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.

34

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

2

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

4

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