coffee society journal — processing 101
Processing is everything that happens between picking the coffee cherry and drying the seed inside it. After the variety itself, nothing changes flavor more. The same bean can taste like clean citrus or like strawberry jam depending on how it was handled after picking. There are four families worth knowing — washed, natural, honey, and anaerobic — and we print the process on every bag.
01the four families
washed
Fruit is removed before drying, so you taste the seed itself. Clean and bright. You taste the seed and the place it grew, with nothing in the way.
cleanbrighttransparentnatural (dry process)
The whole cherry dries around the seed like sun-dried fruit. Big berry sweetness, wine-like body, juicy and jammy.
strawberryjammywine-likehoney
The skin comes off but sticky fruit mucilage stays on through drying. Syrupy sweetness between washed clarity and natural fruit.
syrupysweetroundedanaerobic & experimental
Cherries ferment in sealed, oxygen-free tanks — sometimes with wild results: cinnamon, tropical punch, a little funk. This is where farms experiment.
funkytropicalexperimental02why farms choose one over another
Processing choices start on the farm. Washed coffee needs water and infrastructure; naturals need reliable sun and patient turning on drying beds; anaerobic lots need tanks, control, and nerve. When a farm executes a hard process well, the lot scores higher and should earn more — which is why we pay fair prices and name the farms we buy from. The process line on the bag represents real work someone did months before we roasted it.
03how process maps to our seasonal profiles
Our roast calendar runs in two moods: fruity & juicy — usually naturals, honeys, and experimental lots — and chocolatey & nutty, usually washed coffees developed for espresso and americanos. Each quarter's drop is 50–100 lbs per variety, Q graded 85+, and once it's gone, it's gone.
04common questions
Neither. Washed shows you the seed, natural shows you the fruit. We buy both, and most people land on a favorite once they have tasted a few of each.
All coffee ferments a little during processing. In naturals and anaerobics that fermentation is longer and more expressive — controlled, it reads as fruit and complexity; uncontrolled, as vinegar. A high score from independent graders means it was controlled.
A washed coffee as the dependable house pour, and a natural or anaerobic as the rotating conversation-starter. The contrast gives customers something to notice, and your baristas something to talk about.
taste every process
The rotating subscription cycles through washed, natural, honey, and experimental lots as the seasons turn — roasted to order in Berkeley, CA, shipped within 24 hours. Cafes: we'll build your menu across processes.
rotating single-origin all subscriptions partner with uscoffee society · specialty micro roaster · berkeley, ca · est. 2023