How to Drink Red Wine Natural Process Coffee Beans_Differences Between Natural Process and Wine-Flavored Natural Coffee Beans

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Coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee fruit, which is also called the coffee cherry. Once the outer skin and pulp are removed from the fruit, what remains is two coffee seeds -- the green, unroasted beans. Ripe coffee fruit spoils easily after picking, so it needs to be processed promptly for storage and transport. There are several ways to process coffee fruit, including natural, washed, and honey. Within natural drying there is also the wine-like natural method. So how do these two methods proceed, what are their advantages and disadvantages, and how do they differ?

The Natural Drying Method

Natural drying is the most traditional processing method. After harvest, the fruit is simply dried in the sun. The steps are as follows:

1. After harvesting, farmers place the cherries directly on the drying beds to dry in the sun;

2. During drying, they are turned and stirred regularly to prevent uneven drying or fermentation;

3. After several days, the fruit is fully dried;

4. The dried beans have their pulp and husk removed with a hulling machine to extract the green beans.

Advantages: Fruit processed by the natural method keeps its mucilage during processing, and mucilage is naturally sweet. As the cherries dry in the sun, sugar transfers into the beans, so natural coffee ends up sweeter, with a richer body and clearer layers.

Disadvantages: There may be more defective beans, an inconsistent appearance from bean to bean, and a tendency to pick up odors from the ground and earthy flavors.

The Wine-Like Natural Method

The wine-like natural method adds just two words to "natural." Does the process involve alcohol? No. It does not mean adding red wine during processing; it means the fermentation method and degree resemble the fermentation of red wine. The steps are similar to the natural method, but with a longer fermentation time, which is where the name comes from. The steps are:

1. After farmers harvest fully ripe red cherries, they place them directly on the drying beds to dry in the sun;

2. During drying, the degree of fermentation is monitored continuously.

Advantages: Wine-like natural beans come from a higher proportion of ripe red cherries than ordinary natural coffee, and the longer fermentation raises the sweetness in the cup, adds relatively rich layers, and creates a taste close to the fermentation character of red wine.

Disadvantages: This method takes labor and time, so it cannot be mass-produced. It is generally reserved for more expensive lots.

Natural Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's freshly roasted single-origin natural beans -- Natural Yirgacheffe and Natural Sidamo among them -- offer full assurance in both brand and quality, and are suitable for brewing with a wide range of equipment. More importantly, the value is excellent. A half-pound (227g) bag costs only about 70-90 yuan. At 200ml per cup of single-origin coffee with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, one bag makes 15 cups of specialty coffee, and each cup costs only about 5-6 yuan. Compared with cafe prices of dozens of yuan per cup, that is extremely cost-effective.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you enjoy the sweetness and layered fruit that natural and wine-like natural processing deliver, honey-processed coffees are the closest relatives worth trying next. Honey processing grew out of the semi-washed method, in which the skin is removed before drying to shorten drying time and to avoid the off-flavors that come from poor fermentation. FrontStreet's Brazil Cerrado is a classic Brazilian semi-washed bean, with clear cream, peanut, nut, and chocolate flavors, and it was Brazil's success that prompted Costa Rica to borrow the approach and refine it -- varying how much mucilage is left on the bean and how long it dries -- into the black, red, yellow, and white honey styles.

For the sweetest, most fruit-driven version, look at FrontStreet's Costa Rica Blackberry, made with a black honey process that removes almost no mucilage and dries for at least two weeks under covers so the sugar fully converts. It is roasted medium-light, and the ground coffee releases an intense floral perfume; brewed, it drinks with grape, berry, and ripe blackberry character.

Another option is FrontStreet's Costa Rica Mozart, which uses a raisin honey process: the cherries are pre-dried on raised beds for at least three days before the skin and pulp are removed and the honey steps continue, keeping 100% of the mucilage. It brings a richer, riper fruit sweetness -- osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin -- and works well as pour-over, cold brew, or moka pot.