Coffees taste increasingly complex. Experimental fermentation practices are producing new flavors that we haven't previously found in coffee. We humans are taking a hand and adding to coffee something that wouldn't otherwise be there. Where is this journey heading for producers, roasters, and consumers?
Part 1: Challenges
Sensory evaluation: How do we assess these coffees?
Developments on the coffee production side are sometimes rapid. We hear of Anaerobic Fermentations and Double Barrel Fermentations and Carbonic Macerations. What all sounds interesting are terms that are heavily borrowed from winemaking. These names sometimes also sound very artistic. Here it also seems there's an opportunity for producers to make a name for themselves with an original name. We clarify what fermentation in coffee actually is in this comprehensive post.
From a sensory perspective, this whole development is certainly very interesting – suddenly we find flavors of cherry liqueur, violet; these are heavy, spirituous coffees, heavily fermented, without drifting into the vinegary part. These are new flavor profiles that are only just emerging. A few years ago I tasted a coffee where the official cupping score sheet simply no longer seemed appropriate to me.
The coffee offered much more than I could have expressed through an evaluation form. The aromas were so diverse, I had never encountered such a coffee before. It was a multi-dimensional coffee that I couldn't match with anything in my sensory repertoire.
I rated it at 93 points. But here I clearly distinguish between a professional and a subjective evaluation – I rated it highly based on my best knowledge, conscience, and cupping experience.
My subjective evaluation, however, was quite different – did I like the coffee? No. I don't want to drink it again. There was simply too much flavor in too small a space. But I'm convinced that there is a market for these coffees. Only I think they're hardly to be found in Europe.
Roasting: How do we roast these coffees?
Coffee roasters are increasingly coming into contact with these coffees. We do too. On our own farm in Nicaragua we conduct numerous Fermentations-Experimente and support them scientifically. The flavor notes we can produce this way are sometimes truly absurd. In a positive sense.
But we also notice that we have to roast these coffees somewhat differently. These are sometimes coffees that are bursting with aroma. It would be a shame to drown these in a more developed, darker roast. We almost always opt for filter coffees with this type of green coffee.
Roasting these coffees requires a lot of sensitivity to find the right roasting profile. The aroma is intense, it should be preserved, but the acidity is also often very intense, so it needs something more balance, without jeopardizing the aromas. I also want to encourage all other roasters to try something new here, maybe even to leave the familiar path of roasting and try something different.
The progress on the production and fermentation side is enormous. On the roasting side I don't see that yet. I also wonder if our way of roasting is the right way to do justice to such coffees at all?
Enjoyment. Are these coffees a pleasure or a horizon expansion?
I have the feeling that I'm becoming – forgive me – a bit curmudgeonly with age. I notice how these coffees interest me technically and challenge me sensorily, but gustatorily they rather leave me cold.
Recently a friend, who at his age is certainly already curmudgeonly, said that it reminded him of the Chardonnays from the USA in the 90s.
Lots of texture, lots of aroma, lots of everything, but little inherent flavor.
a curmudgeonly coffee lover
He finds it hard to take pleasure in them. He's into lean wines, elegant, distinctive. I understand him. That's how I understand coffee. Personally I prefer elegant coffees, often tea-like, with limited complexity but high clarity. Those are coffees I can enjoy wonderfully. The «new-style coffees» (oh dear, I really am getting old) challenge me anew each time. I still can't enjoy them, maybe that will come.
2. Opportunities
Anyone who has been able to taste such coffees must show some openness, because they taste different. One can simply scoff at them and enjoy the coffee that tastes more familiar. One can dismiss this as «gimmickry», as «newfangled stuff» or as a «trend» – I've heard all that in recent months. Or we show a bit more openness and look more closely at who is making these coffees.
A post from a renowned cupper from Costa Rica irritated me recently. He scoffed, as described above, about these
«trendy cinnamon fruit bombs», that's no longer coffee. He prefers the crystal-clear, juicy, and naturally fruity coffees from Tarrazú – which is one of the highest altitude growing regions in Costa Rica.
Cupper from Costa Rica
And there's the problem. Not all producers have a finca at nearly 2000 meters above sea level. The majority don't. The majority are far below that and produce coffee for a market that often cannot cover production costs. A different market channel could help. One that seeks extreme flavors.
