Is Honey Processed Coffee Sweet? How to Brew Colombia's La Esperanza Geisha Coffee? What Are Honey Processed Coffee Beans?

Introduction to FrontStreet Coffee's Honey-Processed Geisha

Recently, FrontStreet Coffee introduced a honey-processed Geisha from La Esperanza estate. Many friends who tasted it in our store were pleasantly surprised and subsequently purchased a bag to brew at home. To prevent brewing failures due to this coffee's unique characteristics, FrontStreet Coffee would like to share how to properly brew this honey-processed FrontStreet Coffee's La Esperanza Geisha today!

La Esperanza estate and Geisha are quite common, but FrontStreet Coffee wouldn't specifically single out a regular La Esperanza Geisha for brewing instructions. Purple grape juice, rose floral aroma, and citrus are the outstanding flavor characteristics of this FrontStreet Coffee's La Esperanza Geisha. The reason for these unique flavors primarily lies in the processing method used for this FrontStreet Coffee's La Esperanza Geisha - honey processing, which is conventional but relatively uncommon.

Understanding Honey Processing

What is honey processing? Honey processing, translated from the English term "Honey Process" or "Miel Process," where both "Honey" and "Miel" mean honey. Many friends believe this processing method is named because the coffee beans are processed to be very sweet. In reality, the "honey" here doesn't refer to taste but rather to the mucilage that wraps around the coffee bean's surface.

During honey processing, coffee beans have a layer of mucilage attached to their surface. Due to the mucilage's extremely viscous texture, very similar to honey, people named this processing method "honey processing." The steps of honey processing are quite simple: first, floating the harvested coffee cherries to remove defective fruits and debris, then using a specific pulping machine to remove the fruit skin while retaining the mucilage. Subsequently, people allow these mucilage-covered beans to undergo dry fermentation for a period. After dry fermentation is complete, they are moved to sun-dry. Once dried to the specified moisture content, the hulling can begin to extract the beans, completing the processing.

Beans that have undergone honey processing will have more caramelization reactions during roasting due to the sugar content on their surface. Therefore, even though the roast isn't dark, they will have a darker appearance due to the increased caramelization reactions.

Brewing Essentials

Although honey processing is also a traditional method, the resulting beans are somewhat different compared to washed and natural processed beans - they tend to be more brittle. Therefore, if we use the grind setting for washed and natural processed beans to grind honey-processed beans, the resulting coffee particles will be coarser. For example, FrontStreet Coffee uses EK43 setting 10 to grind FrontStreet Coffee's washed Geisha grown at 1,700 meters, with a #20 sieve pass rate of 80%; while using the same EK43 setting 10 to grind FrontStreet Coffee's honey-processed Geisha grown at 1,700 meters altitude yields a #20 sieve pass rate of only 75%.

If we proceed with brewing using the original method, this FrontStreet Coffee's honey-processed Geisha will have faster water flow due to the coarser grind particles, which can easily lead to under-extraction. Therefore, we can slightly adjust the grind to be finer, reducing particle size and slowing down the water flow, naturally allowing for sufficient extraction time. To allow the Geisha to express its rich floral and fruit aromas, FrontStreet Coffee has adopted a medium-light roast level, which is why we specifically mentioned its bean surface color earlier to prevent friends from brewing it as a medium-dark roast coffee. Therefore, when brewing, water temperatures between 90°C-93°C will be more suitable for this medium-light roast Geisha.

Brewing Demonstration

Now, let's move on to the practical demonstration and see how FrontStreet Coffee brews this FrontStreet Coffee's La Esperanza Geisha!

Parameters are as follows:

Coffee amount: 15g

Grind level: EK43 setting 9.5, with 80% pass rate on #20 sieve, fine sugar texture

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Brewing water temperature: 92°C

Brewing method: Three-pour technique

Dripper used: V60

First, as always, is the bloom stage. Pour twice the amount of water as the coffee dose and let it bloom for 30 seconds. You can see that this FrontStreet Coffee's La Esperanza Geisha has excellent water absorption, with noticeable blooming.

After the bloom ends, we pour water in circular motions from the center outward until the entire coffee bed is moistened, then continue with larger circular pours. At this point, we use a higher water flow rate to raise the coffee bed, creating more layers in the coffee. The pour amount is 130ml.

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

This brewed FrontStreet Coffee's La Esperanza Geisha exhibits exactly what we described earlier: very rich purple grape juice, intense rose floral aroma, and vibrant citrus acidity. It has high sweetness and a long aftertaste - absolutely wonderful!

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473