The Fermentation Project
A short reflection on the cupping I attended on October 3.
Since I drink, brew, and taste a lot of different coffees every day, I’m always curious about sensory details. Especially over the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to train myself to go deeper — to really pay attention to what I’m smelling and tasting, and to understand it more precisely.
So I was curious to be part of the cupping for The Fermentation Project by James Hoffmann and Lucia Solis.
At first, though, I didn’t think much about it. I heard about the project from one of our guests and thought, Okay, another coffee project that appeared. It doesn’t necessarily mean I have to go or take part in it.
Then I watched the video from James and Lucia about the project and the coffee they had chosen in Guatemala to process in four different ways. They also gave a really nice introduction to the different processing methods. What I found especially interesting was that this wasn’t simply a comparison of different processing methods. The starting coffee was the same — the main variable was fermentation. I also liked that the project didn't give us tasting notes beforehand. We were simply asked to taste, compare, and make our own conclusions.
And I think this is an important topic — it always has been, but especially now, when we have so many experimental processing methods and so many different opinions about them.
Some people say, “I only drink washed coffees. I like the florality and natural sweetness.” Others prefer naturals because they enjoy more complex, syrupy cups. And many people who are just getting into specialty coffee are curious about co-fermented, infused, and other experimental coffees that are appearing on the market.
I was curious too.
As I’ve written before, I’ve always been interested in different tastes in coffee. For a long time, an experimental 120-hour anaerobic natural from Colombia would have been a go-to choice for me when I was picking something in a coffee shop.
My preferences are changing, though. So I was especially curious to taste these coffees and form my own opinion.
Luckily, one of the cuppings took place in Heidelberg. Südseite got the coffees, roasted them, and hosted the session, so I booked a ticket and came by.
I was met there by Jan, one of Südseite’s roasters, and we had a nice little chat before it started. The cupping was also accompanied by a livestream from James Hoffmann on YouTube. I took my place at the cupping table, cracked the crust, and my first thought was:
Whoa. This is going to be difficult.
The picture wasn’t nearly as clear as I had expected.
I thought mechanically demucilaged (no fermentation), wild fermented, Lactobacillus-inoculated, and Saccharomyces yeast-inoculated coffees would be relatively easy to distinguish. Usually, you have some expectations attached to these processing methods.
No fermentation coffees tend to be much cleaner, often with a slightly higher acidity. Wild-fermented coffees are usually more complex and sometimes have exotic floral notes, which could be either pleasing or, often, slightly aggressive forward, with a denser, more layered character.
Yeast-inoculated coffees can be interesting because fermentation can create very different sensory characteristics, very dependent on the type of yeast that was used. Sometimes, when the fermentation character is louder than normally expected, coffees have notes of bread, beer, or other yeast-fermented products. These flavours can also create a certain dissonance in coffee, and some people describe them simply as fermenty.
So I thought I would be able to identify most of them quite quickly, with the lacto-fermented coffee probably being the one I would be least sure about.
How funny it was to see the results.
After multiple attempts, my sister — who was also taking part in the cupping — and I were quite confident in our predictions.
Out of four coffees, I correctly identified only one.
And the funny part?
It was the lactic-fermented one.
Almost everything else I thought was happening was completely upside down.
The coffee I thought wasn't fermented was yeast-inoculated. The one I thought was wild fermented was not fermented at all.
It was madness. I was genuinely surprised. How was that possible?
The reason became pretty understandable.
Lucia came from the wine industry before moving into coffee, where she studied Viticulture and Enology/wine production/fermentation science. When someone with that kind of experience brings their knowledge and approach into coffee, the results can be surprisingly different.
The coffees were barely distinguishable in the way I had expected them to be.
And it wasn’t only my impression. Other people at the cupping had a similar experience.
The coffees were incredibly clean. Super clean, refined, and elegant, without the bready aftertaste or obvious fermented character I had expected from some of the processing methods.
That was the most interesting part for me. I came into the cupping thinking I already knew roughly what these processing methods should taste like. Then the coffees made me question that assumption. And perhaps that is the most useful thing a cupping can do. That was probably the most interesting part of the whole experience.
It reminded me of something coffee has shown me many times: whenever you feel like you know something, you probably know very little.
And I love that about coffee.
It keeps my curiosity alive. It makes me want to try new things, but also return to old ones. To taste them again. To question what I thought I knew. To meet new people, listen to their experiences, and keep building this strange, endless body of coffee knowledge one cup at a time.
The more I learn, the more I realise how much there is left to learn. And maybe that is what makes life around coffee so tasty and so different.
I love coffee. I love the people who work in this industry. And I’m very happy to be part of it.
Coffee is such a simple thing. And somehow, it is one of the hardest things I know.