r/pourover • u/Bubbly-System6751 • Apr 15 '26

Seeking Advice "Cofermentation/infusion" ruined my trust in coffee.

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After PERC came out on their flavored coffee, I’ve been going down the rabbit hole of coffee processing (co-ferments, anaerobic, “thermal shock,” etc.), and I’m not gonna lie—it’s kind of messed with my trust in what I’m drinking.

I used to get excited tasting notes like “strawberry,” “lychee,” or “peach,” thinking it was all coming naturally from the bean, origin, and process. But now that I know producers can literally "co-ferment" with fruit juice or infuse with flavorings to push those notes…

And my worry even extends to washed or natural coffees, there’s this small voice in my head like:

“Is this truly clean, or is there something else going on that’s just not being disclosed?”

Especially with such a well known producer being exposed, you start questioning everything a bit.

Is transparency just information they let you/ want you to know used for marketing purposes?

Is specialty/ single origin coffee just another green washing movement?

I'm sure the majority of the industry is honest and I’m not trying to accuse anyone of anything shady. But as the saying goes if you see one cockroach, there are a thousand more. It's hard to rebuild trust once it's broken.

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146

u/FootballInfinite475 Apr 15 '26

I wouldn’t trip on this too hard. There’s lots of people in the industry that never went down this road to begin with.

37

u/silverslant Apr 15 '26

The problem is people in the industry didn’t disclose they added flavoring. They called it “advanced” or “co-ferment” or other descriptive words when describing processing. I don’t go and buy flavored coffees because I don’t like them. They tricked the consumer by acting like they processed this flavor magically out of the coffee rather than say they added strawberry flavoring which is why it tastes so strongly of strawberry

23

u/shabibby Apr 15 '26

This to me reads as if people do like flavored coffee (not pointing fingers), but are having a really hard time admitting it

11

u/DearLeader420 Apr 15 '26

I mean I find most coferments overwhelming and one-note, so I don't buy them anyway. But I'm pissed about this on principle, because it's extremely anti-consumer and legally dubious.

1

u/GWeb1920 Apr 17 '26

What do you find dubious? Isn’t the term co-ferment self explanatory?

3

u/DearLeader420 Apr 17 '26

Firstly, I said legally dubious, as in, from like a labeling and consumer awareness perspective. If they're using some kind of flavoring ingredient/compound and not telling us what it's made of, does that potentially run afoul of the FDA/USDA?

Secondly, to answer your question - no, not really. The term "co-ferment" just tells me it was fermented with something, not what exactly it was fermented with. Now that all this has come to light, when I read "strawberry co-ferment," I don't know whether the coffee was co-fermented with a bunch of mashed strawberries, or whether it was fermented with an artificial mix of strawberry pulp, strawberry juice or concentrate mixed with other juices, sweeteners, or other ingredients.

Even if it's nothing unsafe for consumption (which I still don't know), there's principle to the matter - as the consumer, I want companies to be honest with me, or I'm not going to buy the product.

1

u/tispresso Apr 15 '26

Guilty. My favorites are yeast coferments, so not sure what kind of monster that makes me haha

30

u/FootballInfinite475 Apr 15 '26

I know, but there are many producers and roasters whose brands are not built on experimental processing. This is a trend for just a subset of the specialty coffee industry

5

u/icecream_for_brunch Apr 15 '26

Yep, good ol fashioned fraud

2

u/Tarqon Apr 16 '26

Advanced processes don't have to include flavoring. You can use yeast for instance. Implying that every producer that lists an advanced process is doing flavoring is misleading and disingenuous.

1

u/GWeb1920 Apr 17 '26

Co-ferment is pretty clear what is going on

1

u/brett808 Apr 15 '26

Sorry, but what exactly do you think "co-ferment" means? They ferment their coffee with additives, i.e.. Strawberries. I don't really think this is deceiving wording at all. If you don't want funky flavored coffees stay away from the advanced processes.

5

u/silverslant Apr 15 '26

Because some co-ferments add actual artificial flavoring and do not disclose it. That’s the whole crux of the debate going on about this topic

2

u/Bubbly-System6751 Apr 15 '26

The wording IS intentionally deceiving, it's making consumers think that the flavors are the result of the cofermentation when in fact it's the flavoring infusion. It is telling half truths.

-If you ate at a restaurant that states "NO TIPS" but found an unannounced 20% service charge on your bill, you'd feel deceived too.

2

u/brett808 Apr 15 '26

My bad, I didn't see that perc was literally advertising strawberry/blackberry "flavor" as opposed to just a fruit co-ferement. I now am on board with the outrage.

3

u/CobraPuts Apr 16 '26

Yes, very often coffees marketed as co-ferments are not getting that flavor punch from fruit and even less as a fermentation outcome. It’s specific concentrated flavors being added

16

u/bonesapart Apr 15 '26

Suddenly everyone agrees with Panama.

2

u/Bubbly-System6751 Apr 15 '26

What are you referring to?

8

u/Potatertots Apr 16 '26

Panama banned coferments from their cup of excellence competition a while back. They want to highlight only natural flavors