Washed, Natural, Honey, or Wet-Hulled? How Coffee Processing Shapes What’s in Your Cup

When you pick up a bag of coffee at our shop, you'll sometimes see specific process callouts like Honey Prep or Anaerobic on the label.

It is one of the biggest reasons two coffees grown on the very same mountain can taste completely different in your mug.

Once a coffee cherry is picked from the tree, the farmer has to get the seed out from inside the fruit before it can be dried and shipped to us for roasting. How they remove that seed changes the final flavour profile entirely.

Here is a look at the main processing methods used around the world and what you can expect when you brew them at home.

1. Washed Process (Wet Process)

The Vibe
Clean, bright, elegant, and focused purely on the bean itself.
In the washed process, it’s all about the seed inside the cherry, not the fruit around it.
Right after harvesting, the cherries go through a de-pulper machine that strips away the outer skin and most of the fruit flesh. The seeds then sit in water tanks for 12 to 48 hours to ferment, breaking down the remaining sticky mucilage layer. Once rinsed clean with fresh water, the bare seeds are spread out on patio beds to dry in the sun.
Because all the fruit flesh is washed away before drying, none of the fruit sugars absorb into the seed.

What it tastes like in your mug
Washed coffees give you the purest expression of the soil, elevation, and coffee variety. You get a clean mouthfeel, crisp acidity, and distinct tasting notes like citrus, jasmine, or green apple. Look for coffees on our shelves like our Kenya AA Sondhi or Colombia for this classic style.

2. Natural Process (Dry Process)

The Vibe
Wild, heavy, sweet, and bursting with berry notes.

The natural process is the oldest way to process coffee. Instead of stripping the fruit off immediately, the entire coffee cherry is harvested and laid directly out in the sun to dry as a whole fruit.

For three to four weeks, workers rake the cherries constantly so they dry evenly and don't spoil. As the cherry dries around the seed, the natural sugars in the fruit ferment and absorb straight into the bean. Once the cherry is completely dried like a raisin, the outer husk is hulled off.

What it tastes like in your mug
Natural coffees are fruit bombs. The extended contact with the drying fruit gives the bean a heavy, syrupy body and intense sweetness. You'll often taste wild flavours like blueberry, strawberry, dried raisin, or winey tropical fruit.

3. Honey Process (Miel)

The Vibe
The sweet spot between clean washed clarity and wild natural fruit.

Popular across Central America in places like Costa Rica and El Salvador, this method gets its name from the sticky fruit layer (miel in Spanish) left on the seed, which feels like honey as it dries.

Producers use specialized de-pulping machines with very little water to strip away the outer skin while leaving a precise percentage of the fruit flesh attached to the bean. Depending on how much fruit flesh is left on and how long it dries, you get three distinct styles:

  • Yellow Honey: Around 20–50% of the fruit flesh is left on. It dries quickly in full sun, giving you a bright, clean cup with a soft, warm sweetness.
  • Red Honey: Around 50–80% of the fruit flesh remains. It’s dried under shade or during cloudier weather, leading to a deeper, more caramel-like sweetness and a medium body.
  • Black Honey: Nearly 100% of the flesh is kept on the seed. It undergoes a slow, shaded drying process that requires constant turning to avoid defects. This produces an incredibly rich, complex coffee with a syrupy body and dark fruit notes.

What it tastes like in your mug
Honey process coffees give you a beautiful middle ground. You get the crisp clarity and gentle acidity of a washed coffee, but with the rounded sweetness and silky mouthfeel of a natural. Expect rich notes like honey, brown sugar, stone fruit, and milk chocolate.

4. Wet-Hulled Process (Giling Basah)

The Vibe
Deep, earthy, heavy-bodied, and unmistakably Indonesian.

If you’ve ever had a classic Sumatra from our shelves, you’ve experienced wet-hulling. Known locally in Indonesia as Giling Basah, this is a unique processing style born out of the humid climate, where drying coffee seeds down to the standard 11 per cent moisture level takes far too long.

Instead of waiting for the seed to fully dry inside its protective parchment shell, farmers strip the parchment off while the bean is still soft and wet (around 30 to 35 per cent moisture content). The bare green beans are then exposed directly to the air to finish drying, giving them a distinct, deep swamp-green colour.

What it tastes like in your mug
Wet-hulled coffees split opinions in the specialty world, but there is no denying their unique character. Stripping the parchment early mutes the bright acidity and dials up a heavy, thick body with deep notes of cedar, dark cocoa, pipe tobacco, leather, and rich earthiness.

How to Pick Your Next Bag at The Roasterie

Next time you’re checking out our 52 coffees in Kensington, use the processing style as your shortcut:

  • Want a crisp, clean, highly aromatic morning cup? Go for a classic washed profile like Kenya or Colombia.
  • Want wild berries and heavy natural sweetness? Ask us which natural process micro-lots we have open right now.
  • Seeing Honey Prep on the label? Expect a silky, caramel-toned cup with balanced fruit sugars.
  • Want a thick, heavy, earthy brew with zero sharpness? Grab a bag of our Sumatra.

Not sure which one fits your home setup? Ask us while we pour your drink!

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