With extreme fermentations we create extreme flavors – and that too at 800 meters above sea level. Of course, not just any raw material can be used; only well-sorted, ideally very ripe cherries ultimately result in great green coffee. But the altitude at which coffee is grown could suddenly become relative.
And that's a huge opportunity for all producers who didn't draw the jackpot of a finca at altitude, but like the vast majority of coffee farmers still find themselves in the sensory middle ground.
3. Risks
"For they know not what they do"
Heavily fermented and delicious coffees don't just happen. They're not a random product, but the result of a precise, controlled, and intentional post-harvest process.
We often hear about «over-fermentation» when something tastes heavily fermented. We disagree with this. Either something is controlled fermentation, or it isn't. Lucia Solis recently made a comparison in a podcast to a pregnant woman – either a woman is pregnant, or she isn't. But she's not a little bit pregnant, or too much pregnant. Rather, she is, or she isn't. Just like coffee that was fermented, or wasn't.
«Over-fermented» carries a clear subjective note and historically stems from the fact that uncontrolled fermented coffees were often referred to this way. Coffees that smell and taste of vinegar, leather, rotten fruit, etc. Those are defects. And they're the product of uncontrolled fermentation, not over-fermentation.
These «modern» flavor profiles tend toward strong, lush fruit notes, often with heavy floral aromas. They remind me of old ladies' perfume.
Creating such a profile requires a great deal of knowledge. The know-how must be there, otherwise it doesn't turn out well and the coffee ferments uncontrolledly. Producers who know what they're doing always take extreme paths and create even more intense flavor profiles
Producers who have heard about it and now want to try something take a pretty high risk of getting a lot of things not quite right. This can lead to uncontrolled fermentations.
The pH value, the temperature, the available sugar, the presence of air, the headspace in a closed container, the agitation, the temperature development, etc. – all of these are factors that must be considered in such a fermentation. Otherwise it quickly becomes leathery, vinegary, and stinky.
Copy-paste. Will all coffees soon taste the same?
We're fortunate to taste a really wide variety of coffees. When we don't order samples ourselves, we have them sent to us. Often these intensive fermentation coffees too. That expands the sensory horizon.
The problem here, however, is that I remember much more a general flavor profile than unique, characteristic qualities.
A coffee from Flores, Indonesia, recently stood on the table next to a coffee from Colombia, and both tasted suspiciously similar. The post-harvest process was such that the cherries first spent 6 days in a barrel without air before drying as natural for more than 25 days.
This intensive process produced such similar notes in both coffees that I almost confused them. The Colombian tasted like the Indonesian.
«Is that now tragic?» some might ask. Maybe that's just the way things go. Others, however, see here the «loss of terroir» and might long for profiles that were still standard 20 years ago but today are increasingly giving way due to socio-economic, botanical, and climatic conditions.
I'm neither a terroirist, someone who seeks «terroir» in coffee. Those who know me a bit better know how much I clash with this term. Nor am I someone who blindly follows new developments. I see myself in this discussion as a bystander, because:
Is it up to us roasters to decide what coffee producers should produce and ferment?
Would anyone prescribe to a winemaker which profile he should expand and which he should keep?
I don't think so.
Rather, I believe that here for once the «free market» of sensory preferences will decide. What resonates is decided by coffee drinkers, and that's roasters and coffee drinkers equally. We should simply refrain from dismissing these new developments under a «trend» – that would probably be too shortsighted.
Are these coffees health-wise sound?
Intensive fermentation notes stem from intensive fermentation. Countless microbes and yeasts degrade sugar, cause acids to rise and pH to fall. Yeasts eventually retreat and bacteria take over. In some cases mold envelops the half-dried cherry before it dries in the shade for over 30 days.
It's a melange of life.
I'm neither a biologist nor a health expert. And precisely for that reason I must ask this question – are these coffees health-wise safe? If so, are there studies on this?
Roasting kills harmful bacteria in coffee. Should coffees be affected by mold, however, the risk increases – aflatoxins, mycotoxins found in mold fungi, cannot be completely eliminated through roasting and remain potentially carcinogenic.
Who can help here? Who knows someone who knows whether intensively fermented coffees can pose a potential health risk?
Conclusion
For a conclusion it's far too early for me. We're just at the beginning of this new era in which coffees from Colombia taste like Flores, in which coffees in their aroma remind us of heavy old-ladies' perfumes, in which we have to realign our sensory standards once again.
What are your experiences with these coffees? We look forward to your feedback and are open to learning much more.
