Pu’er Coffee

 When people talk about Colombian coffee these days, it no longer seems to be about how bright and clean its washed coffees are. Instead, the conversation often drifts toward all kinds of flashy, extreme processing methods. Sometimes it even feels exhausting to say the full word “Colombia,” and you just shorten it to “Colom,” as a quiet expression of mixed emotions—part regret, part resignation. But this is how things evolve. When one group relentlessly chases market demand and price premiums through aggressively engineered flavor profiles, there will inevitably be another group that chooses a different path: staying grounded in tradition and respecting terroir. And in today’s Colombia, producers like this feel especially precious—once you encounter them, you simply don’t want to miss them. Inmaculada Estate is one such name. If you heard of it for the first time, chances are it was back in 2015, when Sasa Sestic won the World Barista Championship using Sudan Rume grown in collabo...

 A few days ago, I introduced the cold-wash processing method developed by POMA Lab in Denmark, and I mentioned that I’d soon share a flavor review of the beans they grow and roast themselves. This is actually the first time I’ve ever tasted coffee beans produced directly from a research lab. Since they are both the growers and the roasters, this batch definitely counts as a rare find—haha. POMA is a coffee research and roasting company founded in Copenhagen in 2024. Their mission is to develop coffee production technologies that can be easily adopted by farmers around the world, helping address industry challenges and bridge the gap between research and real-world application. Their main research facility is a greenhouse on the Danish island of Funen, where they simulate different farm microclimates to observe, study, and adjust various coffee production methods. They developed the POMA Cultivation System—a comprehensive set of best agricultural practices designed to unlock the f...