What does washed process mean on a coffee bag?

Washed process means the fruit around the coffee seed is removed with water before the seed is dried. Washing is why washed coffees are usually described as cleaner and more defined in the cup than natural ones, where the seed dries inside the fruit. On our bags, five say "fully washed": No. 1 Common Sense, No. 4 Conjuncture, No. 7 Praxis, No. 9 Optimism and No. 10 Folklore.

What happens to the coffee in a washed process?

Coffee beans are the seeds of a fruit. After picking, the skin and pulp are taken off, and a washed process then uses water to clean off the sticky layer that remains. The seeds are then dried, either in the sun, on raised beds or with other methods. Because the fruit is gone before drying, the fruit does not flavor the seed during drying the way it does in a natural coffee. The bag will say how the coffee was dried too, and that matters as much as the washing.

How does washed taste compared with natural?

Washed coffees are commonly described as cleaner, with clearer acidity and less of the jammy, fruity sweetness of a natural. We would not promise that a washed coffee tastes a certain way, because origin, altitude, varietal and roast all play a part. You can see it in our own range. Four fully washed bags list notes that run from cocoa and red apple to orange, lemon and jasmine, which is a wide spread, while our natural, No. 2 Good Sense, lists milk chocolate, fruit and caramel. Our what body means in coffee post helps with the vocabulary.

Which of our coffees are washed?

Here are the five that say fully washed, from the label. The last column is the notes the roaster lists.

Not every process on our bags is washed. No. 2 Good Sense is natural, No. 3 Position is wet-hulled, No. 6 Hegemony is pulped natural and No. 8 Consent is eco-pulped. Those are different methods, and the label names each one.

What do the words next to washed mean?

Two parts of the label describe drying, not washing. Sun dried and solar dried mean the seeds are dried with the sun, and raised beds means they are spread on beds off the ground. If a bag does not tell you how the coffee was dried, ask the seller, since drying shapes the cup as much as washing does.

Does washed mean the coffee is lighter or darker roasted?

No. Washing is a step that happens at the farm or mill, long before the roaster gets the seeds, and it has nothing to do with roast level. Our washed coffees show it: Common Sense, Praxis and Folklore are labeled medium, Optimism is medium-light, and the roaster does not declare a roast for Conjuncture, so we do not state one. When you compare two bags, look at the process and the roast as two separate lines on the label.

Which washed coffee should you try first?

If you want a washed coffee that is easy to like, start with Common Sense, the cup the roaster says you make every morning without thinking about it. If you want one that is loud and bright, Conjuncture is the one, and the roaster says Kenya is acidic on purpose. They are about as far apart as two washed coffees get.

Both ship free in the US as 12 oz bags, whole bean or ground. Read what No. 4 Conjuncture tastes like and the Conjuncture brewing guide before you brew it. For a fuller look at one washed origin and a supermarket bag, see our Guatemalan coffee vs a supermarket Guatemalan bag. You can also browse all ten coffees.