The Honey Process in Coffee: An Ecological Method that Transforms Flavors

published on October 17, 2024 — by Marc-Alexandre Emond-Boisjoly — 14 mins of reading —

We are delighted to welcome David Batres a coffee producer in Guatemala, as the author of this blog. Working closely with 94 Celcius for two years now, David supplies us with exceptional batches of coffee, including MeLuna, a red honey from his family farm, Finca Batres.

David is much more than just a supplier: he embodies a new vision of specialty coffee, combining innovation, sustainability and ancestral know-how. Here he shares not only his in-depth knowledge of the Honey process, but also his unique perspective as a producer, committed to delivering exceptional quality while respecting the environment and improving the living conditions of the workers on his farm. It's a privilege to be able to share his expertise and passion with you through this blog.

The honey process: Origins and background

Sometimes called proceso Miel, enmielado, semi-washed, pulp natural or mucilage drying, the Honey process was invented in Brazil in the 1990s. At the time, Brazil was producing mainly Naturals-type coffees (a natural process in which the cherries are dried whole). Producers needed to find a way to improve uniformity (separating ripe and unripe fruit) and speed up the process.

So they decided to pulp the coffee to pass the parchment-wrapped beans through a separator, allowing the now-pulped ripe fruit to follow a path, and the harder, unripe cherries to be set apart. This method gave rise to the famous natural pulping process, also known as Pulp Natural.

Why Pulp Natural well has the name says theNatural Process which is the cherry dried intact is being removed from is pulp(skin, outer layer of the Parchment) makes what is now call the Honey Coffeeprocess because after pulping the fruit you were left with a Parchment coveredby mucilage (a high concentration of sugars that remain stick to the parchment coffee).

Optimizing the drying process for growers

At first producer needed to increase uniformity by doing this newly method they discover that they could acceleratethe process as well.One of the biggest producer challenges isand always will be, drying and free space issues in harvest time. Freshlyharvested cherries requires a lot of cubical space and dries at an lower ratethan other processing method, so imagine if you have 100 pounds in cherryusually this can take up to 4 meters square at 3-5 cm high for a total dryingrate of 25-35 days this means this space wont be available for more coffeeharvested until at least a month, depending on climate conditions of course.Now make this per 100 bag pf 100 pound each, for a small small producer in Brasil this can be a normal rate of fresh harvested cherry per day, where to put all this coffee?

Ferme de café du guatemala avec lit de séchage superposé

Challenges encountered with the Honey process

Often this is one of the reasons they process their coffee via mechanical demucilage and the use of other mechanical machines. But really what I am trying to say is that they needed a way to accelerate this because they have high amounts of lands crops, hectares, so the goal was to pulp the fruit in order to be left with just the mucilage to have more space and have dryings area available and dry the coffee faster, once you pulp your coffee in general you remove 30-40% of the initial weight and volume (10-20%) and you remove a big amount of water so you will need less space, time for drying instead of targeting a 20-35 days you could do maybe twice what you were drying initially so maybe at a rate of 10-15 days always depending on your climate conditions of course.

I'll let you do the math, but this innovation has transformed the coffee industry in more ways than one. With more space and time to dry coffee, this should be a satisfying solution, right? Not really! One solution often brings another problem. Certainly, we had more space and time to dry coffee, but that's also why the Miel process isn't yet widespread throughout the world. Back then, drying was generally done on large cement patios, but the mucilage stuck to the patios because of its high sugar content. Why did this happen? The part of the cherry that contains most of the sugars is found in the outer layer of the coffee bean, often referred to as the mucilage. What happens to sugar in a high-humidity environment? It sticks!

(This also leads to fermentation, but we'll get to that later!) They soon realized that this posed a real headache for production and workers, which eventually led them to stop using the Honey process. They eventually created de-mucilage machines to remove most of the remaining mucilage and solve their problem, which eventually became what we know today as Brazilian Pulp Naturals, otherwise known as the Brazilian Honey process.

