The Secrets of Coffee Honey Processing You Want to Know: Is Honey Added to the Coffee Bean Honey Processing?

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Honey Process

The term "honey process" leads many people to assume that honey is used to treat the coffee, or that coffee processed this way tastes as sweet as honey. Neither is right. The name comes from the mucilage layer on the beans before sun-drying: it is so sticky that it feels like honey. When the pulp is separated from the beans, the mucilage left around them is dried in the sun and absorbs moisture from the air, and that is what turns it sticky.

The honey process is anything but simple. It demands long processing times and careful handling, and it breaks down into a clear set of steps.

First, farmers select ripe cherries from the trees and screen off the outer pulp while keeping the mucilage layer around the beans intact, as described above. That mucilage layer holds a high proportion of sugars and acids, and those sweet compounds and acids are the whole point of the method.

The next step is the most complex and the most critical: sun-drying. Timing has to be controlled closely and the duration matters just as much. Dry too briefly and the compounds in the mucilage never transfer into the bean. Dry too long and the bean begins to ferment internally and turns moldy.

So how is that balance struck? The beans are spread on drying racks or concrete patios. For the first few days they must be turned several times an hour until the target moisture content is reached, a stage that typically takes 6-10 hours. Over the following 6-8 days they need turning at least once a day. It is time-consuming, and deliberately so: honey-processed coffee takes this long because the beans reabsorb moisture from the air every night, which means more drying time the next day.

Honey process even has color classifications. Farmers sort lots by how much mucilage is left on the bean. Keeping less mucilage means faster drying, while keeping more means a longer dry. Yellow honey, which keeps roughly 25% of the mucilage layer, is dried in the least shaded conditions so the process finishes faster, giving the beans their yellow look. Red honey, which keeps roughly 50%, takes longer and needs some shade while drying. Black honey, which keeps roughly 100% of the mucilage, is usually covered during drying to stretch the time out further.

What all of this makes clear is that honey process never involves adding honey. It works entirely with the bean's own mucilage.

Knowledge Extension

Sumatra's wet-hulling process, besides suiting the region's rainy seasons, also produces distinctive earthy and herbal flavors, a rich, full body, and relatively low acidity.

In Brief

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research house, happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share freely for one reason: to help more friends fall in love with coffee. We also hold three low-priced coffee events every month, because FrontStreet wants more friends to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest prices. That has been FrontStreet's mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To taste what the honey process really does to a cup, start with a full black honey. FrontStreet's Costa Rica Blackberry uses this method, which removes almost none of the mucilage, so drying stretches out for at least two weeks under cover to keep the sun from pushing it too fast, with the beans turned at irregular intervals so the sugars convert fully and heat does not cause over-fermentation. It takes considerably more effort, and the result, roasted medium-light, gives off a rich floral fragrance when ground and drinks with grape, berry, and ripe blackberry.

Honey processing also sits at the heart of two of FrontStreet's more unusual coffees. The Strawberry Candy is a blend of Panama Geisha, which supplies the classic orange-blossom honey, and a Costa Rican coffee processed as raisin honey with 100% of the mucilage retained and no water used at all: cherries are floated to sink the ripe, full fruit and discard the underdeveloped and overripe ones, dried on raised beds for at least three days, then depulped with the mucilage left in place and dried further with constant turning. The blend keeps Geisha's floral-tea character while adding raisin and dried blueberry, soft fruit acidity, an almond finish, and clear sweetness. The Costa Rica Mozart uses the same raisin-honey idea, pre-drying the cherries on raised beds for at least three days before depulping and continuing the honey steps; retaining 100% mucilage makes it harder to control than black honey, but it gives the cup a richer, riper fruit sweetness. Drink the Mozart as pour-over, cold brew, or moka pot and you get osmanthus, pineapple, and raisin.