High up at 3,500 ft, in a coffee grove shaded by a tropical forest of silver oak and macadamia trees lies a farm producing Myanmar coffee that is pushing coffee technology and processes to the next level. Most coffees are produced with similar processes used the world over: dried, washed, semi-washed but the farm here is using a technique new to the coffee trade called “anaerobic fermentation”.

In a process not dissimilar to red wine, the coffee beans are left to macerate in an air-tight tank with the juice, skins and pulp of the cherries. Yeasts naturally found on the skin of the cherries feast on the fruit juice and begin to convert the sugars into alcohol and CO2 gas. As the gas builds in the sealed chamber and the juice ferments into alcohol, a complex cocktail of flavor is created. The increasing pressure inside the chamber forces flavors into the surface of the beans.

A quick 24 hours later and the beans are pulled out of their tanks, sticky and fragrant. Left out to dry in the hot sun, the fermentation process is quickly stopped and the rest of their journey continues pretty normally. The anaerobic process however imbues these beans with a complex mixture of strangely tropical scents, berries, caramel and chocolate.

Not to be missed, if you are looking for something different to wake up to in the morning look no further! Enjoy it while it lasts however, we unfortunately have low quantities of this particular harvest.