Wet Coffee Processing Methods

Coffee processing methods are an extensive topic! You can talk about them endlessly. Everyone tells it in their own way, and due to the vastness of the subject, it’s easy to get lost. Fortunately, there’s Michał—our JAVA university trainer, black brew enthusiast, and walking coffee encyclopedia. Michał has explored coffee processing inside out, although he claims that the more he learns, the more he feels he knows nothing. But that’s just his modesty speaking—don’t be fooled. Coffee processing is a regular feature in the training sessions led by Michał, who always talks about it with an extraordinary sparkle in his eye. If you want to meet Michał in person and see for yourself how well and how accessibly he can explain even the most complex coffee topics—check out our “TRAININGS” section, and you’ll surely find a course that suits you.

Contents:
What types do we distinguish?
Washed
Semi Washed
Other methods
Honey process
Is Pulped Natural the same as Honey?

What Wet Coffee Processing Methods Do We Distinguish?

Let’s get to the point and explore coffee processing methods. With Michał’s help, we recently started breaking down coffee processing into its components to share it with you. In the previous post, we first tackled the standard division into wet and dry methods. Today, we’ll take a closer look at wet processing. Enjoy the read.

What Does Washed Mean—Wet-Processed Coffee?

Wet processing of coffee is divided into full washed, washed, and semi-washed. The first requires the most water, as it involves additional rinsing of the coffee after fermentation in a tank. This was once the most popular way of processing specialty coffee, but for ecological reasons, there’s a growing trend to minimize water use, making this method less common. To put things in perspective—full washed processing consumes about 50 liters of water per 1 kg of coffee! Looking at a 1 kg bag of coffee, it’s hard not to conclude that this is an astonishing amount! Processing coffee using the washed method consumes only about 4 liters per 1 kg of coffee. The difference is therefore significant, to say the least.

Process - washed

Semi Washed—Half-Washed Coffee?

Another wet method is Semi Washed processing. This method is popular primarily in Brazil and Indonesia. In the semi-washed process, after the initial rinsing in the first tank, the coffee is depulped, meaning it’s stripped of its pulp and skin, and then the beans, along with a thin layer of mucilage, undergo fermentation for 12–18 hours. The mucilage left on the beans forms a protective barrier during fermentation. Fermentation using the semi-washed method occurs in water tanks, where the coffee beans are constantly stirred to ensure even fermentation. After 12–18 hours, the coffee is rinsed to remove any remaining mucilage. The beans are then dried until they reach a moisture content of 12–13%.

Alternative Methods to Semi Washed Coffee Processing

Terms like Wet Hulled and Honey Process refer to alternative methods to semi-washed coffee processing, differing in how the beans are treated just before drying. The Wet Hulled process is often used in Indonesia and some parts of Central America. After depulping, the coffee is washed and immediately sent to the dry mill when its moisture content is 40–50% (Wet Hulled / Giling Basah process). At this stage, the beans are still quite delicate, so when removing the remaining skin, their cell walls easily break, leading to rapid moisture loss and shorter drying times compared to washed coffee. This is how the wet hulled process allows for lower acidity in the coffee.

Honey Process?

The Honey process is a method used in countries like Ethiopia and Costa Rica. In this process, coffee beans are dried with the pulp surrounding the bean. Thanks to this method, the coffee has a noticeably sweeter taste, as the sugars in the remaining pulp are partially absorbed by the beans during drying.

Black honey

Is Pulped Natural the Same as Honey?

Pulped Natural and Honey processes are very similar. The main difference is that in the Pulped Natural method, only the outermost layer of the coffee fruit, its skin, is removed, whereas in the Honey process, the bean is cleaned of both the skin and a specific amount of the fruit pulp—making the Honey process much more precisely regulated.