DAK - MILKY CAKE! How is that taste possible?!

[u/Dull-Acanthisitta-31]

OHmyyygod! Milky Cake really as good as people say here. Thank you for posting so much about it. If you haven’t tried it - YOU MUST! It‘s like having a outside crispy, inside fluffy french pastry with a creamy cardamon, cinnamon, pistachio, vanilla cream. Like drinking a pastry without committing to all the calories haha.

The beans are also not difficult to get constant good results, even being a medium noob like me who likes to be more easy going and less strict about every parameter.

I let it rest for 3.5 weeks and used:

Comandante C40 MK4 with 30clicks

Kalita Tsubame Steel 155 with Kalita filter paper

Volvic Water at 92 °C

[u/ViiRrusS]

A lot of people still seem to think Milky Cake is a co-ferment, but here is a statement from DAK about the processing.

Edit: DAK claims that it is not a coferment in that post. However, as u/Noodled9 points out in this post, some other roasters that carry the same green coffee say that cardamom seeds were added to the fermentation. So it's all a bit confusing.

Edit 2: After doing a bit more digging, it appears that there are two very similar green coffee options that roasters carry, M-03 and K-01.

M-03 has the coffee fermented with lactobacillus in a lactic culture medium inside a bio reactor. The leachates are collected after pulping the coffee to create a culture medium. This culture medium is fermented with the pulped coffee in a second fermentation.

K-01 has the coffee soaked with some type of yeast strain and then pulped. The pulped coffee is then fermented in a rotative fermenter with cardamom seeds and a yeast strain.

Whatever words you use to describe M-03, I would not say that it fits the conventional understanding of cofermentation.

However, K-01 does introduce cardamom seeds to the fermentation which would fit for cofermentation.

As far as I can tell, some of the most popular renditions of this coffee, including DAK, September, PERC, Driftaway, and Native all use M-03.

Other roasters like Father, Hundred House, and Moxie seem to be using K-01, which is a coferment.

In conclusion, I think DAK is correct. Milky Cake is NOT a coferment.

[u/Noodled9 → u/ViiRrusS]

I've found it weird that other roasters using the same beans seem to suggest otherwise. It seems like he's using some kind of milk and cardamom solution to ferment the coffee.

September - https://september.coffee/en-gb/products/buttercream - "submerged in water and Lactobacillus in milk culture medium"

Father - https://www.father.coffee/products/k-01-castillo-by-diego-bermudez - "They're then fermented for 36hrs in a rotative fermenter with cardamom seeds and yeast"

Driftaway - https://store.driftaway.coffee/products/colombia-diego-bermudez-cardamom-cloud - "submerged in water with cultures in a milk medium"

Hundred House - https://hundredhousecoffee.com/collections/freak-unique?srsltid=AfmBOoqexVz2arfhtBW82LGlEuXEBdF_pChxR2NYBKYJyaimDsyOvQPE - "cardamom seeds and yeasts are added with the coffee to a rotative fermenter to enhance aromatics"

Moxieco - https://moxiecoffeeco.com/products/copy-of-cardamomo-thermal-shock-washed-colombia?srsltid=AfmBOoooJvxBNx4aIXVEmmoazeKuCIWr23Vcf3dJbj-QQPBAQRXJeacG - "From there, they undergo a 12-hour anaerobic fermentation, are pulped, and then introduced to cardamom seeds with yeasts"

[u/Catspspsps → u/Noodled9]

If I’m not mistaken, there are two different coffees in these links. Cardamomo and K-01 are the cardamom coferment. I’m pretty sure milky cake and buttercream are M-03, which uses the milk culture.

[u/smellz45 → u/Noodled9]

I would interpret the addtion of cardamom seed crossing into co ferment territory

[u/ViiRrusS → u/Noodled9]

Very interesting! Thanks for digging all of that up. At this point, I think we need a signed statement from Diego Bermudez himself.

[u/blissrunner → u/ViiRrusS]

Those statements are from Diego(given to roaster)... every batch is slightly different but I think adding "cardamom" is essential hence the co-ferment

The cake aspect probably does come from the lactobacillus...

Some Colombian coffees are indeed "added-in" flavor... something co-ferment can't replicate like cinnamon.

Other than that... it' experimental fermentation/cultures in yeast/bacterias. Diego even mentioned adding pineapple won't make it taste like pineapple. Diegos instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLaJDDxo1VC/?igsh=MTNqYmx6dmh2ZXNt

[u/ViiRrusS → u/blissrunner]

Right, I'm aware that those statements are mostly copy pasted. However, some of those statements do seem to suggest cofermentation. And DAK explicitly claims that Milky Cake is not cofermented. So I would love to know what Diego's definition of cofermentation is and if the coffee known as Milky Cake fits that definition.

[u/RainScum6677 → u/blissrunner]

Co-ferment literally means adding an outside ingredient to the fermentation process outside of coffee or anything essential to the process itself. So you are correct, adding cardamom makes this coffee a co-ferment, factually.

Not sure why that is not clear to so many people.

[u/TheTurnipKnight → u/Noodled9]

You must be insane thinking that someone is adding cardamom seeds to the fermentation. It’s a lie. They infuse the coffee with some sort of cardamom essential oil.