Honey Processed Coffee

Honey processing is one of the most exciting and nuanced methods used to prepare coffee after harvest. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with honey the sweetener—the term refers to the sticky, honey-like texture of the coffee beans as they dry with mucilage still clinging to the parchment. The result is a cup that bridges the gap between the clean clarity of a washed coffee and the wild fruitiness of a natural coffee.

To understand honey processing, it helps to first understand the two main processing techniques it sits between—and why producers developed honey as a deliberate middle ground.

Honey processing sits halfway between washed and natural. The skin and some of the mucilage are removed mechanically using a demucilaging machine, but—unlike washed processing—the coffee is not washed clean. Instead, it is laid out to dry with the remaining mucilage still intact on the parchment. Once dried, the coffee is dry milled to remove the dried mucilage and parchment.

The mucilage left on the bean during drying is high in sugar. As it dries, controlled fermentation occurs within this sugary layer, imparting sweetness, body, and complexity to the cup. The degree of fermentation—and therefore the flavor impact—depends on how much mucilage remains and how the drying is managed.

There are lots of ways to achieve similar goals when it comes to honey processing, and there is no standard terminology across the industry. A "red honey" from one farm may not mean the same thing as a "red honey" from another. What matters is that the producer is intentionally controlling the amount of mucilage and the speed of drying to shape the cup profile.

Whether you're drawn to the clean sweetness of a white honey or the rich, fruit-forward complexity of a black honey, this processing method showcases the incredible range of flavors that can be coaxed from a single coffee cherry—without adding anything at all.