What Does “Process” Mean?

Have you ever seen the word “process” on a bag of coffee and not known why that was important? So did we at one time. We know that coffee grown in Colombia, for example, has a different taste than a coffee grown in Ethiopia, but why does a washed processed coffee from Colombia taste so different from a natural process coffee from the same place?

Coffee beans aren’t beans at all; we just call them that because of the way they look after they’re roasted. A coffee bean is the seed of a very special fruit that looks like a cherry. The process tells us which method was used to remove the seeds from the fruit.

Two Main Methods

Let’s keep things simple; there are two main methods of processing: Washed and Natural.

While there are many more processes, they tend to be a variation or combination of these two with maybe an additional stage (or stages) of manipulation to the fermentation.

Washed: This is when the cherries are picked from the shrub and are de-pulped almost immediately (de-pulping is removing the cherry's outer skin, leaving the seeds covered in a sticky, sugary mucilage). Next, they go into a fermentation tank where the seeds can ferment naturally with water, breaking down the mucilage, making the coffee taste sweet. On average, the fermentation takes about a day. Once the fermentation is complete, the coffee gets washed clean. Once the coffee is dry, it still has an outer layer of parchment that must be removed, so it’s sent to the dry mill to be hulled. From there, the coffee is bagged to maintain its freshness and is put into storage until it’s purchased and shipped around the world!

Flavor characteristics of a washed coffee might be a lighter body and more complex nuance due to tasting more of the nutrient density of the seed itself rather than the flavors of the outer cherry. People who enjoy tasting the subtleties of the coffee’s origin really like washed coffees because they have more information, though you must be willing to search longer for it sometimes.

Natural: This is the oldest method and takes the longest. Instead of de-pulping the cherries before drying, the whole cherries are simply put out to dry. It takes longer because the sun can’t dry the seeds inside as quickly as a process where the cherry is stripped off the seed first. It can take 3-4 weeks to dry to the optimal moisture content. Drying the whole cherry is a little riskier for the crop because the producers have to manage the drying rate and uniformity. The longer drying time creates more variables that can affect consistency. Fermentation occurs naturally in the cherries as they sit in the sun. Once the cherries have dried, the coffee gets sent to the dry mill to remove the outer cherry and the parchment before being bagged and stored.

The flavor characteristics of a natural coffee are sweeter and fruitier with a full body. In addition, the flavors are less complex than in a washed process because the flavors of the dried cherry take over the nuances of the seed itself.

Summary

Coffee processing is the method in which coffee seeds are removed from the cherry, fermented, and dried. Though there are many different processes, most are variations or combinations of a washed or natural process.

Every coffee process has its purpose, and one is not better than the other. For a long time, washed was considered superior quality to natural. However, these days the steps involved in producing quality naturals have improved! No longer does washed mean “clean” and natural mean “dirty.” In our eyes, all coffee processes are created equal.

What does "Process" Mean in Coffee?