Washed
The fruit gets removed from the seed as fast and as cleanly as possible1. The cherry is pulped, the sticky layer underneath it is broken down and rinsed off, and the seed dries in its parchment. Some producers use water the whole way through, which is where the phrase fully washed comes from. Others strip that sticky layer off mechanically1.
What you taste is clean and structured. Because the fruit got taken out of the conversation early, the origin and the variety come through clearly. If you want to taste where a coffee is from, washed is the honest version of it.
Natural
The whole cherry dries intact with the seed still inside, and it ferments while it dries2.
This is the older way and by far the riskier one. It takes more drying space, more labour and constant attention, because an intact piece of fruit sitting in the sun is a big concentrated food source and the risks of mould or overfermentation never go away2. Get it right and the cup is heavy, sweet and unmistakably fruity. Get it wrong and it tastes like compost. There is not much middle ground. Our Mexico Gesha is a natural.
Honey
The middle road. The skin comes off like a washed coffee, but some of the sticky mucilage is left on the seed while it dries. You get sweetness and body from the fruit without the full intensity, and without taking on the full risk, of a natural.
You will sometimes see honey coffees labelled yellow, red or black. That is just how much mucilage was left on and how slowly it was dried. More mucilage and slower drying means more fruit and more risk.
So which one is better?
None of them. They are different decisions for different coffees, and a great producer picks the one that suits what they grew. A delicate high grown lot can get buried under a heavy natural process. A coffee without much going on can be given fruit and body by one.
Try this
Buy a washed coffee and a natural from the same origin if you can find them, and brew them the same way on two mornings. Same country, same grind, same everything. What is left over between those two cups is processing, and it is usually a much bigger difference than people expect.