Thailand—Doi Wiang Honey Process ($5.95/lb)

This Black Honey Process Doi Wiang green coffee comes from the Chiang Mai Province in northern Thailand. Home to some 150 people, Doi Wiang sits atop mountainous terrain underneath the shadows of tall Teak trees. Most of the village's residents are transplants from Mongolia, China, who relocated after a wildfire displaced them many years ago.

Our friends at Lanna Coffee Co. work with the Integrated Tribal Development Foundation (ITDF) to bring best farming practices, opportunity, clean water, education, and many other things to Doi Wiang, as well as to other remote villages across the Thai highlands. Their work has stabilized some of the most remote areas in Thailand, and has helped many former opium farmers turn into reliable producers of some truly fantastic coffee beans.

Unlike natural process green coffees, which are dried in raised beds with the entire coffee cherry still intact, honey processed beans are laid to dry with only part (or sometimes none) of the cherry still attached. As the beans dry, the exposed interior mucilage of the cherry (which resembles the sticky sweetness of honey) begins to ferment, giving the beans their color, and the process its name. The longer the beans ferment, the more their color changes, giving way to three subcategories of honey processed coffees; yellow, red, and, finally, black - like this Thai Doi Wiang. Once the fermentation process is terminated, the beans are washed to remove the cherry and mucilage before being dried again.

It's important to know that honey processed coffees do not necessarily taste like honey! Honey process simply refers to the silky, sugary mucilage of the coffee that is allowed to ferment on the bean. Because this does allow the coffee's individual fruitiness and nuance to come through, it's possible for the residual sweetness to coincidentally evoke honey essence. 

This Thai coffee is an excellent representation of a honey processed coffee that presents great fruit flavors and mild acidity without any of the grittiness that sometimes creep into natural processed coffees. This harvest is bright, clean with raspberry jam and citrus.