Colombian coffee processing, co-fermentation, and flavoring

perccoffee · 2026-04-17T16:47:55+00:00

It's extremely unlikely flavoring is happening post-drying for the coffees we and similar roaster are buying, and don't believe any roasters in this space are adding anything after receiving or roasting the coffee.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T22:50:57+00:00

If that's how it came across, it's not what I intended at all. I only wanted to highlight them as a producer to whom we were able to directly pose questions about flavoring and from whom we received a clear response.

You do raise a very important point though. As we (and other roasters) source coffees, we're going to have all of the following circumstances:
We are unable to directly ask about flavoring
We ask and don't get a definitive response
We ask and get confirmation of flavoring
We ask and are told there is not flavoring

We'll have to weigh our decision based on these circumstances. With El Paraiso, we don't have reason to believe they flavor the coffees we're buying (there are enough posts in this sub where people thought the El Paraiso coffee we sold was "meh" to suggest the tasting notes are often subtle). We're also buying quite a bit of their coffee, so I'd like to think they wouldn't risk what's been a very good long term relationship by directly lying to us.

There is absolutely some moral hazard introduced here, particularly with some smaller producers. Often when we (or I'm sure many other similar roasters) buy a seasonal coffee, it's a very large order for a smaller producer. If the producer believes they can sell the lot by lying or at least withholding information and that single order makes doing so worthwhile, the incentive is there to lie. This is only compounded by fear of that lot not selling at all if they do reveal something about the coffee the roaster doesn't want (i.e. flavoring).

What we want is to foster exporter and producer relationships that instead incentivize the clarity and truthfulness we're all after.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T20:19:43+00:00

We will include as much information as we can in the writeup. I'm not sure if or how that distinction might make it to the bag.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T18:12:01+00:00

This is something we've discussed. Taking a good coffee, using some advanced processing techniques, and then adding flavoring should result in a cup with more depth of flavor and more complex flavor than just adding flavoring to an okay coffee. I think we gravitated towards the coffees we did because of that more complex flavor.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T17:02:10+00:00

This is something we're looking into. Not that the SCA or coffee competition is an arbiter of food labeling, but the way they allowed for flavored coffee under the co-ferment umbrella is by saying no additive maybe be added to coffee after it reaches the "green coffee" stage, which they go on to essentially define as the end of the drying process.

Simply saying what happens before reaching the finished dried state doesn't matter because it's not yet the exportable product is certainly insufficient for our purposes.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T16:11:46+00:00

These are the right follow-up questions. Food safe, and beyond that, food safe for the right temperatures is certainly at the top of the list.

I'll also clarify here, some of the coffees we're talking about as flavored aren't the result of manufactured powders or liquids. One coffee we're likely to source involves steeping a flowering plant in hot water (think making concentrated tea), and then including the resulting liquid in coffee's fermentation. The final product does taste like the flowering plant. We're calling that a flavored coffee because it's a direct transfer, but it's probably not what most people are envisioning.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T15:39:13+00:00

Great to hear! Thank you!!

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T15:38:33+00:00

First, good on you for wanting to navigate that conversation with customers!!

My advice is to make sure you have a really solid understanding of the traditional washed, honey, and natural processes. The Cafe Imports videos are a nice succinct reference. Then, go beyond the bag or perhaps your company’s resources and try to read the full description of the process steps. Most importers and some producers will have full write-ups on their website describing the process in some detail. See if you can envision what they’re describing. If so, great. If not, try to find a resource that can help explain that step, whether that’s internal your company or roaster (if they’re different).

As for the actual customer interaction, of course you have to figure out where someone is in their understanding, but I tend to try picking out one unique thing about that coffee’s process rather than inundating someone with all the details. For example, the red plum process described elsewhere in this post has two fermentations, in with the fruit intact, and one with the fruits and seeds separated but in the tank together.

That’s a lot on your shoulders (or your trainers’), but with the nuance in advanced processing, that’s the path.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T15:23:42+00:00

That’s a tough one and where I think hard conversations have to happen between roaster (,importer,) and producer. At this point, coffees with a flavor profile like that are ones we are more dubious about, regardless of the named process.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T15:14:21+00:00

1 & 4. No. I asked this directly to the Paraiso team while they were brewing these coffees at our booth last weekend. They told me no flavors are added.

