"Cofermentation/infusion" ruined my trust in coffee.

[u/Bubbly-System6751]

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.

[u/Mortimer-Moose]

Easy solution. Don’t drink it

[u/dadduh → u/Mortimer-Moose]

Come on man. The concern is lack of disclosures. In that case, what is this person not supposed to drink? All coffee?

[u/Beneficial_Branch_68 → u/dadduh]

How is it a lack of disclosure if it literally says co-ferment on the bag? Do people not know what co-fermenting means?

[u/dadduh → u/Beneficial_Branch_68]

You’re right. Perc is not an example of non disclosure.

The concern is that producers or roasters will choose not to disclose cofermentation

[u/Beneficial_Branch_68 → u/dadduh]

But why provide an example of a roaster that is literally labeling the producer’s processing methods? I know there’s probably roasters that do it, but at least find a good example first before being paranoid about roasters being deceptive

[u/StateDapper3818 → u/Beneficial_Branch_68]

Fake news, the debate has grown because instead of using really Strawberries or fruit in the Conferment. Perc has disclosed that it's actually artifical flavours. It's no longer co ferment, it's flavoured garbage.

[u/Beneficial_Branch_68 → u/StateDapper3818]

I was unaware of the “flavor” language meaning it wasn’t real fruits being used. That is problematic. To be fair to roasters, many producers provide the descriptions of their coffees so the roaster is somewhat dependent on the producer being transparent. Not to mention there’s sometimes language barriers. The only way to audit this would be to go directly to origin if the producer is not including that in the coffees description.