Co-fermented
Coffee fermented together with fruit, spices or other ingredients, which carry their flavor into the cup.
A co-fermented coffee ferments alongside something else: fruit, fruit pulp or juice, or spices like cinnamon. The added ingredients feed the fermentation and leave their own flavor in the bean, so the cup often tastes plainly of what went in, like peach, strawberry or watermelon. Adding a chosen yeast or bacteria on its own is a different technique, inoculation, though many co-ferments use both.
They're among the most debated coffees in specialty. Fans see a new frontier for flavor; critics argue the taste comes from additives rather than the farm, and that it should always be disclosed. Some roasters call these coffees infused. If you want the coffee's own character, look at washed or natural lots; if you like bold, dessert-like flavors, co-ferments deliver them.
- Also called
- Infused, co-fermented
- Added
- Fruit, juice, pulp or spices
- Tastes
- Loud, often candy-like versions of the added fruit
- Debate
- Whether flavor from additives belongs in specialty coffee, and how it should be labeled
- Signature notes
- raspberry, pineapple, watermelon
- Origins
- Colombia (80), Ecuador (5), Panama (5), Costa Rica (4), Ethiopia (1), India (1), Mexico (1), Nepal (1)
- Varieties
- Castillo (23), Caturra (18), Gesha (13), Pink Bourbon (9), Purple Caturra (9), Typica (6), Bourbon (5), Catuai (4)
- Flavors
- Citrus (41), Berry (39), Tropical (39), Caramel & sugar (35), Red fruit (33), Floral (30), Stone fruit (23), Chocolate (22)
On the bag
- Mosto
- Liquid saved from an earlier fermentation and added to a new batch as a starter, like sourdough. Not an outside ingredient, so not a co-ferment on its own.
- Yeast extract
- Usually a yeast strain chosen or grown for a flavor ("peach yeast"), so the lot is inoculated; whether fruit went in too depends on the producer.
Roasters that carry it most
- Brandywine (3)
- Black & White (35)
- Perc (14)
- Hydrangea (25)