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The whole reason washed coffee is most popular is because it's more consistent and "safe". Drying coffee with the fruit on is more high-risk, high-reward because it can mold or otherwise spoil, and i assume it takes longer, so it may be more sensitive to weather.
Personally, I like natural best, but it's not possible to do everywhere, and washed obviously produces great coffee as well.
The funky fermenty ones are fun, but get a little tiresome about 3/4 of the way thru a cup. Seems to work better as espresso tho.
I’m glad I don’t have to pick! I’m a sucker for variety. I always have natural and washed coffee on hand and I try to have a honey processed coffee whenever possible.
If I had to blindly pick a coffee and it needed to be great, I would pick a washed coffee, probably a “medium” roast. The flavor profile is fairly narrow at that point, but it can still be great coffee. I do (barely) prefer a delicate cup so most of the best cups of coffee I’ve had have been lighter roasted washed coffees.
But my most delightfully surprising cups of coffee, by a mile, have been natural process coffees. It probably wouldn’t be good if a light roasted washed coffee surprised me at this point. Natural processed coffees continue to surprise me in good ways.
For a consumer, if their preferences are equal, I think consistently good coffee is mostly about finding a good roaster. I’ve had plenty of mediocre to bad coffee from each fermentation process, many varieties, and all roast levels. I’ve seldom had a bad bag of coffee from roasters I trust.
Yeah. I mostly prefer washed, but still nothings beaten that one time I found a light roast Ethiopian natural blueberry bomb that made the most incredible espresso. Now if I buy a funky natural its only to chase that dragon.
Strongly agreed. The variety is what makes it good. Its nice to switch back and forth day by day so it never gets "samey". Its like those air fresheners that switch back and forth.
If i had to, though, I would pick a natty ethiopian if I had to pick just one.
Also, it really is in the roaster. I've been to a few that will have coffee from 20 different countries, but somehow make it taste all the same.
I like washed because I find that's where most of the real home runs are. I think it's a little less forgiving though, and I end up with some mediocre cups to get those home runs. Honey process I find a little more consistent but still can be finicky. Nothing wrong with a good natural, but 9/10 times I'm picking a washed or honey process. Will toy with anaerobic every once in awhile but these often end up mushroomy.
EA for decaf is the only way I've found where theres still some sweetness and nuance left that makes doing a pour-over even worthwhile for decaf.
I don't know why but my tongue simply gets confused with anything other than washed. I end up with plenty of nice, but bland, cups but i have to agree that when i nail a v60 with something bright and light it's so good.
washed seems the most consistent for me, but i almost exclusively drink lighter roasts.
i like honey but i find it harder to 'find the flavors', it often tastes more generic/flatter to me.
On my journey from cheap coffee into specialty coffee, the style that I've enjoyed the most is natural process. Not only are the flavours very good themselves, but I think that it's the perfect encapsulation of why specialty coffee as a development in the industry has been fantastic because it's such a far departure from the stereotypical "burnt and bitter" profile most people associate with coffees.
In terms of decaf, I can't super notice a difference in flavour, but I'm partial towards the Swiss Water process as my spouse can't have appreciable amounts of caffeine due to some health issues, but they love coffee, and Swiss Water coffees are the only ones they can consistently drink without ill side effects.
James Hoffman did a cool decaf project to compare decaffeination techniques. I don't remember the results 😅
My result was that they all tasted great, but were a little muted compared to the non-decaf.
His results were consistent with my own, EA was best, followed by CO2, followed by SWP.
I already deleted my notes but I remember wanting the EA to be the best but there really wasn't anything in it. I certainly don't remember SW being any worse than the others. Keep in mind we probably got the same coffees from different roasters.
I like them all as long as they are not too funky/winey. I love a great big blueberry bomb washed Kenyan but I also enjoy honey process and some of the experimental anaerobic process stuff.
Here was i believing a blueberry bomb could only ever be an Ethiopian natural, and you're saying washed Kenyan???
I believe that now it is possible to get good blueberry notes from beans other than Kenyan.
I like whatever my local roaster makes
i have tried exactly 1 SWP decaf and it was so outrageously bad. Never again