India

Description

This wildcard release comes to us from Pranoy Thipaiah of Kerehaklu plantation in India; all profits from the sale of this coffee will be returned to Pranoy and Kerehaklu. This 800g nanolot is the result of Pranoy's relentless experimentation in pursuit of improvements in both quality and efficiency, and was fermented using Aspergillus luchuensis—koji traditionally used to make shochu and sake—and a refined version of the "Koji Supernatural" protocol I devised for Vergel Estate and Kaapo Paavolainen in 2021. This coffee is atypical for Aviary stylistically, blurring the lines between fruity and funky with a round mouthfeel and notes of strawberry, blackberry wine and shiro miso.

From Christopher: "Pranoy and I connected some years ago via Instagram, where I admired from afar the way he applied his education in biology to improve the health and biodiversity of his family's farm and process engineer the farm's postharvest practices. Kerehaklu looks more like a nature preserve than a farm—with giant Malabar squirrels and bison living in the agroforestry habitat. Pranoy was curious about the koji protocol I'd written and we began to exchange ideas about how to improve the results and predictability of the process.

"One of the challenges Pranoy wanted to solve was how to create complexity in the cup from cherries at the beginning of harvest, which had a shorter maturation period and which may ripen unevenly. He hypothesized that Luchuensis, a species of fungi that shares the title of "national fungi" with Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus sojae and Aspergillus kawachii, with its ability to produce citric acid during the fermentation process, could improve the cup's complexity and the presentation of acidity.

"Using spores obtained from Europe, Pranoy processed Selection 9 Arabica—a cultivar descended from an Ethiopian variety, Tafarikela, crossed with Hibrido de Timor—and produced this 800g experimental nanolot, which he shipped via DHL for evaluation."

Revisit this blog post from 2021 and this blog post inspired about this coffee to put this coffee into context.

Kerehaklu and Pranoy photos by Alia Romagnoli

Text from Aviary Coffee's listing.