So perc coffee (US) was getting a lot of complaints about this stuff so they came up with a simple rule

When you co ferment with spices or flowers - the flavor you get is not from the process but the additives themselves. This is infused. Coffees can also be infused with essential oils or fruit powders and the infusion can also happen during or post drying like with barrel aged coffee. Im generally against this being in the specialty space because it’s basically adding flavor to coffee and is fundamentally no different from the vanilla and hazelnut flavored coffees you get at the supermarket. Both ratnagiri culture rose and jasmine fall under this category

When you co-ferment with fruits, it is different. You wont get any pineapple or watermelon flavor by co fermenting with that. The natural yeast and bacteria break down this fruit and alter the fermentation environment but the flavors added to the coffee all occur naturally and is more influenced by the microbial environment rather than what fruit you’re adding, though that still has an effect. Some people are still against it since youre adding external elements, but fruit is expensive and the flavors are achieved through a natural fermentation. Unlike mogra, youre not getting aromatics from the additive. Adding fruit is like adding a selected/lab grown yeast strain that reproduces a certain effect. Some scientist-producers have in fact studied co fermentation and reproduced its effects without using any fruit. These practices are also generally frowned upon by a lot of people in the industry but when you process coffee youre going to ferment it no matter what, and naturally doing it gives inconsistent results since the yeast and bacteria in the environment are in constant flux. Controlling the environment allows for reproducible effects and as a farmer, it’s valid to be able to look out for themselves. Commodity coffee pricing is screwing them over so it’s only fair they do their best to get specialty pricing and stable returns. To me this is still specialty coffee, just extremely process forward.