The world of coffee is as vast as it is captivating, and at every stage of its journey — from the cherry on the tree to the cup — a unique story unfolds that shapes its flavor and quality. At Flor a Fruto we design every fermentation protocol with scientific rigor, applied with the agricultural knowledge of four generations of coffee growers.
Today we work with four classic processes — Washed, Honey, Natural and Innovation — plus the real-fruit co-ferments we develop at La Guamera, our co-ferment farm. Each one has its own documented protocol (what we call an IFP at Flor a Fruto, Integrated Fermentation Protocol), with time, temperature and microorganisms defined before we even start.
Washed
The base technique: a series of steps that guarantee the purity and quality of the bean. After the cherries are selected, they go through flotation to separate the highest-quality beans. Then comes the washing itself, where any trace of mucilage is removed. The result is a clean, balanced coffee — the one we drink every day at Flor a Fruto.
Honey
After selection, the cherries are pulped, leaving the mucilage (the "honey") intact on the bean. As it dries on raised beds, that honey infuses the coffee with sweet notes that a traditional washed process doesn't have.
Natural
Here the cherries go straight to drying, keeping all of their pulp. This approach brings out the fruity essence of the coffee: fruity, wine-like notes that only appear when the whole cherry is left to ferment together with the bean.
Innovation
Our most advanced protocols: carbonic maceration, fermentations with selected yeasts, bioreactors with specific starters. Here we experiment with controlled anaerobic environments to build flavor profiles that don't exist in nature without that intervention — whiskey, cocoa, intense red berries.
Co-ferments (La Guamera)
At our La Guamera farm we co-ferment coffee with real fruit — passion fruit, grape, cherry, coconut, and others — under controlled microbiology. The result is profiles that don't exist in coffee without that fruit involved: a completely different craft from our lab at El Písamo.
Every process demands a unique skill, with countless variables that shape the final result: fermentation time, temperature, pH, microorganisms. On this exciting journey through coffee processes, we keep experimenting, measuring and documenting every protocol — because an exceptional coffee starts long before roasting.
