Fermented Coffee: An Overview

At eatCultured, we're big fans of all things fermented, including coffee.

This short post aims to demystify what we mean by fermented coffee and how that applies to our first product: Cultured Coffee.

How and Why Is Coffee Fermented?

Coffee is a fruit, which looks a bit like a cherry (see the image below).

Its beans come wrapped in a tough protective shell that stops the beans from getting damaged on the tree.

Unfortunately it's hard to remove the cherry husk to get to the coffee bean, which is what's used to brew coffee. 

As a result coffee farmers use two different techniques, including fermenting coffee cherries, to strip the fruit pulp and husk away from coffee beans.

Wet Process

The exact process depends on the climatic conditions on the farm. 

Humid conditions favor wet processing. This involves natural fermentation, whereby ripe coffee cherries are immersed in water to separate unripe beans and trigger natural fermentation in the fruit pulp. 
Fermentation then makes it easier to separate pulp from the beans.

Dry Process

In dry, arid environments, coffee cherries are spread out on a flat surface to bake in the sun. The heat from the sun makes the pulp softer and easier to remove from the beans. 

While fermentation is involved to some extent in harvesting coffee beans, the exact level of fermentation imparted in every bean varies and isn't used to yield any flavor or health benefits. 

What Sets Cultured Coffee Apart?

Cultured Coffee, the world's first whole bean coffee crafted using smart fermentation, harnesses the potential for fermentation to make these kinds of improvements to each bean. 

By selecting specific microbes and applying them to dried green coffee beans (which may or may not have undergone a certain degree of natural fermentation depending on how they've been harvested) the team at eatCultured crafts coffee with certain characteristics and benefits in every batch. 

These benefits range from caffeine that supports longer-lasting energy compared to regular coffee, to a coffee that's easier to digest and tastes less bitter - all thanks to fermentation. 

eatCultured's standardized and carefully controlled process ensures a consistent health and flavor profile despite the variables involved with natural fermentation. 

We hope you found this post useful!

Learn more about eatCultured's first healthy fermented product: Cultured Coffee