As a foundation, Wilder Lazo has focused on building exceptionally nutrient rich soil. Coffee cherries are harvested only when fully ripe and then washed in water tanks to remove impurities and float the beans.
Here comes the trick. Wilder loves to play with processing techniques and found that if he chills the fermentation tanks in spring water that is around 16 °C, he can extend the fermentation, creating a big body without booziness! This lot was fermented for 60 hours in blue tanks at constant temperature before being dried for 18 days in the Marquesina.
The anaerobic fermentation of this coffee emphasizes the “true coffee character”, as most microorganisms work much slower compared to aerobic "fermentation" (actually more accurately referred to as “oxidation”, since fermentation, by definition, is an anaerobic process). In coffee processing though, everything that happens “between picking and drying” is mistakenly referred to as fermentation.
We got this coffee super fresh, cupped it, and found that we needed to hold the development time and end temperature super short and low to avoid creating any spiciness, due to its more fragile bean structure.
