What does washed or natural mean on a bag of coffee?
Washed, natural, honey and anaerobic
Published 5 November 2026. Catalogue figures checked 6 November 2026.
Processing is what happens to the coffee cherry between the tree and the sack, and it changes the cup more than the roast does. It is also the single biggest thing moving price in this catalogue — £21.25 a kilo between the dearest and cheapest methods, which is wider than the gap between a coffee traced to a named farm and one with no stated origin at all.
4,398 of 12,793 coffees here state how they were processed — 34%. The flavour charts below count the roasters’ own words; the descriptions of what each method does are editorial and are not measured from anything.
Washed
The fruit is stripped off before drying. 2,874 coffees in the catalogue, median £40.00/kg, middle 80% from £29.99 to £63.00.
The skin and pulp are removed within hours of picking and the beans are fermented in water to shift the last of the mucilage, then dried. Nothing of the fruit is left to soak into the seed, so what you taste is the bean itself: usually cleaner and more acidic, with the origin and the variety showing through plainly. It is the most common method in the world and the least forgiving, because there is no fruit sweetness to hide behind.
Nothing in how roasters describe washed coffees departs sharply from the catalogue as a whole — which is itself the finding, since washed is the most common process in it.
The filled shape is washed coffees; the dashed outline is the whole catalogue. Where the shape pushes past the outline, roasters reach for that family more often when they write about this process.
Natural
The cherry is dried whole, fruit and all. 1,183 coffees in the catalogue, median £41.50/kg, middle 80% from £30.00 to £65.00.
The whole cherry goes onto beds or patios and dries with the fruit still attached, which takes weeks and has to be turned constantly or it ferments the wrong way. The sugars in the fruit work into the seed, so naturals run sweeter and heavier, often towards strawberry, blueberry and jam. Done badly it tastes of compost; done well it is the loudest coffee on the shelf.
Roasters describe natural coffees as fruity on 77% of them, 29% more often than the catalogue.
The filled shape is natural coffees; the dashed outline is the whole catalogue. Where the shape pushes past the outline, roasters reach for that family more often when they write about this process.
Honey
The skin comes off, the sticky layer stays on. 289 coffees in the catalogue, median £44.85/kg, middle 80% from £32.50 to £75.00.
A halfway house: the skin is removed but some or all of the mucilage — the honey — is left on the bean to dry. More mucilage and less airflow makes a darker, sweeter, heavier cup, which is where black, red and yellow honey come from. It aims at the body of a natural with the clarity of a washed coffee, and it is labour-intensive enough that it usually carries a premium.
Roasters describe honey coffees as chocolate on 32% of them, 38% less often than the catalogue, and nutty on 16% of them, 43% less often than the catalogue.
The filled shape is honey coffees; the dashed outline is the whole catalogue. Where the shape pushes past the outline, roasters reach for that family more often when they write about this process.
Anaerobic
Fermented with the oxygen shut out. 483 coffees in the catalogue, median £54.00/kg, middle 80% from £39.50 to £92.00.
The cherries ferment in a sealed tank, so different microbes do the work than would in open air, and the producer can control temperature, time and pH. The results are intense and divisive: cinnamon, rum, tropical fruit, sometimes something closer to a sour beer. It is the most fashionable thing in coffee and the most expensive, partly because it is genuinely hard and partly because it is in demand.
Roasters describe anaerobic coffees as fruity on 89% of them, 49% more often than the catalogue, and chocolate on 27% of them, 48% less often than the catalogue.
The filled shape is anaerobic coffees; the dashed outline is the whole catalogue. Where the shape pushes past the outline, roasters reach for that family more often when they write about this process.
Every method, by price
Including the ones this page does not explain. A coffee processed two ways — and plenty are — counts under both.
| Process | Coffees | Roasters | £20.00 to £110.00 per kilo | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washed | 2,874 (2,306 priced) | 394 | £40.00 | |
| Natural | 1,183 (831 priced) | 285 | £41.50 | |
| Anaerobic | 483 (328 priced) | 135 | £54.00 | |
| Honey | 289 (222 priced) | 98 | £44.85 | |
| Pulped Natural | 90 (70 priced) | 47 | £34.25 | |
| Wet Hulled | 59 (38 priced) | 32 | £36.38 | |
| Carbonic Maceration | 41 (28 priced) | 21 | £46.25 | |
| Anoxic | 25 | 19 | £55.50 |
The bar is the middle 80% of each row, from the 10th to the 90th percentile; the tick is the median. Rows with fewer than 20 priced coffees show a count but no figures, because a median of a handful of coffees is one roaster’s pricing. A coffee with more than one process is counted under each, so the rows do not sum to the catalogue.
Questions
What does washed mean on a bag of coffee?
Washed means the fruit was stripped off the bean within hours of picking and the bean was fermented in water before drying, so none of the fruit soaked into the seed. Washed coffees tend to taste cleaner and more acidic than naturals, with the origin and variety showing through more plainly. It is the most common method in the world.
What is the difference between washed and natural coffee?
Washed coffee has the fruit removed before drying; natural coffee is dried with the whole cherry still on the bean. The fruit sugars work into the seed during natural processing, so naturals are usually sweeter, heavier and more berry-like, while washed coffees are cleaner and more acidic. Neither is better than the other.
Why is anaerobic coffee so expensive?
Anaerobic coffees have a median of £54.00/kg per kilo across 328 priced coffees, against £39.00/kg for the catalogue as a whole. The fermentation is sealed and controlled, which takes equipment and skill and can ruin a whole lot if it goes wrong, and the style is currently in heavy demand.
Which processing method is the cheapest?
Pulped Natural, at a median of £34.25/kg per kilo across 70 priced coffees. The dearest is anoxic at £55.50/kg — a spread of £21.25 a kilo.
Do all coffee bags say how the coffee was processed?
No. 34% of the 12,793 coffees in this catalogue state a processing method — 4,398 of them. The rest say nothing, and a coffee with no stated process is not a worse coffee; it is a roaster who did not print it.