What’s the problem with infused coffees?
I guess if you want to look at it that way, asking coffee farmers to keep their commodities pure can feel like a form of eugenics. Only that’s not really what’s being said, is it?
I hadn’t planned on this edition of Stew to be about coffee. I had something else in mind. But that’s just the way it plays out.
Infused coffees have been a topic of contention for years. In August 2021, an article titled “What’s the problem with infused coffees?” was published on Perfect Daily Grind, written by Saša Šestić (founder of Australia’s ONA Coffee). At the time the global coffee industry was in the grips of Cinnamongate.
One month later coffee consultant Cristopher Feran penned a blog article also titled “What’s the problem with infused coffees?”, at least partially in response to Saša. Aside from commenting how fruit infusions would probably adjust the nature of a fermentation and therefore its metabolic byproducts (microorganisms) rather than actually imbue any specific flavor into the coffee, he pointed out that it can be dangerous for private organisations or individuals to impose their preferences on a market. I’ll highlight one of the points he raised:
If industry chooses to regulate processes, definitions or purities, this regulation should originate from coffee producing countries—the same way that wine regulations, whether Protected designations of origin or appellation d’origine contrôlée or EU regulations, originate from those countries that have an economic interest in protecting the production and identity of those wines.
Christopher Feran, 2021
Three years have passed and the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama has officially taken a formal stance on infused coffee, releasing a statement in June unequivocally rejecting the presence of infused coffees in the SCAP and annual Best of Panama Competition.
One line from the statement:
the market is flooded with altered coffees masquerading as specialty products, using deceptive terms like ‘co-fermented’ or ‘thermal shock’ to mislead buyers… we believe altered or infused coffees should be categorized separately, clearly distinguishing them from genuine specialty coffee.
J. Hunter Tedman, president of SCAP and owner of Black Moon Farm
I won’t talk about the politics of the announcement too much because I think it would devolve from there. I will only talk about what I think.
Soon after this announcement was published, one Indonesian roaster complained, “Infusion allows other producing countries to create coffee with more exotic tasting notes, capable of competing with Panama gesha.” They also said, “This is how the coffee industry evolves in the face of challenges and ever-changing demand. Our advice? Keep an open mind.”
I have no idea why so many are up in arms about this. The release isn’t saying that infused coffees shouldn’t exist, only that they should not be labeled or sold in the same category as classic Panamian specialty coffee. I think that’s fair. When you order ultra-pricey Japanese wagyu from a restaurant, you hope it’s really Japanese wagyu and not meltique injected with coloring or fat to make it taste/appear richer. Should we extrapolate the announcement to competitions like WBRC or WBC? (We could, but I don’t want to go there yet).
Popular experimental processes like yeast inoculation or co-fermentation can be a great way to introduce exotic flavour notes into a cup. But you could taste very similar co-fermented coffees from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Panama. These processes are placeless: homogenous and independent of any single origin or even region. Panama has a rich and unique relationship with the gesha variety — you can see why these newer innovative processes wouldn’t exactly make sense in a competition titled Best of Panama.
Observing the escalation of this debate, I feel that there is a much more pressing concern: we have still not managed to come to an agreement about what makes an “infused coffee”. The recent SCAP statement makes mention of "altered from their natural DNA expression" and "foreign additives” yet refrains from explicit definitions. Do we actually agree about the level to which infusions/thermal shocks/co-fermentations/any other term affect the coffee on a chemical/sensory level? Do we know? How do we measure? Maybe it’s that lack of knowing that keeps us all so on edge.
What it means to maintain integrity and tradition
A judge from Masterchef England was the subject of much scrutiny in 2018 when he criticized a nasi lemak and rendang dish by chef Zaleha Kadir Olpin for lacking a crisp texture.
Readers: in no known universe is good rendang ever crispy.
2024 marks the 28th edition of the Best of Panama competition. After all that time tending to a specific crop in a specific land you learn to recognize how it should taste, and how the flavor changes because of seasonal shifts in rain, cloud cover, sun.
It’s inevitable: When you spend a quarter of a century raising your baby as carefully as possible, you will side-eye those who try to mimic your results with a fraction of the effort.
When flavors change too drastically based on an unnatural intervention, of course someone will know. And they will say: “In no known universe has Panamanian coffee tasted like that.”
