The Origin Story of Costa Rica Honey Processing Method - A Comprehensive Pour-Over Tutorial for Honey Processed Geisha Coffee

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Perhaps many friends, like FrontStreet Coffee, when thinking about sweeter coffee, two answers immediately come to mind: one is natural process, and the other is honey process. To let friends experience the legendary sweetness in their daily lives, FrontStreet Coffee's bean list always maintains at least one honey-processed coffee. For example, the recently launched Colombia · La Esperanza Geisha coffee adopts honey processing, which not only has rich rose floral notes but also high sweetness, receiving praise from many customers. So here comes the question: why is honey-processed coffee so prominently sweet? Is real honey added?

FrontStreet Coffee Colombia · La Esperanza Geisha Coffee Beans

Country: Colombia
Region: Cauca
Altitude: 1850 meters
Variety: Geisha
Processing Method: Honey Process
Flavor: Blackcurrant juice, blueberry, navel orange, smoked plum, red wine

What is the "Honey" in Honey Process?

Honey Process, translated from the English "Honey Process," also called "Miel Process," gets its "honey" from "Miel," which means honey in Spanish. The term honey processing first emerged from Costa Rica, where locals like to call the sticky gelatinous layer inside the fruit "Miel." This processing method, which already sounds sweet, originated from Brazil's Pulped Natural method, initially invented to save production water. Regarding how honey processing became popular in Costa Rica, FrontStreet Coffee found two key time points.

In the second half of the 20th century, Costa Rica predominantly produced washed processed coffee. With pioneering coffee cherry depulping equipment and wet processing facilities, it can be said to be a pioneer of modern washing technology.

Between approximately 1997-2000, international coffee prices continued to decline. To obtain more income to sustain their livelihoods, many growers no longer settled by directly selling coffee cherries to large processing stations, but instead sold their products through self-production and self-marketing. Because of this, farmers gained control over processing stations and naturally could experiment more. The depulping and drying process was introduced into production under this background.

Honey processing first appeared in the public eye in 2006, when a farmer named Juan Ramón Alvarado won first and second place in the Costa Rica GOLDEN HARVEST green bean competition organized by SCAA with two honey-processed coffees. The following year, they also appeared in the first Costa Rica Cup of Excellence (CoE), where three of the top five coffees were honey processed.

By 2008, Costa Rica experienced a major earthquake that caused severe power outages and water shortages in many areas. Therefore, to cope with these immediate problems, local farmers began adopting this "water-saving" process. Although many people initially resisted it—thinking that processing with pulp and mucilage together could lead to uncontrolled fermentation—many farms achieved positive results after experimentation, significantly reducing water consumption. Later, various honey processing methods were developed by controlling the degree of mucilage fermentation to create different flavor profiles.

In terms of naming, we often hear honey processes with colors like black honey, red honey, yellow honey, and white honey. This is because mucilage contains a lot of sugar, so when green beans with only mucilage are exposed to air, oxidation occurs, and the beans' appearance gradually changes from yellow-white to golden yellow. As fermentation progresses over time, beans may turn dark red or even black-purple until drying is complete.

Theoretically, black or red honey coffee would be closer to natural process than yellow or white honey, with more pronounced fermentation characteristics. However, to this day, there is still no precise standard in the industry to define different colored honey processes, mostly depending on producers. This leads to naming confusion—for example, a "red honey" produced by one farm might be called "yellow honey" by another.

The drying time for honey processing is between natural and washed processes, ranging from 2 to 4 weeks. Similarly, flavors often trend between natural and washed processes, mostly leaning toward natural characteristics, possessing preserved fruit-like sweetness while often accompanied by solid, bright acidity. Compared to washed processing, honey processing can reduce fresh water usage by about 40% and avoids defect flavors that come from prolonged exposure to direct sunlight.

Coffee processed with honey method generally presents full, delicate fruit sweetness and exquisite, complex floral notes in cupping, with an overall fresh and clean mouthfeel. Thus, water-saving, environmentally friendly, and excellent flavor made honey processing popular in Central and South America, with honey-processed coffee flavors greatly beloved in the specialty market.

Brewing Guide: How FrontStreet Coffee Brews This Geisha

Next, let's move to practical brewing and see how FrontStreet Coffee brews this Geisha! Parameters are as follows:

Coffee dose: 15g
Grind size: EK43 setting 9.5, 80% pass-through rate on #20 sieve, fine sugar texture
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Brewing water temperature: 92°C
Brewing method: Three-stage pour
Brewer: V60

First, as always, is the bloom stage. Pour twice the coffee dose in water for a 30-second bloom. You can see that this Geisha has excellent water absorption with noticeable blooming.

After the bloom ends, we pour water from the center outward in circles until the entire coffee bed is moistened, then continue pouring in larger circles. At this point, we use a high flow rate to raise the coffee bed and create more layers in the coffee, pouring 130ml of water.

When the hot water has mostly permeated, we use a small flow rate to pour the remaining 65ml of hot water in small circles around the center. Once the pour is complete, we just need to wait for the water to finish dripping, and we can end the extraction!

The La Esperanza Geisha brewed this way is exactly as we described earlier, with very full purple grape juice, rich rose floral notes, and lively citrus acidity. The sweetness is high, with a long aftertaste—excellent!

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