
Washed Coffee
The washed process has historically been regarded as the cleanest way of producing coffee. After floating and color sorting, the skin of the ripe cherries is removed mechanically. The resulting seed still has a lot of mucilage attached to it. Traditionally, this is removed by enzymatic fermentation either dry or wet. Kaku is still processing in this way, because there is plenty of water available there. However, our partners at Dongka are changing over to mechanical mucilage removal to save water. After this the coffee is sundried to a moisture content of around 11% and packed for dry milling.
Washed coffee is generally clean, has bright acidity and distinct flavor notes. Yunnan washed coffee generally has citrus, caramel and nutty flavor notes.

Natural Coffee
When using the natural process, the skin remains on the cherry all the way through drying. After floating and color sorting, the cherries are sundried to the touch and then fermented in closed plastic bags (low oxygen fermentation). After this first fermentation, the coffee is dried half-way and then fermented a second time in the same way. Fermentation times and protocols are dependent on the farm and the weather. Finally, the coffee is dried to 11% moisture and packed up for dry milling. Natural processed coffee is generally more fruity than washed coffee. Depending on the fermentation methods used the flavor notes vary between: tropical fruit on the low ferment side of the spectrum all the way to cacao, dark chocolate and even alcoholic notes on the high ferment side of the spectrum.

Honey Coffee
The honey process is somewhat halfway between washed and natural. Although the skin is removed like the washed process, the rest of the mucilage is left and fermentation is performed just like the natural process.
Honey processed coffee is generally very delicate and is quite tricky to do well. Fermentation is usually done lightly to enhance the flavor without it being too overwhelming. Yunnan honeys tend to be nutty and fruity complex in terms of flavor notes.