07on the shelf
Anaerobic and carbonic maceration lots are fermented in sealed tanks with the oxygen shut out, so a different set of microbes does the work and the producer controls temperature and time instead of leaving it to the weather. The flavours that come out are not subtle: tropical fruit, wine, cinnamon, sometimes a boozy edge. Whether that reads as extraordinary or as a fault depends almost entirely on how tightly the tank was managed.
Treat these as the most fragile coffee you own. Rest them at least two weeks from the roast date. Under-rested ferments taste sharp and solventy, and people write off a good lot when the coffee simply was not ready yet. Brew cooler, 88 to 91C, and coarser than you would a washed coffee at the same roast level, because the aromatics are already extreme and heat pushes them towards acetone. Drink them black first. Milk and sugar erase precisely the thing you paid extra for.
These sit at the experimental end of what we roast; the rest of the range is in all coffees.
