The Fermentation Project • PREORDER

Four coffees. One harvest. One isolated variable.

The Fermentation Project is a global coffee experiment developed by fermentation specialist Lucia Solis in collaboration with James Hoffmann. Its premise is deliberately simple: take the same coffee and process it four different ways, changing the fermentation protocol while keeping the raw material consistent.

The result is a comparative tasting designed to make fermentation easier to understand—not as an abstract processing term, but as something you can experience directly in the cup.

Our kit contains four 80g samples from Finca San Miguel Urias in Guatemala’s Antigua Valley. Each comes from the same coffee and is subjected to one of four protocols: mechanically demucilaged with no fermentation, spontaneous wild fermentation, Lactobacillus inoculation, and Saccharomyces yeast inoculation.

4 × 80g

Presale available now.
Shipping begins September 16, 2026.

ISOLATING THE VARIABLE

Coffee flavor is the cumulative result of an enormous number of variables: genetics, environment, agricultural decisions, cherry maturation, processing, drying, storage, roasting, water, and brewing.

That complexity is part of what makes coffee fascinating. It also makes individual variables remarkably difficult to study through tasting alone.

The Fermentation Project approaches that problem through a control.

Coffee from the same farm, harvest, and group of varieties is divided into four batches. Rather than comparing fermentation styles across different countries, producers, varieties, and growing conditions, the starting material remains consistent and the processing mechanisms change.

This creates a much clearer opportunity to ask a deceptively complicated question:

What does fermentation actually contribute to the sensory experience of coffee?

At HEX, this is particularly interesting to us. We spend a great deal of time thinking about the relationship between genetics, agriculture, environment, processing, and roasting, and about how each contributes to what eventually appears in the cup.

Processing can preserve, obscure, transform, or add to the expression of the raw material. Fermentation in particular involves microorganisms metabolizing compounds within the coffee environment and producing compounds of their own. This project gives us an opportunity to examine the influence of this fermentation comparatively.

THE FOUR PROCESSES

01 — MECHANICALLY DEMUCILAGED

02 — WILD FERMENTATION

03 — LACTOBACILLUS INOCULATED

04 — YEAST INOCULATED

A GLOBAL EXPERIMENT

The same experiment will be roasted and shared by participating roasters around the world, turning four small batches of Guatemalan coffee into a much larger collective tasting.

On October 3, 2026, James Hoffmann will host a global live tasting, creating an opportunity for coffee drinkers in different cities and countries to taste the four processes together.

That communal component is one of the reasons we’re excited to participate.

Taste them blind. Taste them side by side. Take notes. Change the order. Brew them again.

Then join thousands of other people asking the same questions.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PROJECT

Lucia Solis

Lucia Solis is a fermentation consultant specializing in coffee processing, microbiology, and fermentation science.

She studied Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis, with a specialization in microbiology and fermentation science, before spending nine years working in wine production in Napa Valley. In 2014, she shifted her focus to coffee.

Her work with coffee producers centers on applying microbiological principles practically at the wet mill—developing fermentation and drying protocols intended to create greater control, repeatability, and clarity while reducing risk.

The experimental design behind these four coffees reflects that philosophy: simplify the variables enough that we can begin to understand what they’re actually doing.

James Hoffmann

James Hoffmann is a coffee professional, author, educator, and 2007 World Barista Champion whose work has helped make many of coffee’s more technical subjects accessible to a much wider audience.

Through his books, videos, and collaborative projects, he has consistently encouraged coffee drinkers to approach brewing and sensory experience with curiosity and experimentation.

The Fermentation Project brings that approach to a global scale: giving participants access to the same coffees and a shared framework through which to taste them.

THE KIT

Each HEX Fermentation Project kit contains:

4 × 80g whole-bean coffees

01 · Mechanically Demucilaged
02 · Wild Fermentation
03 · Lactobacillus Inoculated
04 · Yeast Inoculated

320g total coffee

This is a presale item. Orders are available now and will begin shipping September 16, 2026, allowing time for the coffees to arrive and rest ahead of the global tasting.

 

Note : Additional coffees purchased with your Tasting Kit will ship on their normal schedule.  The Tasting Kit will ship starting Sep. 16th

 

GLOBAL LIVE TASTING

October 3, 2026
Hosted by James Hoffmann on YouTube

Four processes. Four expressions of the same coffee.

A small experiment, conducted simultaneously around the world.