Learn more about honey coffee and the honey-processing coffee method. What are the steps to create “honey coffee”? How does it differ from wet-processed coffee? What are the taste differences?
HoneyIn coffee, honey-like sweetness is often found, but we use terms such as refined honey (highly filtered and processed) as opposed to raw honey rustic honey sweetness. This... coffee is a hybrid method of processingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural... coffee fruit, that creates a cup somewhere between a traditional wet-process coffee and the fruitier natural coffee process.
Let’s start with the most basic clarification: No honeybees are harmed when you create honey coffee! 😉 Honey process
The honey process has nothing to do with honey other than the fact that they're both sticky! It's a term that became popularized in Costa Rica as another... has nothing to do with actual honey other than the fact that they’re both sticky.
In fact, the sticky aspect of the coffee after it is pulped is precisely where the name originated. If you worked at a coffee millA coffee mill might mean a coffee grinder, but we usually use the term to refer to a coffee processing facility, either a Wet-Mill or a Dry Mill.... and were used to handling wet processWet-processing starts by removing the outer skin of the coffee cherry with a machine called a pulper, then fermenting the remaining fruit (with green bean inside) in water... coffee, it would seem to you like someone had drizzled sticky honey all over your nice clean wet-parchment coffee! Your hands would be a mess after handling this “honey coffee”.
What is Honey Coffee? A video in 2 parts!
What is Honey Coffee? Part 1 : Focuses on the process method at the farm or mill. 1
Where did “Honey Coffee” originate?
It’s a term that became popularized in Costa RicaCosta Rican coffee is typically very clean, sweet, with lots of floral accents. hey are prized for their high notes: bright citrus or berry-like flavors in the acidity,... (called Miel coffee) as another way to describe the “pulp-natural process,” which is then name used in BrazilBrazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra sang, "they grow an awful lot of coffee in Brazil".: Brazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra... for some time prior to anyone saying “honey coffee”.
In fact, the first I heard of “Miel” coffee was from a farm lot we bought back in the year 2000, from Finca
Spanish 101: Finca is the Spanish word for farm. Sometimes the term Hacienda is used to imply an Estate, which would mean the farm has its own wet-mill.... Santa Elena in Costa Rica! (If I recall correctly, it was in conversation with Erna KnutsenErna is known as the first dedicated "Specialty Coffee" importers/brokers in the US ... in fact she coined the term Specialty Coffee! Here bio reads, "After several years..., who described the process to me. From her I heard that “Miel” AKA Honey, was a term the farm’s owner had come up with. So it may be that Santa Elena farm originated the term “honey coffee”).
In any case, Miel or Honey coffee is really just a bit of marketing overlay on a more commercial process that didn’t sound so attractive. Pulp NaturalPulp natural is a hybrid method of processing coffee to transform it from the tree fruit to a green bean, ready for export. Specifically, it involves the removal... vs Honey Coffee … pretty obvious which will sell more.
Less is more, I suppose, when it comes to selling the honey coffee process. It sounds like an added step, something that makes coffee better and more valuable? Wrong … it is actually the removal of a step in the wet-process method; fermentation
Fermentation in coffee processing traditionally referred to the stage in wet-processing of the coffee. We now understand that fermentation happens more broadly in nearly all processes, including honey... in water.
So it makes sense that pulp natural in Brazil originates with a labor and cost-saving reduction in the steps used to create washed coffee, and has roots in large-scale processing of base-level 80-81 point specialty coffee
Specialty coffee was a term devised to mean higher levels of green coffee quality than average "industrial coffee" or "commercial coffee". At this point, the term is of... vs. in the high-end coffee market.
What is the process method that defines “Honey Coffee”
The honey process involves mechanically removing the outer cherry
Either a flavor in the coffee, or referring to the fruit of the coffee tree, which somewhat resembles a red cherry.: Either a flavor in the coffee, or... skin from coffee beans within, while leaving the sticky fruit mucilage
Mucilage indicates the fruity layer of the coffee cherry, between the outer skin and the parchment layer that surrounds the seed. It readily clings to the inner parchment... intact. A pulper is the name of the machine that peels off the coffee fruit skin using friction / abrasion. Water is mostly a lubricant in pulpingThe first step in processing wet-process coffee, pulp natural or forced demucilage coffees. Pulping simply refers to removing the skins from the coffee fruit, leaving the parchment coffee..., but it can be done without water.
In wet processing you remove the mucilage by fermenting the coffee, and then washing it away. But with honey processing, fermentation is bypassed altogether and the fruit-covered coffee beans are sent straight to dry.