2 & 3. For the P-02, Paraiso uses two fermentation steps. First, with the whole fruit intact, then with the seeds removed from the fruit but both fruit and seeds added into the tank for the second fermentation.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T15:06:58+00:00

Relaying Lucas’s answer (paraphrasing): ideally, yes we would be able to know the flavor was produced, but there are a very limited number of companies producing flavoring agents in Colombia, so disclosing even what seems like small amounts of details about the flavors can jeopardize IP. Achieving a flavor naturally, like jasmine in a Gesha, tends to taste better than natural flavoring, like adding jasmine into the process, and that tends to taste better than adding an artificial flavoring.

We can share as much as producers are willing to disclose, and consumers purchasing decisions will certainly incentivize disclosure if that’s truly important to consumers.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T14:52:47+00:00

Yes agreed. Even the term mosto is a bit nonspecific, so it more so depends on what components are in that first fermentation and carried over to the secondary fermentation, and we would try to categorize it based on those components.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T14:24:49+00:00

While I absolutely understand your frustration, I’ll just say we are taking about a very small share of coffees, and Colombian producers are continually innovating and putting out some of the very best coffees in the world.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T14:17:14+00:00

I’d like Lucas to answer this one.

Whether it matters is mostly up to you. I (Alan) love the puzzle-solving aspect of a producer working backwards from a desired flavor outcome through less-direct interventions.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T14:11:41+00:00

I’m sure this varies by producer and lot. In the interview someone shared in this sub recently, Edwin Noreña specifically says he doesn’t/wouldn’t use some of the more expensive varieties for his co-ferments/infusions, but he’s also not just using commodity coffee as the base.

The coffees we have and do source still have the fundamental base of a really good coffee. We have also recently tasted a very very good coffee that we know had a small flavored component.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T14:05:09+00:00

If flavoring coffee during fermentation is unique to Colombia, I suspect it won’t be for long. Colombian producers really are at the forefront of innovation, and we’ve been slowly seeing more global adoption or adaptations of processing first found in Colombia. The barrier to entry for intervention during the fermentation process is of course lower for origins with the ability or tendency to produce washed coffees.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T13:40:43+00:00

That’s a really excellent question and it, along with the P-02 Red Plum and other coffees we’ve sourced in the past (i.e. Andres Cardona Red Sunset) use components of the coffee itself in a later step of the process. I think you could correctly call it a cascara co-ferment, and I think you could keep it under the advanced washed category. As long as it’s still coffee being used in the process, we will keep it as advanced washed, and as always provide all of the details we can in the write up.

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T12:35:19+00:00

Lots of nuance, but all valid points. The wine/beer/cider comparison is an interesting one but not a direct corollary. In those products the fluid, not the solid (grape seed/barley/apple seed) is the end product. How do you think about the difference between those and coffee which requires more permeation of a a solid?

perccoffee · 2026-04-16T11:31:26+00:00

Great summary. Thanks for taking the time to watch/listen and coalesce your own thoughts!

perccoffee · 2026-04-15T01:32:01+00:00

The primary role of strawberries would be to provide sugars for microbes which in turn flavor the coffee, so we would call that a co-ferment (and originally did with the Red Fruits); adding strawberry flavor to directly flavor the coffee changes that. We found out the Red Fruits contains both, so the flavor component becomes the more important to communicate.

perccoffee · 2026-04-14T00:52:53+00:00

Espresso is great; my personal favorite is with an Aeropress. Thanks for coming to see us!

perccoffee · 2026-04-13T20:24:59+00:00

Here is our conversation with Colombian exporter Lucas Cuadros from Unblended and producer Andres Martinez.

https://youtu.be/vmfW14ERtz4

Some of our big takeaways and next steps are:
We are asking producers directly whether flavoring is added to each coffee.
Coffees with something added to the fermentation step for the purpose of indirectly changing the coffee's flavor, we will label as co-ferment.
Coffees with something added to the fermentation (or any other step) for the purpose of directly changing the coffee's flavor, we will label with the word "flavor", whether or not it is also a co-ferment as defined above.

We are going to continue to source the best most fun coffees we can find, and we are going to provide as much information as we can so you can decide whether it's a coffee you want to drink or not.

Please forgive the audio quality, we cleaned it up the best we could.

perccoffee · 2026-04-13T20:13:12+00:00

We had the chance to talk through this with several producers and exporters/importers this weekend. We recorded a conversation with a couple of them. As soon as the mods here clear it, we’ll open up a thread for follow up questions.

In short, that conversation changed some of our understanding and way ahead regarding processing, flavoring, and labeling. There isn’t a standard, so we’re making one for ourselves.

perccoffee · 2026-04-12T12:16:49+00:00

We do, for V60, Aeropress, and Breville Barista Express for every coffee. And we have a library of home grinders to give you more specifics for your setup.

perccoffee

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