Colombia 96 Hour PEACH Mossto Double Co-Fermented

96 HOUR
HONEY PROCESS
PEACH MOSSTO
DOUBLE CO-FERMENTED
 
9 oz
In September 2025, I went to Oakland to visit The Crown and had the opportunity to meet my favorite coffee producer, Edwin Noreña. I learned more about his approach to coffee production and gained a deeper understanding of co-ferments. what a legend of a producer!
 
Peach Mossto Co-Fermented Process
This lot highlights Edwin Noreña’s meticulous, multi-stage fermentation design, built around controlled oxygen exposure and precise blending. The process begins with freshly picked whole cherries, carefully hand-sorted for ripeness and consistency, washed clean, and placed into 2,000 kg tanks for a 24-hour fermentation with limited oxygen—an anaerobic maceration of the cherry.
During this first stage, the fruit softens, sweetness intensifies, acidity sharpens, and a concentrated, sticky runoff—known as mossto or must—is released, comparable to grape must in winemaking. Once fermentation is complete, the cherries are separated from their mossto and transferred into smaller 200 kg tanks to allow for tighter control in subsequent stages.
The collected mossto is fermented independently, inoculated with brewer’s yeast and enriched with dried fruit to build depth and aromatic complexity. This fermented, flavored mossto is then reintroduced to the whole cherries at a precise ratio of 10 mL per kilogram. The cherry and mossto are sealed together for a second fermentation lasting 72 hours.
After the second fermentation, the cherries are lightly depulped, leaving most of the mucilage intact—similar to a Costa Rican black honey process—and moved unwashed to raised screen beds in Edwin’s greenhouse. Drying takes approximately 10 days, followed by an 8-day conditioning period in a warehouse to stabilize internal moisture. The coffee is then sealed in GrainPro bags for long-term storage and cupped repeatedly over the following weeks for quality evaluation.
This lot is produced from Caturra, a classic Colombian arabica cultivar. Rather than relying on uncommon genetics, the distinction of this coffee lies in precise cultivation, selective harvesting, and Edwin’s exacting fermentation design. The result is a coffee where complexity feels integrated and composed—expressive without excess, and deliberate in every stage.