When browsing specialty coffee, you may come across terms such as natural process and washed process.
These terms describe how the coffee fruit is handled after harvesting and before the beans are dried, prepared, and eventually roasted.
Processing can have a noticeable influence on flavour, aroma, body, and clarity in the cup. Understanding the difference between natural and washed coffee can help explain why coffees from different origins can taste so different.
What Is Coffee Processing?
Coffee beans are actually the seeds found inside coffee cherries.
Once the cherries are harvested, the seeds need to be separated from the surrounding fruit and dried before they can be prepared for export and roasting.
There are several ways this can be done. Two of the most widely used methods in specialty coffee are the washed process and the natural process.
What Is Washed Coffee?
With the washed process, the outer skin and most of the fruit surrounding the coffee seed are removed before the coffee is dried.
After harvesting, the cherries are typically depulped before undergoing a controlled fermentation stage that helps remove the remaining mucilage surrounding the seeds. The coffee is then washed and dried.
Because much of the fruit is removed before drying, washed processing tends to place greater emphasis on the characteristics of the coffee itself, including its variety, growing conditions, altitude, and origin.
What Does Washed Coffee Taste Like?
Washed coffees are often associated with clarity, clean flavour definition, and more pronounced acidity.
Individual flavour characteristics can be easier to distinguish because the coffee spends less time drying in contact with the surrounding fruit.
This does not mean every washed coffee tastes the same. Origin, variety, climate, altitude, fermentation, drying, and roasting all continue to influence the final cup.
What Is Natural Process Coffee?
Natural processing, sometimes called the dry process, takes a different approach.
Instead of removing the fruit shortly after harvesting, the whole coffee cherry is dried with the seed still inside.
During drying, the coffee remains in contact with the fruit for an extended period. Once the cherries have reached the required moisture level, the dried fruit is removed and the coffee seeds are prepared for export and roasting.
Natural processing requires careful control during drying to reduce the risk of uneven fermentation or unwanted flavours.
What Does Natural Coffee Taste Like?
Natural processed coffees are often associated with greater fruit character, sweetness, and body.
Depending on the coffee, this can produce flavours reminiscent of berries, tropical fruit, dried fruit, or other ripe fruit characteristics.
Some natural coffees can also display more pronounced fermented or wine-like characteristics, although this varies considerably depending on the coffee and how it has been processed.
Natural vs Washed Coffee
The main difference between natural and washed processing is how long the coffee seed remains in contact with the surrounding fruit after harvesting.
Washed coffees have most of the fruit removed before drying and are often valued for clarity and flavour definition.
Natural coffees are dried inside the whole cherry and often display greater fruit character, sweetness, and body.
Neither process is inherently better. Each method can produce exceptional specialty coffee when high-quality coffee cherries are carefully processed and dried.
Are There Other Coffee Processing Methods?
Natural and washed processing are two of the most common methods, but they are not the only ways coffee can be processed.
Honey processing removes the outer skin of the coffee cherry while leaving some of the sticky fruit mucilage surrounding the seed during drying. Depending on how the coffee is processed and dried, honey processed coffees can combine some of the sweetness and body associated with natural coffees with some of the clarity associated with washed coffees.
Pulped natural processing follows a similar principle and is particularly associated with Brazil. The outer skin is removed and the coffee is dried with some of the mucilage still attached.
Another method is wet-hulled processing, commonly associated with Indonesia. With this method, the protective parchment layer surrounding the coffee is removed while the beans still contain relatively high levels of moisture before drying is completed.
Producers are also increasingly experimenting with controlled fermentation techniques, including anaerobic fermentation and carbonic maceration. These techniques control the environment in which fermentation occurs and can be used alongside broader processing methods such as natural or washed processing.
Each approach can influence the final flavour of the coffee, but processing is only one of many factors that determine how a coffee will ultimately taste.
Does Processing Determine How Coffee Will Taste?
Processing method can influence flavour, but it does not determine the entire flavour profile of a coffee.
Country of origin, growing region, altitude, coffee variety, climate, soil conditions, fermentation, drying, and roasting all contribute to the final result.
This is why two natural processed coffees can taste very different from one another, just as two washed coffees can produce noticeably different flavour profiles.
Natural and Washed Coffees at Bean Buster Coffee
Bean Buster Coffee offers coffees produced using both natural and washed processing methods.
Our Ethiopian Reserve is a natural processed coffee, while our Brazilian Reserve is pulped natural. Several of our other single origin coffees use the washed process. This provides an opportunity to experience how different origins and processing methods can influence flavour in the cup.
We also periodically source small seasonal lots when exceptional coffees become available. Our Colombian Campo Hermoso “Wush Wush” is a natural processed Colombian coffee sourced as a limited seasonal lot. Once the available lot is gone, it will not be available again from the same harvest.
Comparing natural coffees from Ethiopia and Colombia also demonstrates an important point: processing method is only one factor that influences flavour. Origin, variety, growing conditions, fermentation, drying, and roasting all contribute to how a coffee ultimately tastes.
Rather than viewing one processing method as better than another, exploring different coffees and processing methods can help you identify the flavour characteristics you prefer.
Explore the Bean Buster Coffee range to discover specialty coffees available for delivery across Australia.