EVERY WAY
COFFEE IS PROCESSED.
Processing — how the fruit is removed from the seed — shapes flavor as much as origin or variety. Each method below is documented in our database, with the tastes it tends to produce described only as tendencies, never guarantees.
Culture-Washed (Dry Washed)
An experimental coffee process using a prepared fermentation culture; Onyx Coffee Lab describes the Uganda Kamogo Station lot as culture-washed and tags it Dry Washed.
Wet-Hulled
Giling basah, the Indonesian method: cherry is pulped and briefly fermented, then hulled out of its parchment at 30-40% moisture and finished drying as naked green bean. Born of Sumatra's humidity, it produces the origin's signature heavy body and earthy spice.
Pulped Natural
A hybrid of washed and natural: the cherry skin is removed mechanically, but the mucilage is left on the bean for drying rather than fermenting it off. Pioneered in Brazil (where it saved water and sped drying), it splits the difference between methods.
Monsooned
India's storied method: natural-processed beans are spread in open warehouses through the monsoon months, where months of moist wind swell the beans, fade their color to pale gold and mellow their acidity. Born from the sea voyages of the coffee trade, kept deliberately as a style.
Anaerobic Honey
Honey processing combined with anaerobic fermentation, amplifying sweetness and complexity.
Anaerobic
Coffee fermented with very little oxygen, which can create intense fruit, wine-like and sometimes funky flavors.
Honey
The skin is removed but some fruit mucilage is left on the bean during drying, balancing clarity and sweetness.
Natural
The cherry dries intact around the bean, producing intense, fruity, sometimes wine-like flavors.
Washed
The fruit is fully removed from the bean before drying, producing clean, bright, transparent flavor.