Let's continue. Later, in the 2000s, mainly in Costa Rica and other Latin American countries, the pulp natural process resurfaced, but this time with the use of raised beds fitted with shade cloths, often referred to as African beds. This change from traditional patio drying allowed the honey process to be reintegrated, as the mucilage, while still sticking to everything it touched, dried more easily thanks to sunlight, air circulation and better management of ambient humidity.

Most called this process "enmielado", but as most consumers speak English, they translated it as "Honey Coffee". Soon, many small producers adopted this processing method, enabling them to diversify their offer for the first time by producing natural and Honey coffees.

Honey colors: What do they mean?

Now that we've covered some of the history, let's dive into the different colors and types of Miel coffees. It's easy to get lost with the names that producers or importers use, such as Honey white, yellow, orange/pink/red, black. I'll try to give a quick explanation of how each color is obtained and why they have these names.

Once the coffee cherry has been harvested, it is usually transported from the farm to the drying area or wet mill for processing. The coffee may be cleaned with water to remove unwanted microbes from the fields, as well as less dense, floating beans (we'll explain in another blog why this flotation stage is so important), and then it's ready to be pulped? Not necessarily. You can leave the coffee to ferment in its cherry if you wish, and pulp it later. If you opt for this method, you're likely to get a red or black Honey, because the longer the mucilage remains in a high-humidity environment, the darker it tends to get (you might think this is because it's fermenting, and the answer is yes). If you leave these cherries on raised beds or in an aerobic environment for a while, then immerse them in water overnight before pulping them the next day, you'll get a Hydro Honey.

Let's take a closer look at how to obtain each color around the parchment.

Yellow Honey: A simple approach to drying

If you simply clean the coffee, pulp it and dry it in direct sunlight, you'll mainly get a yellow color.

Red, Orange or Pink honey: Transformation by fermentation

If you do the same thing, but place the coffee in a pyramid shape for 24 to 48 hours, turning it over every 12 hours, you'll probably get a red, orange or pink color.

Black Honey: The result of prolonged drying in the shade

By doing the same thing, but this time leaving the coffee in a pyramid for over 72 hours in the shade, you'll obtain a Black Honey.

White honey: Partial dissolution of mucilage

But how do you create white honey? In general, simply pulp the coffee and leave it to ferment for 24 to 36 hours, allowing the mucilage to break down naturally. Then, without washing the coffee, but simply removing some of the remaining mucilage using a mechanical de-mucilaging machine or by rapidly immersing the coffee in water, some of the mucilage dissolves or is removed, without eliminating all of it. The result is a white honey color.

That said, colors don't necessarily correspond to specific flavors in coffee. They always depend on farming practices, varieties, fermentation, processing, drying, storage and many other factors. Flavours can also vary from year to year depending on these different elements.

Conclusion: An ecological process that benefits small producers

This process could be attractive to small-scale growers for a good reason: it requires little or no water. Most of the time, if water is used at all, it's to float the freshly harvested cherries, and this doesn't usually create wastewater. Another challenge for growers is water scarcity, especially with the effects of climate change. Every year, water availability decreases in small agricultural production areas. By switching from washed to Honey processes, we can help the environment by conserving more water at source, thus reducing water consumption and making a partial contribution to the fight against climate change.

Honey coffees are often referred to as the "rosé" of coffee, a cross between natural and washed coffees in terms of flavor. However, they can really offer a wide range of profiles, as flavors depend on many factors, such as variety, agronomic practices, fermentation, drying, storage, transport, roasting and, above all, the way the barista prepares the coffee. By understanding this, a producer can adjust the taste profile towards more fruitiness, acidity, or more nutty or chocolatey flavors. It all depends on these factors.

The magic word in coffee is that "it all depends". I want to encourage each and every one of you to try a coffee from a Honey process. By buying this type of coffee, you are contributing to a positive change for the climate, helping communities to preserve their resources. By choosing the Honey process, you're opting for change, and this could be the change that specialty coffee producers have been waiting for!

Référence image:

1. Procédé Miel Jaune
2. Procédé Miel Rouge
3. Procédé Miel Noir
4. Procédé Miel Blanc

Tags: Café de spécialité cerise de café Découverte fermentation procédé Producteur

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