James Hoffmann's The Fermentation Project | Quartet Box

The Fermentation Project is an exciting global tasting event led by James Hoffmann (award-winning coffee professional, author, and communicator known for his influential work in specialty coffee), Lucia Solis (coffee fermentation and processing specialist), and Caravela (sourcing partner).

This project was designed as an educational tool to talk about the power and limitations of controlled fermentation. When most of the speciality coffee world is thinking about co-ferments/infusions and extreme processing, it's a chance to have a different conversation about the role of processing beyond creating intense flavours.

Learn more about The Fermentation Project and sign up to receive project updates.

What you’ll need:

• Several glasses or cups of equal size, roughly able to hold anything between 200ml to 350ml of water. (you’ll need two cups for each coffee you intend to cup.
• A cupping spoon, or any round spoon such as a soup spoon will do the trick!
• Freshly boiled water
• Roasted coffee
• A grinder
• Scales
• A timer

Method:

The brewing ratio for coffee to water for cupping is 8.25g coffee to 150ml of water. So for example a 240ml cup will need 13.2g coffee.

1. Weigh out the desired amount of coffee into each cup. Grind the beans into the cup making sure to flush a little bit of the same coffee through the grinder first.
2. Sniff the freshly ground coffee and make notes of the fragrance
3. Pour boiling water to the top of each of the cups and set the timer for four minutes.
4. After 4 minutes, ‘break the crust’ of coffee that has formed on the top of each cup by gently pushing the back of your spoon three times through each cup. Make sure you dip your spoon into a clean glass of water before moving onto the next cup. This is also very good time to get down close and smell the aroma of the wet coffee.
5. Wait another four or five minutes until the coffee is cool enough to taste. Put a small amount of coffee into your spoon and slurp it making sure to aerate as much as possible it throughout your mouth.
6. Continue this process over the next 20 minutes or so working through all the coffees and going back and forth making notes of the acidity, the body, the flavour and the aftertaste.

Many people cite Guatemala as their favourite coffee origin, and for good reason: coffees from here tend to be balanced and sweet but with lots of complexity, and the diverse regions from volcanoes to plateaus to rainforests provide a huge variety in growing conditions and terroir.

Guatemala is one of the world’s most renowned coffee-producing nations, and enjoys nigh-on perfect growing conditions across most of the country. Since its introduction in the mid-18th century, coffee has become a massively important part of Guatemala’s economy and culture.

With support from the national coffee association, Anacafé, Guatemala's coffee industry has grown to become the world's tenth largest producer, generating around 40 percent of the country's agricultural export revenue and supporting almost half a million families.

Speciality coffee is grown across eight distinct regions in Guatemala, designated by Anacafé as those producing Strictly Hard Bean (high altitude) coffee, and can be divided into five volcanic and three non-volcanic regions. Huehuetenango, one of our favourite coffee producing areas (which means 'Place of the Ancients') is the highest of the non-volcanic regions, located in the west of the country along the Mexican border and dominated by the Cuchumatanes Mountains.

Here, hot air sweeps across from the Plains of Tehuantepec in Mexico, and mixes with cooler mountainous air, creating a frost-proof microclimate that allows coffee to be cultivated up to 2,000 metres. Coffee from Huehuetenango (pronounced way-way-teh-nahn-go) is much sought-after and often places highly in Guatemala's Cup of Excellence competition.

Our speciality coffees are 100% traceable and ethically sourced. We work direct with farmers, or through trusted partners, to bring you the best coffee from around the world.

Sourced in partnership with: Caravela Speciality
Producer relationship length: Since 2022