Brazil's version of honey processing: skin removed, beans fermented and dried with the mucilage left on, no washing step.
Pulped natural is Brazil's name for processing in which the skin is removed and the beans are fermented and dried with the mucilage left on, with no washing step, called cereja descascado in Portuguese. It was first tried at the Instituto Agronomico de Campinas in the early 1950s and adopted commercially in southern Minas Gerais in the 1980s, well before Costa Rica popularized the same idea as honey processing. The cup is described as mellow and sweet, with mild acidity and fruit or honey notes.
How it worksThe skin is removed and the mucilage is left on the parchment. The beans are fermented and dried with it in place, and the washing step is omitted. In Brazil the product is called cereja descascado.
Step by step
- 01
Cherry is pulped to remove the skin.
- 02
The mucilage is left on the parchment.
- 03
The beans ferment and dry with the mucilage in place, with no washing step.
History
The method was first tried at the Instituto Agronomico de Campinas in Brazil in the early 1950s and taken up commercially by farmers in southern Minas Gerais in the 1980s, well before Costa Rica's honey coffees in the late 2000s.
Our notes on Pulped Natural are still being checked against their sources, so for now this page shows only the facts we can stand behind.
In the cup, according to guides
- SweetnessMoreHoney and pulped natural coffees are described as mellow and sweet, with fruit or honey notes.
- AcidityLessThe same description gives them a mild acidity.
A variant of
Common in
At the same stage
Sources · 2 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-09-30. Some details here are less settled than others.
- Coffee processing · Wikimedia Foundation
- Honey processing: Did the world steal Costa Rica's coffee niche? · Intelligence.coffee