This month, your taste buds will take a trip to Colombia, to the Piendamó region of Cauca, to discover an exceptional coffee: a Red Striped Bourbon produced by Wilton Benitez, on his Paraiso 92 farm. It's an extremely rare batch—not only for its variety, rarely seen on the market, but...
This month, your taste buds will take a trip to Colombia, to the Piendamó region of Cauca, to discover an exceptional coffee: a Red Striped Bourbon produced by Wilton Benitez, on his Paraiso 92 farm. It's an extremely rare batch—not only for its variety, rarely seen on the market, but also for its unique fermentation process.
This coffee underwent a double anaerobic fermentation , followed by a unique treatment with Koji (Aspergillus oryzae), a fungus traditionally used in Japanese fermentations (like miso or soy sauce). All this, for 1440 hours (!), in bioreactors custom-designed by Wilton himself. This meticulous process allows for precise control of parameters like temperature, pH and brix, to target complex sugars and develop unique aromas.
Why this coffee is so special
Wilton Benitez is much more than a producer: he's an engineer, an inventor, and a passionate man who constantly pushes the boundaries of specialty coffee. He designs and builds all of his own fermentation and drying equipment, paying incredible attention to every detail of the process.
Koji helps break down complex sugars into simpler ones, which offers great potential for new flavor profiles. Approximately 70% of coffee sugars are broken down during other processing methods—from washing to carbonic maceration and anaerobic fermentation. However, koji allows for more sugars to be used in subsequent fermentation stages, which can intensify the coffee's flavors.
The result?
An unforgettable cup, with rich and surprising notes, where umami, marked sweetness and aromatic complexity mingle. When we compare this coffee to other fermentation processes, we can note a more interesting texture, a marked roundness of acidity and sugar. I want to use the English word "Juicy" because that is really what this coffee evokes for me. It is a coffee as technical as it is emotional, which embodies the future of fermentation in the world of coffee.
How to make it taste its best?
Being an espresso fan myself, I had fun preparing this coffee with some special recipes to see what it could offer. When cupping, I noticed an interesting balance and texture, so without a doubt this coffee would be excellent in espresso. These days, I experiment a lot with quick extractions in espresso, and for this coffee, I invite you to consider it since these are the results that, for my palette, were the most interesting!
So for an espresso that brings out the sweetness and lets the special process shine to the max, I put 16g in my portafilter for a 48g (1:3) extraction in 18 seconds. My grind was coarse enough to achieve this ratio so quickly. Note that my machine is set to 6 bar so that can also help me get a more uniform extraction and increase for total extraction. I didn't do any special profile, no pre-infusion or bloom. I obtained an extraction of 22.5% with this recipe (for those who are motivated enough to measure the TDS of their extractions). By reducing the extraction, I found that the acidity took over too much and that we lost the texture of the coffee. With more extraction, it became difficult to distinguish the subtleties of the coffee aromas.
For a pour-over, I like to do a really long bloom with this kind of fermented coffees. I did a fairly classic 1:16 ratio but I did a 1 minute bloom and then brewed in 2 pours. So I had 15g of coffee, a 30ml bloom for 1 minute, then 2 almost equal pours to arrive at a volume of 240ml. I always set my temperature to 95C for a pale coffee. The result was very sweet and kept the beautiful deep texture that the Koji brings during the huge fermentation.
