What is Honey Processing? Detailed Introduction to the Process and Flavor Characteristics of Black Honey Processed Coffee Beans

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Coffee Processing Methods: An Introduction to Honey Processing

The current coffee processing methods on the market generally fall into three major categories: washed processing, natural processing, and honey processing. Of course, there's also the special processing method for Indonesian coffee beans - wet-hulling. Today, FrontStreet Coffee wants to introduce you to the honey processing method commonly used in the Costa Rica growing region.

Nearly all Costa Rican growing regions use honey processing, a method very popular in Central America. The general steps for honey processing are: first, place the coffee beans in a water tank for floatation to remove defective beans. Then remove the skin and pulp of the coffee fruit while retaining the mucilage, so the coffee beans will have a lot of mucilage. Then place the coffee beans with retained mucilage directly in the sun to dry.

Processing to this step is the biggest difference from washed processing. In washed processing, the coffee beans with skin and pulp removed would be poured into a water tank to remove the mucilage, which would then decompose in the water tank. This is the biggest difference between washed processing and honey processing - washed processing does not retain mucilage, while honey processing retains mucilage. Then when the moisture content of the coffee beans drops to about 11%, the honey processing process is complete.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, honey processing is also classified according to the amount of mucilage retained. Coffee beans with about 40% mucilage removed are called yellow honey; honey-processed coffee beans with 25% mucilage removed are classified as red honey; and there is also honey-processed coffee beans that retain 100% mucilage, classified as black honey.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, honey-processed coffee beans require great attention during the drying process. Because honey-processed coffee beans retain mucilage, they will have a lot of mucilage, and during the drying process, they must be constantly turned to prevent mold and over-fermentation. Compared to natural processing, this is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Because in natural processing, the entire coffee fruit is dried directly, so there won't be problems with coffee beans sticking together. However, natural processing takes longer than honey processing because it includes the fruit husk.

Anaerobic Honey Processing: Mozart Coffee

Costa Rica also has an anaerobic honey-processed coffee bean, and FrontStreet Coffee has also launched this Mozart coffee, which uses anaerobic honey processing derived from honey processing. Compared to honey processing, anaerobic honey-processed coffee flavor will be more stable because it can achieve the desired coffee flavor through manual control. The general method for anaerobic honey processing is to remove the outer skin and pulp of the coffee fruit, retain the mucilage, and place it directly in a sealed fermentation tank for low-temperature fermentation, with the temperature roughly 10-15 degrees Celsius. After three days, sun-drying processing is performed.

Flavor Comparison of Different Processing Methods

You might wonder, what are the differences in flavor between coffee beans processed with different methods? FrontStreet Coffee, like everyone else, was very curious, so FrontStreet Coffee conducted cupping and pour-over tests on these several processing methods for flavor comparison.

For honey processing, FrontStreet Coffee selected coffee beans from Costa Rica's Mira Su estate using raisin honey processing - Frontsteet Strawberry Candy. Because this honey-processed coffee bean has high sweetness, to highlight the sweetness of honey processing and retain the fruit flavor and floral notes of honey-processed beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses light roasting. Everyone can purchase directly from FrontStreet Coffee's Taobao store or FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

In terms of brewing, to extract the high sweetness of the coffee, it is recommended to use water temperature of 91-92°C, with 15 grams of coffee powder, ratio 1:16, suitable for extracting coffee with a relatively mellow taste. The water temperature should not be too high; generally, 88 degrees is just right.

FrontStreet Coffee uses the common three-stage method to brew these coffees. FrontStreet Coffee generally first wets the filter paper and preheats the filter cup and coffee pot before formal brewing. In the first stage, use 30 grams of water for blooming. After 30 seconds, proceed to the second stage pour-over, using a small water stream to pour in circles until reaching 125 grams, then stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, you can proceed to the third stage, continuing to pour in circles until reaching 225 grams, then stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup. (Timing starts from blooming) The extraction time is exactly 2 minutes. This pour-over method is generally called the three-stage pour-over method, which is FrontStreet Coffee's most commonly used brewing method.

Tasting Notes and Conclusions

After FrontStreet Coffee tasted these several coffees, the conclusions were:

Costa Rica Mira Su Estate: Jasmine fragrance, with sweet raisin flavor upon entry, strawberry candy sweetness, nutty cream-like mouthfeel.

Washed Yirgacheffe: Rich citrus and lemon fruit acidity, strong jasmine floral aroma, light and elegant mouthfeel with tea-like notes, tasting like refreshing and clean lemon tea.

Natural Red Cherry: Distinct ripe tomato aroma and floral notes, with cherry tomato and black plum flavors upon entry, bright acidity, clean and full juice sensation, berry sweetness, with brown sugar sweetness in the aftertaste.

Lindong Mandheling: Herbal medicinal taste upon entry, black chocolate, caramel, sweet aftertaste.

Through the comparison of these coffees with different processing methods, FrontStreet Coffee clearly found the general differences between washed processing, natural processing, and honey processing: among these four processing methods, the honey-processed coffee beans have the highest sweetness, as well as rich floral notes. Next comes natural-processed coffee beans - although their sweetness is not as high as honey processing, it is still higher than washed-processed coffee beans. However, washed processing has the brightest acidity. Meanwhile, Indonesia's wet-hulling processing brings very obvious spice notes and unique herbal flavors to coffee beans, with some sweetness in the aftertaste. These are the general differences among the above coffee processing methods.

Important Notice :

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