The Fermentation Project, spearheaded by James Hoffmann and Lucia Solis, explores the effects of four (4) distinct fermentation methods on the same lot of coffee from Antigua, Guatemala.

The tasting set includes 60g of each process:
1.) Mechanically Demucilaged (washed)
2.) Wild Fermentation (washed)
3.) Lactobacillus Inoculated (washed)
4.) Yeast Inoculated (washed)

People all over the world will be participating in a LIVE tasting of this coffee set on September 19th and Square One is excited to be a participating roaster! The coffees will be roasted and shipped during the first week of September to allow for at least 2 weeks of resting prior to the tasting.

More about the coffees from Lucia Solis:

Using the same starting material, we created 4 different versions of the coffee to illustrate the effect of fermentation and processing on the same coffee.

When people taste “fermented” coffees, they rarely get to taste the un-fermented version for comparison.

In this project we processed a Mechanically Demucilaged coffee (no fermentation) to serve as the control. The profile of this coffee comes from growing practices and genetic varietal characteristics.

The second coffee is a WILD fermentation (48 hour submerged fermentation with local, wild microbes). This is the traditional method most coffees experience where the mucilage is removed by the local microbe population.

The third coffee is an inoculated fermentation (48 hour submerged fermentation with Lactobacillus). Generally, the bacteria shows how through fermentation you can enhance the production of organic acids and impact the brightness and complexity of the coffee.

The fourth coffee is an inoculated fermentation (48 hour submerged fermentation with saccharomyces yeast). Generally, the yeast shows how through fermentation you can enhance the production of flavor precursors and impact the body and complexity of the coffee.