What is the Honey Process?

You may have already seen the terms – Black, Yellow, Red, White – Honey in one of our shops, but unless you ask your barista what they mean, it's hard to know what they refer to. In reality, the Honey Process is a method chosen by producers to treat their coffee cherries.

But before going any further, let's break down the anatomy of the coffee cherry to give you a better understanding:

Image: Seattle Coffee Works Blog

Skin/Pulp : Both coffee beans are covered with a cherry skin. Except for coffee dried in the fruit or Natural Process coffee, this outer layer is removed a few hours after harvesting.
Mucilage : Beneath the skin lies mucilage, a sticky, honey-like substance surrounding each of the two grains. Because it is so sticky and sweet, it is very often called honey.
Parchment : After the mucilage, a layer of cellulose protects each coffee bean. Once dried, this layer resembles parchment paper, hence its name.
Silver hue : Further inside, an even thinner layer covers the bean. This layer is called silver hue because of its somewhat silvery sheen and detaches during roasting. If you notice flakes in your ground coffee, these are usually pieces of silver hue that didn't separate from the beans during the roasting process.
Coffee beans : Normally, coffee beans come in pairs inside a fruit, lying flat against each other like peanut halves, but a strange phenomenon occurs in about 5% of the world's coffees; the coffee bean is born a single offspring. This is called a Peaberry (also called a caracol, or "snail" in Spanish), which is a natural mutation of the coffee bean inside its cherry.

On the process

The freshly picked cherries are sorted in flotation tanks (or by hand). Foreign objects, debris, and leaves are removed and discarded.

The ripe, healthy fruits are then pulped using a machine that carefully removes as little mucilage as possible. Once pulped, the coffee cherries are left in the sun to dry: they are often spread out on a raised African bed, a patio, or a concrete slab.

The remaining mucilage around the grain caramelizes, taking on an amber/golden appearance, and then the grain absorbs the sugar from the mucilage. It's worth noting that the Honey Process doesn't involve a fermentation stage: the dried grains are actually stored for a month to complete the drying process.

This process is halfway between the two natural and washed processes.

• The natural process ( Natural or Dry Process) begins with sorting by density (flotation tank) and then consists of drying the selected cherries in the sun, before storing, winnowing and packing them;
• Washed coffee is sorted, pulped, and fermented before being washed. After pulping, the fermentation stage removes any remaining mucilage clinging to the bean. The coffee beans are then washed to completely remove all mucilage and finally sun-dried.
  
  

Specifics and complexities of the Honey Process

There are several possible variations of Honey: Red, Black, White, Yellow, Gold , etc. But what are their differences?

The explanation is quite simple: the difference between the types of Honey Process lies in the amount of mucilage that is retained. Each producer has their own recipe; some remove a lot of mucilage, and others, just a little.

In general, for White Honey and Yellow Honey type coffees, a lot of mucilage is removed while Gold Honey, Red Honey and Black Honey retain more mucilage.

It should also be noted that the final result of the process varies depending on the soil's moisture content, the temperature, and the oxidation process. Particular attention is paid during sun-drying to prevent any fermentation of the grains. To achieve this, growers must turn them regularly, which also reduces the risk of mold.

• Black Honey : high humidity, a longer and slower drying process, a more or less shaded installation;
• Red Honey and Gold Honey : dried under a warm and low humidity climate (faster drying).

A unique feature of the Honey Process is that, depending on the processing "recipes" (drying time, mucilage volume, climate, etc.), the coffees are guaranteed to have different and completely unique final tastes!

In Costa Rica, some major producers pay particular attention to their Honey coffees, focusing on quality and sustainability. That's why you can find several of them in our coffee selection.

Discover Black Honey - new harvest , the latest addition to our selection!