Processing
Whole cherries fermented under carbon dioxide, as in Beaujolais. Produces bright, distinctive fruit and a very consistent result.
Carbonic maceration is a winemaking technique, most associated with Beaujolais, adapted to coffee in the last decade or so.
Whole, unbroken coffee cherries go into a sealed tank which is then flooded with carbon dioxide, displacing all the oxygen.
Inside intact fruit, without oxygen, fermentation happens within each cherry through the fruit’s own enzymes rather than through microbes on the surface. That intracellular fermentation produces a different set of compounds from any conventional process.
After three to ten days under CO₂, the cherries are removed and processed conventionally — washed, natural or honey — from that point on.
Bright, clean, distinctive fruit. Cherry, strawberry and tropical notes are common, with more definition and less of the funky, boozy character that open anaerobic fermentation can produce.
The word most used is clarity: the fruit is pronounced but articulated rather than muddled.
Control. Flooding with CO₂ and sealing the tank makes the environment far more repeatable than open fermentation exposed to whatever is in the air. Temperature, pressure and duration can all be logged and reproduced.
That reproducibility is why carbonic maceration has spread quickly among quality-focused producers, particularly in Colombia and Costa Rica.
Sealed tanks, CO₂ and monitoring are expensive, and the process ties up cherries for over a week. These lots are priced accordingly.
Almost always roasted very light. Use a clean method — V60, Kalita, or a Switch — and expect to grind finer and brew hotter than you would for a conventional coffee of the same origin.
Carbonic maceration is a specific kind of anaerobic fermentation: whole, unbroken cherries under a CO2 atmosphere. General anaerobic processing may use depulped beans and does not necessarily flood the tank with CO2.
Not literally. It tends to produce bright, clean, distinct fruit — cherry, strawberry, tropical — with more definition and less funk than open anaerobic fermentation.
The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.
60° cone · spiral ribs · 1–4 cups
The most transparent cup you can brew for twenty euros, and the least forgiving. Ceramic holds heat where plastic does not — and the open bottom means your pour, not the dripper, decides the coffee.
Best for: Someone who wants to taste what a single-origin coffee is actually doing.
≈ $25 / £20 / 22 €
64 mm flat burr · filter only · single dose
64 mm flat burrs, near-zero retention and a footprint the size of a mug, built for filter and honest about not doing espresso. For pour-over it is the clearest grind you can buy at this price.
Best for: V60, Chemex, AeroPress and batch brewing, where clarity is the whole point.
≈ $345 / £275 / 300 €
