Posted in Story
Written by Rory Murphy
May 10, 2024
SUPERNATURAL coffee is not a ghost. So what is it?
Posted in Story
by Rory Murphy
Supernatural coffee is a Natural coffee on steroids. Natural processed coffee is known for its fruity, funky, and boozy flavours, it is sweet, and is relatively low in acidity when compared to washed coffee. To achieve these flavours, the coffee is dried with the coffee cherry fully intact around the coffee bean. As the coffee dries in layers, the fruit slightly ferments, imparting fruity, boozy, and funky notes that you wouldn’t get from washed process coffee. So how could you take this further?
Project Origin have been working closely with Los Pirineos and together they have experimented with all kinds of processing methods. For Supernatural processing, only coffee cherries with a high percentage of sucrose, 20-22 degrees Brix, are selected. These high sucrose cherries are then placed in plastic Grain-Pro bags usually used for shipping coffee post processing, and left out in the sun to ferment and develop yellow, orange, and red fruit qualities. If lower Brix level coffee cherries were used, the fermentation wouldn’t happen at the same rate, and the result wouldn’t be as fruity or as sweet.
Post fermentation, these cherries are laid out in beds to dry. To accentuate the natural processing flavours, the drying bed is spread thin for even drying and consistent flavour, but is finished drying under shade so the drying stage is stretched out. This allows more contact time with the fruit on the bean, allowing more of the process flavours to transfer into the bean, and allows it to keep the sweetness.
The resulting coffee is intensely fruity, with a chocolate brownie aroma, and molasses like sweetness. Flavours of dark chocolate and papaya instantly hit the tongue, and more tropical notes come to the surface as it cools. A truly unique teat for the senses.
Here's the breakdown:
—Farm: Los Pirineos
—Region: Tecapa Chinameca, El Salvador
—Variety: Pacamara
—Altitude: 1600-1800m
—Processing: Supernatural
—Flavour notes: Pineapple, Honey, Papaya, Blood Orange, Dark Chocolate
The Los Pirineos SUPERNATURAL is available in the webshop NOW!