What is the difference between honey and anaerobic process?

To understand the difference, it is helpful to view them as two distinct 'knobs' a producer can turn. The honey process is primarily a post-harvest drying method. After the skin of the coffee cherry is removed, the bean is dried with a specific amount of sticky mucilage—the fruit layer—still attached. By controlling how much mucilage remains (often categorized as white, yellow, red, or black honey) and how frequently the beans are turned on drying beds, producers can modulate the final sweetness and body of the cup. It is a bridge between the clean, transparent profile of washed coffee and the fruit-forward intensity of naturals.

Anaerobic processing, however, is a fermentation technique rather than a drying method. It involves placing coffee cherries or depulped beans into sealed, airtight tanks to ferment in an oxygen-free environment. By depriving the coffee of oxygen, producers encourage specific bacteria and yeasts to metabolize sugars in a controlled, often slower, manner. This creates a distinct chemical environment that can produce intense, complex, and sometimes unusual flavor compounds that are difficult to achieve through traditional aerobic fermentation.

Crucially, these two methods are not mutually exclusive. A producer can use an anaerobic fermentation step before proceeding to a honey-style drying process. This combination is increasingly common in specialty coffee, as it allows for a 'double-layer' of flavor manipulation: the anaerobic stage builds the foundational complexity, while the honey drying stage refines the body and sweetness.

In practice, the honey process is often chosen to highlight the inherent terroir of the farm with a boost of syrupy texture, whereas anaerobic processing is frequently used to push the boundaries of flavor, often resulting in notes that are more experimental or 'funky.' When you see these terms on a bag, remember that honey refers to the fruit left during drying, while anaerobic refers to the oxygen-deprived environment during fermentation.