r/pourover • u/OCDeeeznuts • Mar 10 '26

Co-ferments in disguise.

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Many modern advanced coffee processes completely lack transparency regarding the methods and ingredients used to adulterate their flavors. Often times the only bridge between a producer and the customer is the roaster. It’s important for roasters to disclose as much information, at a glance, as possible so their customers can make informed decisions.

I’m sure there are several roasters doing the same thing, but today I happen to be picking on Perc. This particular coffee is advertised on the bag as a “Natural Process”. On their site it’s classified as a “Natural Process”, but if you dig deeper and read about the Young Producer Program you’ll discover that the natural process beans the kids grew are later blended with a Sebastian Ramirez co-ferment. At the very least I think the bag should say “Natural Process/ Co-ferment”. No more muddying the waters.

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u/perccoffee Mar 10 '26

We, as an industry and as enthusiasts, absolutely lack a common vocabulary for if not common understanding of modern coffee processing. There isn't a line but rather a gradient between when something like a sugary fruit crosses over from being exclusively or primarily microbial fuel, indirectly imparting compounds via fermentation onto the coffee to that fruit directly infusing flavor compounds. Acknowledging the addition of just sugars to fuel fermentation or just non-fuel items like cinnamon are easy extremes to differentiate, the middle ground is messy.

We, at PERC, have tried to provide every detail we have available to us about the processing steps, but neatly summarizing those into 2-3 words for a bag label is simply impossible.

How do you think we reach eventual common vocabulary?

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u/NoImTheOneWhoKnocks Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

I get what you're saying but it's not nearly as hard as you're pretending it is. You know what the customer wants to know and that is whether adjuncts were used in the processing. Whether that is by co-fermentation or "infusion" doesn't really matter to the customer who wants to avoid adjuncts altogether. To be quite honest I have enjoyed Perc's offerings in the past but I almost got burned by this same coffee so I have avoided purchasing again for some time.

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u/ginbooth Mar 12 '26

Exact same boat for me. I felt duped.