Honey coffee processing has some different variations, which depend mostly on how much of the fruityIn some coffee taster’s lexicon, “fruity” means the coffee is tainted with fruit, and “fruited” means a coffee is graced by positive fruit notes. We don't exactly see... pulp is left on the parchmentGreen coffee still in its outer shell, before dry-milling, is called Parchment coffee (pergamino). In the wet process, coffee is peeled, fermented, washed and then ready for drying... layer when it is layed out to dry. A minimal amount of fruity mucilage left on the coffee can appear as a light golden color (“yellow honey”) or even a white-looking parchment (“White honey”) much as wet-process parchment looks. If you leave more fruit on parchment, you get at an amber color (“red honey”), and if you remove the coffee cherryOriginally coffee literature referred to the fruit of the tree as a "berry" but in time it became a cherry. It is of course neither. Nor is the... skin and leave most of the pulpyCan refer to fruited flavor or sometimes mouthfeel. In terms of flavor, which is how we normally use it, pulpy fruit, it tends toward the rustic side of... fruit, you will see an even darker hue that is almost black (“black honey”).
What are the roast dynamics and flavors of Honey-Process Coffee?
Roasting honey coffee is not dramatically different from roasting wet-processed coffee. When I approach honey, I want to think about what the best attributes are in the coffee, and try to highlight those in my roasting approach. The more moderate acidity
Acidity is a positive flavor attribute in coffee, also referred to as brightness or liveliness. It adds a brilliance to the cup, whereas low acid coffees can seem... of a honey (vs washed) coffee can make it a nice option for espressoA small coffee beverage, about 20 ml, prepared on an espresso machine where pressurized hot water extracted through compressed coffee.: In its most stripped-down, basic form, this is..., so I will factor that into my roast curve as well, and when I chose my end point of the roast.
The impact honey processing has on flavor varies, depending on the originIn coffee talk, it refers to a coffee-producing region or country; such as, "I was just at origin." Of course "Origin" for most product we use is not... and particular style of honey coffee (yellow honey, red honey, etc). But a generally it should boost thickness of bodyAssociated with and sensed by mouthfeel, body is sense of weight and thickness of the brew, caused by the percentage of soluble solids in the cup, including all..., tone down acidity, and even bring out fruitier flavors. (We’ll discuss the cup differences in the Q and A section below… as well as in the videos.)
Where are we at with Honey Coffee in 2024?
It’s hard to sum up honey coffee in a singular way. There are so many variations on how it is produced (coffee varietyA botanical variety is a rank in the taxonomic hierarchy below the rank of species and subspecies and above the rank of form (form / variety / subspecies..., pulping method, climate / drying environment), and these give a wide range of ways to approach a honey coffee in roasting and brewing. There isn’t a precise metric to locate a particular honey on the spectrum between a washed coffee and a natural coffee, and trying to do so, I realize in an imperfect binary approach. But it gives a basic starting point to understand how a honey-processed coffee can differ, and what might distinguish it.
The biggest variables in honey coffee, how much pulp is left on the parchment, and the specific thermal dynamics of drying (humidity of drying environment, peak and low temperatures, total drying time duration) are variables I feel few producers have truly mastered, or in some cases even managed! There are great honey coffees being made, but there is still a rather haphazard element of luck.
There’s a recent consumer-driven impulse toward novel processing methods, fermentation additives, holding unpulped coffee fruit in bags, etc. Producers are trying to meet the demand since there is an implicit reward with being on trend. But I don’t think the real variables influencing the results of older processes (washed, natural, and honey too) have really been accounted for. It feels like producers are being pressured to hastily try new methods driven by the labels on retail bags, vs. really controlling and reproducing a good product. So much can be done with honey coffee processing, but exploring the range of possibilities within this method doesn’t seem interesting to roasters and their customers looking for “new” methods, even if they taste bad.
Honey coffee can be a great method, environmentally and financially, for coffee producers. So hopefully better guidance and techniques lead to improved consistency in high quality results in the future!
FAQ on Honey Coffee and Honey-Processing
Here are some common questions about honey coffee, other than what I have already addressed. If you have any further questions, please ask them in the Comment Section below and we will reply!
Does the green coffee that is honey process look different than wet processed coffee?
It can be hard to tell the difference in the green coffee
Green coffee refers to the processed seed of the coffee tree fruit. Coffee is a flowering shrub that produces fruit. The seeds of the fruit are processed, roasted,... between Honey and Wet-Process. In some cases Honey vs. Dry-Process can be more obvious.
But honey coffee types represent a wide range, and some like “Red Honey coffee” or “Black Honey” can look like a natural. This would have more silverskinOn dried green bean coffee, the thin inner-parchment layer that clings to the bean and lines the crease on the flat side. Silverskin becomes chaff and falls off... attached to the green bean, and a yellow tint to that silverskin.
Does Honey Coffee roasting differently than other coffees?
