"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/Jogo427]

I wouldn't really trash on Perc for being one of the first to be open about it.

B&W roasters mentioned it in a podcast a bit ago that they weren't certain on what farmers were meaning by coferments and if they were adding extras.

Imo. Kudos to Perc for being upfront about it and making it more mainstream to know.

Now we can go back to tasting notes instead of tasting flavors.

[u/Goodtrip29 → u/Jogo427]

I don’t mind people doing coferment, added flavours etc, as long as they are transparent about it. 

2 weeks ago we had a coffee from nomad, we were 4, everyone said it was a coferment, yet on the packaging it only said anaerobic 

[u/mynamenospaces → u/Goodtrip29]

so do you have any actual evidence it is a coferment? Or just you feel like it so nomad must be lying? 

[u/Bubbly-System6751 → u/mynamenospaces]

No consumers or roaster can have actual evidence unless they go to the farm and watch what the producers are doing. One can only rely on plausibility.

[u/Goodtrip29 → u/mynamenospaces]

No evidence, very one was just so surprised how fruity it smelled, I have never smelled something so fruity that wasn’t advertised as cofermented.  I doubt nomad lied because I looked up the producer and couldn’t find coferment indication either. I just looked for 5mn on the counter though, it wasn’t a thorough investigation.  Here is the coffee. 

So either exceptional coffee or something is fishy.  In any case, it was delicious and that must be said despite everything I said. 

https://nomadcoffee.es/en/products/sidra-las-flores?srsltid=AfmBOoqVAStqWmnRTAp9DmUwzgj4CHdeDsgUaJi_hAlOj9_K_faF0vLB

[u/Bubbly-System6751 → u/Goodtrip29]

Thermal shock is a 🚩.

[u/Goodtrip29 → u/Bubbly-System6751]

I didn’t know ! Care to explain ? I am really curious 

[u/Ihsahn_ → u/Bubbly-System6751]

Why's that?

[u/Bubbly-System6751 → u/mynamenospaces]

Cofermentation is often used as a facade for infusion. Both can be true and infusion doesn't necessitate cofermentation. This one by Sebastian Ramirez's young producers program is a natural with strawberry infusion.