days.

Some regions and estates distinguish instead by drying thickness and turning frequency. For example, yellow and white honey both retain 20-30% mucilage:

• Yellow Honey: thick-layer drying, minimal turning, longer drying time.
• White Honey: thin-layer drying, frequent turning, shorter drying time.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Shumava Estate. Owner Francisco Men preserves most of the original forest on the property, maintaining ecological balance, which gives these beans rich fruit aroma and high sweetness. Brew the Costa Rica black honey with a V60: 15g of coffee, 1:15 ratio, sugar-sized grind, poured to 225g. Pre-infuse with 37g of water for 30 seconds. First stage: a medium flow to 120g, drawing out front and mid-stage floral and berry aromas. Second stage: a larger flow for strong black tea notes. In the cup: distinct tomato acidity, gentle berry acidity, bright delicate citrus, a low raisin-and-nut aftertaste, and strong sweetness.

As the coffee market pursues ever more extreme flavor profiles, experienced professionals have begun controlling honey-processing details to produce higher-quality beans and showcase coffee's possibilities.

For example, instruments like refractometers help decide the harvest timing: coffee from cherries of consistent maturity tastes cleaner, while sweeter red cherries raise sweetness, and riper fruit adds fermentation aromas.

Honey processing retains the cleanliness of washed coffee—though not quite as bright—while increasing sweetness and caramel notes.

Summary of Green Bean Processing Characteristics

• Acidity: Washed > Semi-washed > Honey > Wet-hulled > Natural
• Sweetness: Natural > Honey > Wet-hulled > Semi-washed > Washed
• Production Risk: Wet-hulled/Natural > Washed/Honey > Semi-washed
• Equipment Cost: Washed/Semi-washed > Honey/Wet-hulled > Natural
• Water Usage: Washed > Semi-washed > Honey/Wet-hulled

FrontStreet Coffee's Honey Processed Coffee Bean Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Costa Rica black honey beans carry full assurance in brand and quality, at excellent value—for anyone curious about honey processing, a superb choice.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the wet-hulled section caught your interest, the benchmark is FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling from Indonesia. Sumatra's rainy season overlaps the coffee harvest: with humidity of 70-90% year-round, frequent typhoons, and annual rainfall above 2,000mm, weeks-long sun-drying is impossible, so growers developed the wet-hulled method—peeling the parchment by machine while the beans are still half-dry and half-wet, exposing them to the air to speed drying and, in the process, absorbing wild, unique aromas from the environment. Sumatra's Arabica comes mainly from the high-altitude Aceh and North Sumatra provinces, around Lake Toba's Lintong region and the Gayo mountains near Tawar Lake, with harvest running from September to April.

Golden Mandheling is the masterpiece of top-grade Mandheling. PWN applies extremely strict standards: only beans of 18-mesh size or larger, fewer than 3 defects per 300g of green coffee to meet the highest G1 grade, plus three rounds of hand sorting—yielding exceptional cleanliness and sweetness, limited supply, and certified bags with the PWN mark. Roasted medium-dark, it gives a clean black coffee with full, mellow body and rich roast aromas, perfect for drinkers who dislike sour coffee. To brew, FrontStreet Coffee suggests 15g at a 1:15 ratio, water at 87-88°C, a coarse granulated-sugar grind, and a three-stage pour: 30ml to bloom and wet the grounds, 100ml to raise the coffee bed and bring up the golden crema, then a gentle center pour of 95ml to lift the sweetness—delivering caramel sweetness with chocolate and nut flavors and a thick, lingering body.