The Fermentation Project 2026: 
A Global Tasting Event

We've partnered with James Hoffmann and Lucia Solis to bring you a rare side-by-side tasting experience: the same coffee, from the same farm, processed four different ways. This isn't about chasing the most intense or unusual flavor, it's an educational box designed to show what fermentation actually does to coffee, and where its real limits are.

Every bag in this set starts as the same cherry, from the same lot, at the same farm. What changes is only how the mucilage is broken down before drying. Taste them side by side and you can actually taste fermentation at work.

What's inside

Four 60g bags of whole bean coffee, each processed differently:

• Mechanically Demucilaged — no fermentation. The mucilage is removed by machine, using friction, water, and centrifugal force, with minimal microbial activity. This is your baseline: the flavor here comes from the farm, the growing practices, and the variety itself, not from fermentation.
• Wild Fermentation — a 48-hour submerged fermentation carried out by the local, naturally occurring population of yeast, bacteria, and fungi. This is the traditional method most washed coffee goes through.
• Lactobacillus Inoculated — a 48-hour submerged fermentation using a concentrated Lactobacillus culture, generally producing more organic acids and brighter, more complex acidity.
• Yeast Inoculated (Saccharomyces) — a 48-hour submerged fermentation using saccharomyces yeast, generally building more flavor precursors and adding body and complexity.

The coffee

• Origin: Guatemala
• Farm: Finca San Miguel Urias
• Location: Antigua Valley
• Variety: 85% Caturra, 15% H1 & Bourbon
• Producer: Lucia Solis

Why this project exists

Fermentation isn't new, it's actually hard to find a coffee today that doesn't have some fermentation component to it.

When people taste a "fermented" coffee, they rarely get to taste a washed coffee version next to it for comparison. This box fixes that. It's built to educate, not to push you toward any one processing style, just to give you a clearer picture of what's actually happening in the tank, and a shared vocabulary for talking about it.

The Big Global Tasting

Pre-order now to make sure you're set up in time for James Hoffmann's worldwide live tasting event, where you'll taste all four coffees along with James in real time.

Date 3rd October.

Shipping

This is a presale — all four bags in your set ship together from September 14, 2026.