Fragrant ginger, lemongrass, charred candlenut and turmeric are near-constant ingredients in Indonesian curries and soups. The base of French soups — mirepoix — consists of celery, carrots, and onions in butter. Italians would probably take that same aromatic base and saute in olive oil instead, call it soffritto, turn it all into a pasta sauce. A mixture of peppers, onions, and garlic in olive oil, on the other hand, is the sofrito found in Puerto Rican, Mediterranean, and Spanish cooking.
These differences are what makes food and drink so awe-inspiring and exciting. You can take the exact same ingredients but cook them in different ways, layer different sauces into the dish, until you manage to evoke a very specific country or even mountain or city. Or don’t turn the burner on just yet. Take a step back and compare the olive oil from the supermarket shelf with those from Italy’s finest farms, the ones that have been around for decades. The smooth textures and delicate, almost peppery fragrances you’ll find in the latter are the result of years and years and years of studying the terroir.
When you taste specialty food or drink from a specific origin, you’re tasting weeks or months of that country’s earth, sun, rain, winds. That’s the hard work of generations of people who spent their lives learning the land and harnessing the elements to coax out the best results.
When so many different people have a hand in shaping the final taste in a cup or on a plate, imbalanced additions to a crop can have a cheapening effect. I’ll steal a line I liked from Craig Simon in the Golden Brown podcast:
Good food and drink is a method of rooting yourself into the world. When you eat and drink and marvel, you join yourself to all the rest of humanity which, across space and time, has relied on the earth for nourishment. It’s absolutely a form of art and should be respected as such.
Are we missing the forest for the trees?
I feel saddened by the idea that infusions are the best or only way for Indonesian beans to compete with coffee from other origins.
Indonesia’s equivalent to the BOP competition — Cup of Excellence (COE) — is only entering its third year. That’s a 25 year age gap between our respective specialty coffee competitions. You’d be insane to expect our local beans to have the same level of complexity or refinement as their Panamanian counterparts.
With time and an open mind, our farmers can learn. Though our beans may not yet go head to head with those from countries with older industries, we will get there, and I don’t think we neecessarily need infusions — or gesha — to do it. (Non-infused beans from Puntang are one of our favorite beans this year and last).
Some have said, “Infusions allow us to make coffee with exotic notes, similar to Panamanian gesha!” I don’t know about you, but I don’t expect my Indonesian coffee to taste like Panamanian coffee. I want our farmers to learn the land and the trees to establish the best of Indonesian coffee flavors.
I can understand that many don’t have the luxury to pursue idealism: the market is fickle and coffee farmers need to move their product so they can eat and drink too. That’s why we as middlemen need to encourage support for Indonesian farmers so they can refine the other processes in the coffee growing cycle, even those that may not bear fruit for many years.
Does that mean we’re against infused coffees completely? No — like many have mentioned, infusions can be a more affordable way for coffee producers to earn more. Interest in infused coffee has only risen each year, after all (unlike passing trends like kopi luwak). We simply advise against framing infusion/fermentation as necessary innovation for survival’s sake. (I’d make the same argument against those who position AI as innovation in art).
As an industry, we shouldn’t let infusions or other experimental processes excite us to the point that we forget all the other steps.
Complexity of coffee flavor: A compositional and sensory perspective
The young age of our industry means that consumer palates are fresh and underdeveloped. Consumer demand is not a Lovecraftian horror that must be fed lest we risk sudden death: suppliers can choose how to react. With time and an open mind, consumers can learn to appreciate the more classic flavors. Sometimes it’s as easy as sharing knowledge and appreciation for coffee with guests. Sometimes it requires redoing processes to make the customer journey easier or less intimidating. We have faith that, in time, curiosity for what SCAP terms “authentic” flavors will grow.
At Homage, we are proud of the progress we’ve tasted in local coffees. Every single day we serve filter coffee from Aceh and Jawa Timur alongside beans from Colombia and Panama. Every single day the words come verbatim out of our mouths in our discussions with guests: “We’re so excited because local coffee is getting better and better each year.” And it’s always been true.
We spend time refining coffee growing processes for the same reason we spend hours trimming bonsai, deadheading flowers, rearranging the plants in our living room ad infinitum. Time makes all things better, sweeter and brighter.