Watch our web-hosted discussion Special Topics: Anaerobic Fermentation!
Enjoy our latest educational talk!
We held our first Special Topics on April 4th, 2023. This was our first entry into a new webinar series designed for teaching, learning, connection, and discussion. At Cafe Imports, we consider ourselves students of this dynamic plant and industry and hope these webinars provide an opportunity for continued education. In the near future, we’ll host Special Topics on all things interesting, important, timely, or nerdy, and we invite you to join the conversation!
For all those who weren’t able to attend in real time, we’ve uploaded the recording. We want to make education accessible and believe a public forum is a wonderful way of doing so. We hope you enjoy learning alongside us.
This Special Topics was about one of coffee production’s more recent processing developments – anaerobic fermentation. Its trending popularity in specialty coffee led us to produce this video, which we also recommend watching!
Our speakers were Café Import’s staff and resident experts in their fields, contributing to the conversation through their unique lens. Dr. Taya Brown is our production researcher and educator. Omar Harerra is one of our green buyers, heavily focused on Colombia. Ian Fretheim is our Director of Sensory Analysis. Educator Dylan Siemens moderates the discussion.
A few of the key talking points:
- What is anaerobic fermentation? What is it not?
- How do we speak more accurately about this step in a coffee’s process?
- What is required to produce these coffees? What are the benefits and challenges for the producer?
- What role does this processing step play in a coffee’s valuation?
- What conclusions can be drawn about the impact on the cup?
Want to sign up for our next Special Topics?
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Earlier Posts
Introducing Two New Burundi Offerings: Sehe and Shembati Washing Stations
Introducing two new-to-us Burundi washing stations to the Australian market in 2019!
Water Activity in Specialty Green Coffee: A Long Term Observational Study by Ian Fretheim
We know that water is wet, but that fact alone isn’t enough to capture water’s immense power. That power is evident in coffee, not simply in the cup but also in the seeds themselves: Water activity (Aw) is the relative equilibrium that exists (or doesn’t exist) between the vapor pressure inside a food or a coffee seed as compared with the surrounding humidity or environment. In perishable foods, it is a significant measure for the sake of safety and the prevention of food-borne illness, but in coffee, it’s a significant measure…why, exactly? Click to find out.
The Cafe Imports Specialty-Coffee Harvest Chart, first edition
How is a roaster or green-coffee buyer supposed to know what coffees are arriving when? With the first edition of the Cafe Imports Specialty-Coffee Harvest Chart, natch.
Harvest Report: Colombia 2019
When it comes to highlights and harvest reports, Colombia has a very square advantage: The size, terroir, and geographical location of this coffee-producing force make sure that there is always news coming from some corner of the country, and its multiple harvest and shipping seasons make it a constant source of interest for us as well as for our customers.
The Cafe Imports Coffee Family Tree, fourth edition
There are hundreds of varieties with individual proper names planted all over the world, and many of them grow differently, look different, and certainly taste different from each other—but when you dig below the soil and research each plant’s roots, you’ll often find yourself tangled in a network of related, crossed, back-crossed, and derivative genetic lines that, well, often lead back to one or two or three main branches.
Introducing: Oxcart Coffee – Cafe Imports Latin America
Traditional oxcarts, or carretas, are one of the most prominent national symbols of Costa Rica, and they call back to the country’s long, proud history with coffee. That longevity and pride, as well as quality in work and deed, is the reason we chose the same symbol...
A Dispatch from Honduras about Cafe Imports’ Partnership with Trees, Water & People
When you break down the work we do into three absolutely basic elements, what do you get? Trees, water, and people—right? After all, what is a coffee plant but a tree; water is necessary not only for growing and processing coffee but also brewing; and without people, well, need we say more? Considering the incredible significance of this natural trilogy, it makes perfect sense that we have partnered with an organization called Trees, Water & People in order to maintain our carbon-neutral status and to attempt to “leave no trace” as a business in a resource-thirsty global industry.
Best Cup 2018, Bigger and Better: Colombia and Carmo de Minas
A few times every year we pile into a chiva with 20 or 30 of our roaster friends from around the world, drive into the heart of a coffee-growing community, cup for days and days, and discover some of the most exquisite microlot coffees in the world by ranking the top 30 out of hundreds of submitted samples. Then we all wake up on the last day of a long week and top the whole thing off with a wild and wooly live auction, surrounded by dozens of coffee growers and their families in a sea of auction paddles, music, food, tears, and camaraderie…
Introducing Cafe Imports’ Ethiopia Sourcing Office, Addis Ababa
Ethiopian coffees are near and dear to our hearts, so it’s only fitting that we at Cafe Imports should want to be near and dear to the heart of Ethiopian coffee: This year, we’re happy to announce the establishment of the Cafe Imports Ethiopia Sourcing Office in Addis Ababa, which will operate during and post-harvest and will serve as a hub for our cupping, purchasing, and developmental operations in East Africa.
Understanding Fermentation and Coffee
Humans love fermented foods so much you’d think we’d have pickled ourselves by now: We can’t seem to get enough bread, sauerkraut, wine, yogurt, cheese, chocolate, or, of course, coffee. Well, coffee’s not a fermented beverage per se, but fermentation does play a part in the creation of this drink we love, and since we are insatiably curious about every step in the process we have attempted to learn and absorb as much as we can about the importance and the impact of fermentation on coffee quality and flavor. Click here to read more about what we’ve discovered in our reading, research, and experience.
Introducing: Farm Select
In response to the diversity of the market and the growing amount of high-quality coffee available from farms of all sizes, we are pleased to announce a new Farm Select initiative in order to offer our customers greater traceability on midsize single-farm lots that are reasonably priced and hit a solid, reliable level of quality.
Origin Report: Colombia 2018
Colombia is a home away from home for us, and we travel there so often it almost feels more like a regular commute than a big-deal coffee trip these days. This year, maybe more than ever, it’s been especially important for us to spend time and share physical space with our producer partners, as continued weather disruptions and a tumbling market threaten to cause a crisis of confidence. Here’s our latest dispatch from the harvest currently underway in Huila and Nariño.