Viva Brighton September 2015 Issue #31

Natural and honey coffees drying on the patios, El Salvador Cherries being pulped for the washed process, Mexico Being washed after fermentation, Ethiopia
coffee
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Coffee Guy
Small Batch’s Alan Tomlins
Everybody knows the difference in taste between
red, white and rosé wine. Not so many realise that
the way coffee tastes is equally defined by how it is
processed. There are three main ways of processing
coffee cherries after they are harvested, and the
method employed can have just as much impact on
the taste of your drink as the roast, the barista or
the country of origin.
These three methods are ‘washed’, ‘natural’ and
‘honey’, terms which describe what is done to
the seed of the coffee cherry after harvesting, and
before it is ready to export.
The most common method across the globe is the
‘natural’ method, as it is the oldest and simplest
form of processing and requires little equipment
or water. The coffee cherries are harvested then
dried in the sun until they are brittle enough to be
put through a huller that pops the seeds or coffee
beans out. This method means a lot of the cherry’s
flesh, or mucilage, is dried onto the coffee bean
and lends a very distinct taste that can range from
earthy and rubbery to boozy and berry-like.
In lower-grade coffees this can be very unpleasant,
but done well and with good coffee beans, naturals
can be amazing. Either way these tend to be lovethem-or-hate-them
coffees. About 20% of the
beans we import here are naturally processed.
The next-most-common method is ‘washed’ or
‘fully washed’. Most specialty-grade coffee is
processed this way, and it accounts for 70% of our
coffee. A pulping machine pops the beans out of
the cherry, which are put in a fermentation tank,
where the mucilage is broken down through natural
fermentation and separated from the beans.
The coffee is then pushed through water-filled
channels to further clean it, before being dried.
This coffee hasn’t got those funky, earthy notes,
but it’s a cleaner, purer taste.
This method uses a lot of clean, fresh water, so
in places where this can be scarce (such as Brazil
and Central America) a third method has been
developed, called ‘honey’ processing. The beans
are popped out of the cherry, and then dried with
quite a bit of the mucilage still around them.
This gives you the clean, light taste of a washed
coffee, mixed with the fuller body and distinctive
flavours of a natural coffee. When it’s done well it
can produce amazing results, and it is being done
well, especially in Costa Rica where the industry is
highly developed. Most of the remaining 10% of
our coffee is ‘honey’ processed.
So next time you buy a good coffee, have a look on
the label to see how it has been processed, just as
you’d take into account the colour of the wine you
buy. I’m a fan of all three methods, if they’re done
well, each for a different occasion, but my go-to
method is ‘washed’ because it affects the natural
flavour of the coffee the least and allows the coffee
to shine.
As told to Alex Leith
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