What is colour washed coffee processing?

Colour washed - sometimes called orange washed or golden washed depending on the cherry used - is a variation of washed processing in which pulped coffee is washed not with fresh water but with juice and pulp macerated from coffee cherry. Rather than using water to remove the remaining mucilage after fermentation, the producer substitutes cherry juice as the washing medium.

The logic addresses two concerns with conventional washed processing. First, water is a scarce resource in many producing regions, and using cherry juice reduces water consumption. Second, conventional water washing is thought to dilute some of the water-soluble flavour compounds produced during fermentation - by washing with cherry juice already saturated with coffee compounds, producers aim to preserve more of those flavour-active molecules in the finished bean.

The colour designation - orange or golden - refers to the colour of the cherry used to make the washing juice, which in turn influences the character of the resulting cup. Orange washed coffees typically show bright red fruit and citric acidity; golden washed variants tend towards softer, rounder sweetness. The process is most associated with La Palma y El Tucán in Colombia, who developed and popularised it, though other specialty producers have since adopted variations. For buyers, colour washed lots are at the experimental, premium end of the Colombian offer sheet.