Honey process
What does this process involve?
Honey coffee is the bridge between washed and natural coffee. The cherry is pulped and then dried while still retaining the mucilage layer on the parchment.
The term “honey” leads many people to believe that honey is used in the coffee process or that the coffee has honey-like flavor notes, but neither is true. The process gets its name from the sticky feel of the bean before it dries, similar to honey. After the bean is separated from the cherry, it remains covered with a layer of mucilage, which, as it dries, continues to absorb moisture from the air and becomes sticky.
Producing honey coffee is hard and delicate work.
The first and most important step is harvesting, as only the ripest cherries should be picked from the trees. The cherries are then washed before being pulped to remove the mucilage layer. This mucilage layer contains a high amount of sucrose (sugar) and acids, which are key to making honey.
The next stage is the most complex and delicate part of the process: the drying phase. Timing must be precise; it's important not to dry the beans too quickly. If you do, the flavors won't transfer from the mucilage to the bean. It's also important not to dry the beans too slowly; the drying time must be fast enough to prevent fermentation, otherwise you'll end up with moldy coffee. Therefore, once the coffee is placed on drying beds, the beans should be moved or stirred several times an hour until they reach the desired moisture content. This usually takes between 6 and 10 hours. After that, the coffee should be moved once a day for at least 6 to 8 days. That's a long process, isn't it? Honey-dried coffee takes this long because the beans absorb moisture from the air each night, requiring more drying time the following day.
Qualities that the honey process brings to coffee
Honey-processed coffees typically have a high level of sweetness and balanced acidity with fruity notes. The flavors are usually less intense than those of a natural coffee, but their clarity and definition are much more noticeable and pronounced.
The key to this distinctive flavor lies in the sugars and acidity of the mucilage. During the drying process, the sugars in the mucilage become more concentrated and then begin to soak into the bean.
Types of Honey Coffee
The types will depend on the drying time; the most common are: yellow honey, red honey, and black honey.
