Natural process coffee is made by drying the whole coffee cherry with its seeds still inside. Once the cherries have dried sufficiently, their outer layers are removed and the coffee is prepared for export. It sounds simple when I describe it in two sentences. On our farm, it takes careful selection, drying space and people who pay attention to the cherries day after day.
I didn’t set out to learn natural processing because it was fashionable. It began with an old patio I didn’t understand—and later, a request from a coffee buyer that I said yes to before I was quite sure how we would do it.
The old patio on our farm
On one of my first visits to our family farm in Apaneca, El Salvador, I noticed what remained of an old mud-brick patio. Some of it was damaged and covered in earth, but I could still make out the bricks on a level terrace.
I walked past it without giving it much thought. A few years later, after learning more about coffee processing, I began to wonder whether it had once been used to dry coffee.
Our farm has been producing coffee for generations. I cannot prove what every part of that patio was used for, or exactly when it was built. Still, standing there made me think about the people who worked this land before us and the decisions they had to make after harvest. How did they move the coffee? Where did they dry it? How did they know it was ready?
The request I wasn’t quite ready for
For a long time, washed processing was the approach I knew best. Then a coffee buyer, Stephen Leighton, asked whether we could make a natural coffee.
I said yes.
Then I had to learn how to make one well.
When I asked around, some people told me not to do it. In their experience, whole cherries were sometimes dried because they had been rejected from other processing. That was not the coffee I wanted to make. I wanted to begin with carefully selected fruit and see what our farm could produce if we gave the drying the attention it deserved.
So I researched, asked more questions and tried it. When the finished coffee turned out well and Stephen was pleased, I was relieved. Uff.
That first lot changed how I thought about natural processing. It was not a shortcut or a way to use unwanted cherries. For us, it became another deliberate choice we could make for a coffee we believed in.
How we make natural process coffee
We start by picking and selecting ripe coffee cherries. A coffee bean is actually a seed inside that fruit. For a natural lot, we leave the cherry intact for the main drying stage rather than removing the fruit first.
We spread the selected cherries on mesh raised beds at the farm. Keeping them off the ground allows air to circulate, and the beds give our team access to inspect and turn the fruit as it dries.
That is where much of the work happens. Our collaborators move and monitor the cherries so the drying is as even as possible. They watch the conditions and respond when the weather changes. In the lots I described when I first shared this story, drying took around 15 to 20 days. The time can vary; it is not a rule for every harvest or every natural coffee.
When the coffee has dried to a moisture level suitable for the next stage, it is bagged and taken to the mill. The dried fruit and other outer layers are removed there, and the green coffee is prepared for export.
Why don’t we make every coffee a natural?
We have only so much suitable drying space at the farm. Natural processing occupies that space for weeks and asks a great deal of the people tending the beds. That is why we select the lots we want to produce this way.
Our early work included a natural Pacamara. More recently, we produced a naturally processed SL28 on those raised beds. That limited release has sold out, but it is another example of the care we can give a small lot when we manage its drying closely.
I love seeing what a variety can express when the picking, processing and roasting come together. I also know how much work stands between a ripe cherry on a tree and a coffee someone enjoys at home.
Does natural coffee always taste fruity?
Natural coffees often have noticeable sweetness or fruit character, but there is no single “natural” flavour. A natural can be bold and fruit-forward; another can be delicate and floral. Variety, ripeness, drying, roasting and brewing all influence the cup.
And a fruit tasting note does not mean fruit was added. The coffee cherry is the fruit the seeds grew inside. A note such as melon or berries describes a flavour someone perceives when tasting the brewed coffee.
If you are deciding what to drink, Adriana’s guide to washed versus natural coffee processing explains how the two methods differ and offers examples from our coffees. I wanted to tell you what natural processing has meant to us on the farm.
I still think about that old patio. I wish I could ask the people who used it what coffee they dried there and how they made their decisions. What I can share is what we have learned by doing the work ourselves, alongside the people who care for each lot.
If this has made you curious about what is in your cup, you can explore the coffees we’re roasting now. And if you have a processing question, please ask us. It is one of my favourite parts of talking coffee.
Alejandro
