Colombia El Vergel Estate Gesha | Koji Supernatural

ROAST:  Filter Roast Only

PROCESS: Koji Supernatural

REGION: Tolima

ELEVATION: 1460

VARIETAL: Gesha

CUP:  Floral, White grape, Vanilla, Apricot, Mixed spice

This coffee is sure to ruffle a few feathers! 

It is our first release of a koji processed coffee and it happens to be a gesha. It hails from the El Vergel Estate, Colombia. Koji processing in coffee is the original collaboration of Elias and Shady of the Vergel Estate, Kaapo Paavolainen of One Day Coffee and Christopher Feran.

But what is the koji process? It is when the producer takes koji spores (aspergillus oryzae)—a fungus common in food fermentation in Japan and originally derived from rice—and sprinkles them over their coffee cherries. The koji inoculated cherries are left in tubs or on tarps with the presence of oxygen for a controlled period of time, in our case this was 3-4 days. The temperature of the cherries is also carefully monitored to keep them within a range that is suitable for the koji to grow. This koji gesha was then sun dried for 10 days, followed by a 2-4 day period of mechanical drying. Koji acts as a catalyst to help breakdown the inherent properties of a given coffee cherry and amplifies those flavours. Typically, koji processed coffee results in an increase in sweetness and cup structure. 

Given the flavours that arise in the final coffee are technically apart of the coffee to begin with, for some in the coffee community the koji process is still considered a ‘non-interventionist’ processing method. It is still natural, of course, but not quite! Hence, people refer to it as, ‘supernatural’. Whatever your stance is on the naming of these processing methods, we believe what is most important is that the processing is stated accurately. 

We consider this to be a valuable example of a koji processed coffee as we can distinctly taste both the character of a Colombian Gesha as well as the savoury, fermenty and extra-sweet signature of the koji processing. We hope you enjoy the flavours on offer in this complicated coffee! We will always endorse the classic and traditional methods of processing coffee but believe there is room on our roster to celebrate the novel processing methods too.