The difference in roasting Honey vs Wet Process (washed) coffee is slight. If densityThe density of a coffee bean is often taken as a sign of quality, as a more dense bean will roast more with a better dynamic. The density... and moisture content are the same as a comparable washed coffee, they will behave similar in the roaster. The main difference might be the way you want to approach them, accentuating bright acidity perhaps with a wet-process coffee vs body and more developed roast level for honey, playing to it’s best features.
Does the roasted honey coffee look different than wet-process or natural (dry process) coffee?
It depends on which type of honey coffee we are referring to … yellow honey, where less fruit is left on the parchment to dry, can look more like a wet-process coffee when roasted.
Red honey, with more fruit left on the parchment, can sometimes appear similar to a natural (dry-process) coffee. This picture shows a Red honey, and the staining of the silverskin strip in the middle is more obvious versus the wet-process coffee beside it.
What are the taste differences that can be expected from Honey Coffee versus wet process coffee?
Depending on the type of honey, and all other things being equal, I would expect slight lower aromatics from the honey, more moderate acidity in the cup, more body or a thicker more viscous mouthfeelHow a coffee feels in the mouth or its apparent texture, a tactile sensation : A major component in the flavor profile of a coffee, it is a..., and perhaps a longer duration in aftertasteAftertaste refers to lingering residual sensations in the mouth after coffee has swallowed. It might be distinguished from "finish" which is the final sensations of the coffee while.... When I cup coffees from the same farm, grown side by side, but processing differently, these can be the aspects that distinguish a honey coffee vs a washed coffee. I expect a more rusticA general characterization of pleasantly "natural" flavors, less sophisticated and less refined, but appealing. : What is Rustic? This is a general term we came up with... Dried... sweetnessSweetness is an important positive quality in fine coffees, and is one of five basic tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Savory (Umami). In coffee, sweetness is a highly... in a honey coffee too. Think cane sugar
A refined sugar, that has a no rustic sweetness. This was called "refined sugar" but has been rebranded as "cane sugar" thanks perhaps to C and H brand.... for washed coffee, and raw brown sugar
Brown sugar is a type of sweetness found in coffee ...a sweetness characterized by a hint of molasses, yet quite refined as well. Since Brown sugar of the... for honey coffee … as a rough analogue.
How does honey coffee taste different from dry-process (natural) coffee?
If we are talking about a yellow honey coffee, there will be more distinction from a dry processDry process coffee is a method for taking the fruit from the tree to an exportable green bean. The whole intact coffee cherry is dried in the sun... coffee for sure. Yellow honeys tend to profile more similar to washed coffee. But a red or black honey, with a high percentage of fruity mucilage left on the parchment coffee to dry, can cup closer to a full-on natural coffee. A red honey can have similar body to a natural, a heavier mouthfeel. It might have some of the natural fruitedIn some coffee taster’s lexicon, “fruity” means the coffee is tainted with fruit, and “fruited” means a coffee is graced by positive fruit notes. We don't exactly see... aspect, or a fruit-chocolate bittersweetBittersweet is from the language of chocolate, and describes the co-presence of positive bittering compounds balanced by sweetness. It is directly related to caramelization, but has inputs from... dynamic like a natural coffee.
Why is Honey Coffee a good option for some coffee farms and coffee mills?
There are other factors that make honey-processing a good option for a coffee producer or farm. Honey processing uses much less water than traditional wet-fermentation methods. So if a farm or mill doesn’t have access to a lot of water, honey can be a good alternative to washed coffee.
A Penagos
Penagos Hermanos is a Colombian company that produces demucilage coffee processors. This is a forced demucilage machine that uses little water, and removes the coffee fruit layer from... type “eco-pulper” can be used to produce a washed style coffee where the fruit is “demucilaged” from the parchment seed. But by using less water, some produce more controlled honey process coffee with the same machine.
Honey process can also result in a fruited coffee, yet take much less time to dry than traditional dry-process (natural) coffee. So a farm that might struggle to dry the entire coffee fruit in a timely way, such as 25 days or less, might do better with honey coffee, which might dry in 15-18 days.
9 Responses
What a great Idea and advise to us coffee growers.
Thank you!
Great information, one question, are all countries that produce coffee beans using the Honey process?
Hi Mark, glad you enjoyed the post! That’s a really great question. With growing demand the last decade or so, you certainly see it more and more. It especially makes sense for countries where water is an issue.
-Dan
thank you so much for all this information. I want to be like Thompson one day
That’s a really great initiative for many local farmers to tap into Honey coffee markets. Really appreciate your videos and will try my very best to make more than enough awareness to my local coffee farming communities to tap into processing and selling Honey Coffee.
Thanks again.
Great – thanks for the remark
Do we better market for Honey processed coffee?
It can have a big impact on flavor and quality, but not always the case. It does take more work than some other methods, which tends to mean higher cost of production too.