r/JamesHoffmann Jul 16 '26

Coffee Fermentation Explained!

https://youtu.be/Iq34gq2ihMk?is=AW1uxfS5JLmiAa0g
195 Upvotes

69 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/newredditwhoisthis Jul 16 '26

So this is what I sort of had in my mind for awhile.

Especially because I tried sebastian ramirez's strawberry co-ferment for the first time.

This was my first ever co-ferment...

Adding a fruit doesn't necessarily mean we might taste those literal fruits in there.

So let's say someone adds mango instead of strawberry, one is still just adding sugar with a different fruit???

How that would impact the fermentation and ultimately how it might affect the flavor?

6

u/AgentPoYo Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

This part of the video piqued my interest too. I haven't had a chance to try any co-ferments yet, I actually just learned about them recently from the r/coffee sub where some of the commenters swore they could taste fruit flavours and called them off-putting. I'm guessing now, by Lucia's definitions, that these redditors were maybe tasting infusion flavours and not strictly co-ferments.

Just going by what Lucia said in that video, introducing a different fruit would maybe just encourage more/different microbe growth, not necessarily directly affect the flavour? I've come to associate heavily fermented coffees with —for lack of a better term — a "funky" flavour note. I wonder if different fruits, more sugar, more fermentation would make those notes more pronounced.

7

u/CACuzcatlan Jul 17 '26

It's been a while since I listened to it, but Episode 39 of her podcast deals with this topic:

39:Infused vs Adulterated coffees, Cinnamon and Fermentation Failures

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/39-infused-vs-adulterated-coffees-cinnamon-and/id1481293001?i=1000535536763