Where we test a fermentation idea on real cherry.
The estate we go to when we want to try something nobody else has done to a coffee yet — a 74-hour submerged anaerobic ferment on one lot, a wine yeast anoxic natural on another. Two of the most distinctive coffees on our shelf, from one farm.
Chikmagalur · Karnataka
It is October, and the cherry is ripening on the branch. Picking starts in November.
A typical year for this kind of country. This farm's own dates can run a few weeks either side.
Melkodige is in Chikmagalur district — Western Ghats shade coffee, arabica country, picked November to February like the rest of the district.
What sets the estate apart on our shelf is not the ground, which is typical Malnad hill country, but what happens to the cherry after picking: this is the farm we buy from specifically for its fermentation work.
For MOJITO, ripe SL9 cherries are hand-picked, floated to remove the lights, then sealed with EM5 — a live microbial culture rather than a lab strain — for a 74-hour anaerobic ferment, and dried on raised wooden trays under shade for 15 days. The result sets cocoa and raisin at the core and lifts sweet lime through the middle.
For SUR LIE, an Obata lot goes into the tank whole, a wine yeast goes in with it, and the oxygen is shut out — closer to a short wine maceration than a standard coffee ferment. It dries slowly afterwards on the fruit, which is where the dried-fig note comes from.
Melkodige also supplies a component to AMBER BLAZE, our three-estate blend with Unnaki and Kaimara, contributing the gentler floral and spice notes that round out Unnaki's honey sweetness and Kaimara's cocoa body.
“Melkodige is the farm we call when we want to know if a fermentation idea actually works on real cherry, not just on paper. Two of our most talked-about lots — Mojito and Sur Lie — came off this one farm, which tells you more about the grower's willingness to experiment than any tasting note can.”
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