Coffee processing methods

The cherry skin and pulp are removed mechanically, the beans are fermented in water to break down the remaining mucilage, then washed and dried. Generally produces a cleaner, brighter cup than natural processing. Its main environmental consideration is water use — traditional washed processing consumes significant water for fermentation and washing, and wastewater treatment before discharge is a genuine concern at scale, which is why many washing stations have moved toward lower-water or water-recycling systems.

Whole cherries are dried in the sun with the fruit still intact around the bean, then hulled afterwards. Generally produces a heavier body and more pronounced fruit character than washed processing.

The cherry skin is removed but some or all of the sticky mucilage ('honey') is left on the bean during drying, sitting between washed and natural in method and typical flavour outcome.

The cherry skin is removed like washed processing, but the mucilage is left on the bean and dried without fermentation in water, distinguishing it from honey processing mainly by drying method and regional convention. Most closely associated with Brazil, where it is sometimes called 'cereja descascada'.

A processing method traditional to Indonesia in which parchment coffee is hulled while still relatively high in moisture, then dried further afterward, differing from most other processing methods which hull only after fully drying. Commonly associated with the heavy body and low acidity typical of many Indonesian coffees.

Cherries or depulped beans are fermented in a sealed, oxygen-limited environment (often a sealed tank), rather than in open tanks or on raised beds. An increasingly common experimental process associated with more intense, sometimes unusual fruit or fermented character. Because fermentation time and conditions are deliberately pushed further than traditional processing, it carries a genuine risk of over-fermentation or off-flavours (sometimes described as boozy, vinegary or rotten) if not carefully controlled — producers using this method typically monitor pH or time closely rather than relying on fixed durations.

A fermentation variant borrowed and adapted from winemaking, in which whole cherries are fermented in a sealed vessel deliberately purged with and held under carbon dioxide, rather than relying only on the CO2 the fermentation itself produces (as in standard anaerobic fermentation). An intensification of anaerobic processing rather than a wholly separate method — the two terms are sometimes used loosely or inconsistently by producers and marketers, and CoffeeHQ's anaerobic-fermentation entry should be read alongside this one rather than treated as entirely distinct in every real-world use of the terms.

A processing variant in which cherries or parchment are deliberately exposed to a rapid temperature change (commonly an ice or cold-water bath, or alternating hot and cold water) partway through an otherwise standard washed, honey or anaerobic process — intended to interrupt or alter fermentation activity at a chosen point rather than letting it run to a fixed time or pH target. Like carbonic maceration, this is a recent, producer-driven experimental technique rather than a long-established regional tradition, and terminology and technique both vary by producer.