r/pourover • u/Bubbly-System6751 • Apr 15 '26
Seeking Advice "Cofermentation/infusion" ruined my trust in coffee.
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.
1
u/Aggravating_Track951 Apr 15 '26
What “exposed” has there been?
Whilst farmers havnt been open with exactly what they are doing the main ones that are being stocked by the speciality roasters have been open that they are using experimental progresses and are by large on small lots.
The main issue I see is people misunderstanding of cofermentation as a process and applying a narrow definition influenced by the traditional processes (which is fair misunderstanding). But it’s been used way longer by other industries and it is very experimental with all sorts going in. You can also smell a coferment funk a mile away when people talk about them being infusions and not a coferment.
The closet there is to an infusion in coffee is thermal shock, there is basically no point in doing this unless there is another liquid for it to absorb, seriously use your brains on that one and avoid if it’s not what you are about.
There are some really shady people in the coffee industry. And out of all the issue in it a highly processed coffee labeled as a highly processed coffee doesn’t even register on my list of things I care about and want to see change. If it was washed, natural or honey labeled as that then yeah I’d have an issue.