In the beginning of last week I realised that my coffee supplies were running extremely low. As my go to roaster’s shop is quite far, and I don’t have a car, I had to consider other options, in the light of the urgency of the matter. After a short trip down the internet rabbit hole, I realized my best bet would be a roastery near where I live (Piraeus, GR), and so I started my quest on Google Maps. The options were, as expected, quite limited, but not disappointing: there was a promising little coffee shop/roastery in Neo Faliro, about a 10-minute drive from home, called Eighteen Screen. My wife was happy to drive me there, so a few minutes later I was checking out the available packages on the shelf: a rather uninteresting blend from Brazil, and a significantly more expensive single-origin coffee from Costa Rica called Cordillera. What made the latter all the more interesting was that it underwent anaerobic fermentation, which is a method of coffee processing I had no idea about. Although I am not really the adventurous type―in fact, I am as risk averse as anyone when it comes to the important things in life, such as coffee―, the choice between an ordinary, predictable blend and the mysterious Costarican, was quite trivial.

The coffee

Cordillera is cultivated in the Alajuela and Tarrazu regions by a coffee farmer called Luis Eduardo Campos. Luis Eduardo, based on the information I gathered, is the inventor of the anaerobic fermentation process. He came up with the idea about a decade ago, and did not perfect it until 6 years later, so it’s a relatively new approach to the stage of coffee processing that comes before roasting.

The anaerobic fermentation process requires really mature coffee cherries, as these are more likely to have a higher sugar content, which is really important for the fermentation. Following removal of the exocarp, what remains of the coffee cherry, including the pulp (i.e. the mesocarp) enters large vacuum tanks. The sugars in the pulp are of key importance, as they facilitate the fermentation, whereby sugars are converted into acids. Acids, in turn, boost the complexity and the intensity of the taste profile. Once the fermentation process is complete, the coffee is naturally dried.

The coffee is of the Cattura variety, a natural mutation of the Burbon variety, originally discovered in Brazil. What sets Cattura apart is a genetic mutations that makes them grow smaller, which allows farmers to grow more trees in the same space, thus achieve higher yields. Although Cattura cultivation was never popular in Brazil, it is quite widespread in Central America.

Making espresso

Coffee beans need about three weeks after roasting in order to “calm-down”, i.e. degas. It’s not that it is impossible to get a good cup with freshly roasted beans but sometimes it can be quite a challenge and may lead to a lot of good coffee getting wasted. I knew the risks involved, when I pulled open the packet: it had only been a week since the beens were roasted. The only alternative I had was to open a packet of beans almost twice as expensive, and that were roasted just the day before. So, there was not much choice there.

The first few attempts to pull a good shot confirmed that the coffee was still in a rather unstable state. This made the dialling-in process a bit more challenging. However, it didn’t prevent the coffee from unfolding its personality in the majority of these “premature” brews.

As days went by and the coffee had a chance to calm down, the effect of the anaerobic fermentation became more and more clear. The tartness of red wine had a very distinct presence. It felt a bit strange initially, but once I became familiar with it, I admit I found it extremely pleasing (although I am not a wine drinker), especially in the accompaniment of cinnamon notes.

As already noted, the brew process was a bit wild in the initial attempts: the water flowed through the ground coffee faster than I expected. I tried to remediate that but grinding finer, but this resulted in overextraction, so I took a step back, observed the brew process more carefully, and identified distribution and tamping as the areas where I should focus on. More careful distribution and tamping seemed to pay off, and the recipe was at last finalised:

To sum things up, the anaerobic fermentation process really makes a difference and creates a very distinct cup profile, dominated by red wine and cinnamon. Not your ordinary cup of espresso, but a very enjoyable one, nevertheless.

Equipment used:

I got the coffee from Eighteen Screen Coffee Roasters in Neon Faliron, Piraeus.