Pre-sale · The Fermentation Project

Taste what fermentation actually does.

One harvest from a single Guatemalan farm, split and processed four ways by Lucia Solis for James Hoffmann's Fermentation Project. Brew them side by side and taste the difference, cleanly.

Reserve your kitSee the four coffees
4 × 100gone of each process
Late Aug–Seproasted & shipped
Mid-Sepworldwide live tasting
~20UK roasters have it

One variable, held up to the light

The same coffee, four ways.

Most coffees give you no way to know what the fermentation actually changed, because you never taste the unfermented version. This set fixes that. Same farm, same trees, same picking. The only thing that changes between the four bags is what happened during fermentation and processing.

The four processes

From a clean baseline to full fermentation.

All four are classed as washed coffees and all from the same lot. Washed coffees still go through a fermentation stage, this is done to help remove the mucilage layer that is left on the beans from the cherries.
This project isn't a washed versus naturals-versus-anaerobics process showcase. The differences here are subtle and deliberate, down to how each was treated in the fermentation tanks, so expect a comparison in nuance rather than a set of wildly funky cups.

01Control

Mechanically Demucilaged

No fermentation. The fruit layer is stripped mechanically, so you taste the farm, variety and altitude with nothing added. Your baseline.

02Traditional

Wild Fermentation

About 48 hours submerged, left to the farm's own native microbes. The route most washed coffees quietly take.

03Inoculated

Lactobacillus Inoculated

About 48 hours submerged with a lactic-acid bacteria culture. Tends to push acidity, brightness and structure.

04Inoculated

Yeast Inoculated

About 48 hours submerged with a saccharomyces yeast culture. Tends to build body, sweetness and aromatic complexity.

No fermentationFull fermentation

Strictly limited · UK only

Reserve your kit.

The James Hoffmann Fermentation Project

4 × 100g — one bag of each process

£25.00
£25.00
Sale Sold out

Beans or Grind  ·  whole bean recommended

Beans or Grind

Don't add anything else to the pre-order

  • Roasted and shipped late August / early September
  • Posted in time to rest before the live tasting
  • Worldwide live James Hoffmann tasting: mid-September
  • UK delivery only
  • Pre-sale orders are non-refundable
At a glance

The specs

TASTING NOTES

For you to discover

COUNTRY

Guatemala

REGION

Antigua Valley

PRODUCER / FARM

Hector and Lilian Leal / Finca San Miguel Urias

ALTITUDE

1460 — 1540 masl

PROCESS

Washed

VARIETAL

Caturra, Bourbon, and H1

TYPE

Regular

ROAST

Medium/Light Roast

The people behind it

Who made this possible.

Fermentation & processing

Lucia Solis

Lucia Solis is a fermentation and processing specialist who came to coffee from wine. She trained in viticulture and enology at UC Davis and spent nine years making wine in Napa before moving into coffee in 2014. Winemakers have long treated fermentation as something to measure and control, while most coffee is still fermented by whatever happens to be in the air and on the fruit. Lucia's work is about closing that gap.

Since then she has worked with producers across more than fifteen countries, teaching the tools and thinking that make fermentation repeatable rather than left to chance, and sharing it widely through her Making Coffee podcast. For this project she designed and ran all four processing protocols on the same lot, so the differences you taste are the result of method, not luck.

The Fermentation Project

James Hoffmann

James Hoffmann is a coffee professional, author and educator, and for a lot of people the friendliest way into specialty coffee. He won the World Barista Championship in 2007, co-founded a London roastery, and wrote The World Atlas of Coffee, but he's best known today for a YouTube channel followed by millions, where he explains how coffee works without the snobbery. If the name doesn't ring a bell, that's fine, this set stands on the coffee itself.

He created the Fermentation Project to answer a question that's oddly hard to taste in practice: what does fermentation actually change? To find out, he's bringing roasters and drinkers around the world together for a live tasting, everyone brewing the same four coffees at the same time.

Sourcing partner

Caravela

Caravela is the green-coffee partner behind this lot. They've worked in Guatemala since 2016, buying, milling and exporting specialty coffee in close partnership with the farmers who grow it, across dozens of producing communities. They're the reason all four bags start from the same carefully sourced harvest. Chris to finalise.

Coffee Worth Talking About

Your Best-Kept Coffee Secret

I want to be that secret you find and tell your best friend about, not something you find on every coffee shop shelf. I’m not fancy, polished or even professional sometimes and I don’t apologise for that, I just focus on roasting really really great coffee.

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The Process with James & Lucia

One of a handful of UK roasters.

It's a great privilage to be one of only around twenty roasters in the UK to receive this coffee, and our allocation is strictly limited. When these kits are gone, that's it
— there won't be a reprint.

Reserve your kit

— Chris, Bell's Beans

No priming, no shortcuts

No tasting notes. On purpose.

You won't find flavour notes on these bags. The whole point is to taste the four blind, against each other, and notice the differences yourself before anyone puts words in your mouth. Use the cupping guide below instead.

The four coffeesA scale & TimerFour identical cups, ideally 200ml capacityBoiling waterTwo large spoonsA grinder (or ask us to grind)Two cups of warm water

  1. Weigh equal doses

    Put the same weight of ground coffee in each cup — around 10g, we will be aiming for an 18:1 ratio of water/coffee

  2. Grind fresh, grind the same

    Grind just before you pour, medium-coarse, and keep the setting identical for every cup. This is the single biggest reason to buy whole bean. I personally grind a little bit coarser than I'd grind for pour over.

  3. Smell the dry grounds

    Before pouring, smell the freshly ground coffee in each cup and note first impressions.

  4. Pour the same water

    Pour 180ml of boiling water onto the grounds. Start a timer as you pour. Tip, 1ml water weighs 1g so 180ml = 180grams

  5. Let it steep

    Leave the crust that forms on top undisturbed for three minutes. Don't stir yet.

  6. Break the crust

    At three minutes, push the crust back with your spoon and smell each cup as you go, try not to stir up the bottom too much. The aromatics are at their clearest right here. Make sure to rinse your spoon in a warm sup of water between each coffee.

  7. Skim the surface

    At around seven minutes, use two spoons to lift off the floating grounds and foam. Rince the grounds and spoons into one of the cups of warm water between each coffee.

  8. Taste in order

    At around 12 minutes start tasting, putting a small amount of coffee on your spoon. Start with the control, then wild, then lactobacillus, then yeast. Slurp so it sprays across your whole palate. The coffee will still be hot at this point, so make sure you're careful on this first sip.

  9. Compare, don't score

    You're not rating them. Notice what moves between cups: acidity, body, sweetness, how long the finish lasts.

  10. Taste again as it cools

    Coffee changes as it drops in temperature. Some of the biggest differences only show up warm or cold rather than hot — so go back round. Don't feel you have to stick to the same order, mix it up and see how your perseption changes.

  11. Have fun and enjoy

    The most important thing is to enjoy the process and the coffees.
    Tip, you will make a mess and spill coffee on the table and probably your top! Have some paper towels handy.