Written by:
Dušan Matičič
Head of coffee and Head roaster at GOAT STORY

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It's no secret: I'm not the biggest fan of experimental processing methods in coffee.

Before you stop reading this and say "This guy doesn't understand progress in coffee", please let me explain.

A few years back, experimental processing methods in coffee were becoming very common on farms. And, I must admit, I tasted a couple very very very good experimental coffees at the time. But the price was way too steep for a rookie roaster (I was a bit scared of roasting expensive coffees). 

About a year later, I noticed an influx of cheaper experimental coffees. So I got myself samples, roasted them, but when I started testing them, I noticed something strange ...

ALL THESE COFFEES TASTED THE SAME 🤯

There two ways a coffee producer approaches alternative coffee processing methods:

1. THE LONG-TERM APPROACH
There are coffee producers out there, who do their research about experimental processing. Who invest in proper equipment. Who know how to control their experiments. Who take their best beans and make them even better. But now overwhelming. And who methodically progress in quality of their processing methods year by year. There's also a pattern here: some of the best experimental coffees I have tasted have been produced by very young producers who have taken over their parents farm.

2. THE SHORT-TERM APPROACH
Some producers take the other way - the easy way (or the "make a quick buck" way). The thing is - anyone can make anaerobic fermented coffee. But not everyone knows what they're doing. Using mediocre coffee and leaving the fermentation process to chance, without proper methodology and supervision, usually leads to overprocessed coffees. And these are the coffees that eventually ... all taste the same.

I hope you understand why I'm hesitant about experimental coffees. Because I've been burned too many times with high hopes, only to be left with just another winey and funky coffee.

But sometimes a coffee comes by that restores my faith in experimental processing. For three years now we have been working with Rodrigo Sanchez, a coffee producer from Colombia. Rodrigo runs three farms (Monteblanco, La Loma and El Progreso), each with a specific processing focus.

Rodrigo Sanchez and myself at World of Coffee in Athens (2023)

The El Progreso farm is focused (among a few others) on the carbonic maceration process (I'll explain the process in another email). And we were one of the lucky roasteries in the world to get this coffee.

The El Progreso Carbonic Maceration has been a favorite in our coffee shop in Ljubljana, and it was a show-stopper at World of Coffee in Copenhagen back in June.

I'm sad to say that I will be roasting the last batch of this coffee on Monday (March 10 2025). So if you want to taste the Rodrigo Sanchez vision of delicate coffee processing, this is your last chance.

Enjoy! 

Dušan