Vietnam Anaerobic Lotus: Namesake Series
We are very excited to be releasing this special coffee alongside the Sebastian Ramirez Namesake coffee. This will be the first anaerobic washed process coffee we’ve ever released and it has a very unique flavor profile compared to most other anaerobic natural coffees we’ve tried.
This is also the third Vietnamese coffee we have released! For those of you who are familiar with our lineup of coffees, one of the coffees that has been central to the Vietnam Opal Bold, which is from the same cluster of farms that the Vietnam Anaerobic Lotus is from. There are about 100 farms that contribute to the wet mills that make up the Mercafe LIFT Program in the area. The Vietnam Opal Bold is a wet hulled coffee, a process which is most commonly used in Indonesia. These two processes (anaerobic washed & wet hulled) yield vastly different tastes. The Opal Bold has a higher moisture content after it’s dried, which naturally boosts the body and helps create herbaceous and vegetal notes like black pepper and cedar. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Anaerobic Lotus is slightly herbaceous, but more like sage than black pepper…the most remarkable thing about this coffee (and the reason we chose to buy it) is that it’s extremely clean. What you can expect to taste is high sweetness with notes of dried peach, medium acidity, medium body, and a clean, sweet finish.
This coffee started a really big conversation in our roastery when we first tried a sample of it. We were divided–some of us thought the coffee wasn’t a standout and the others felt really strongly that it deserved space in the lineup. After some discourse, we decided unanimously to move forward with it, simply because of the high sweetness and how clean tasting it is. It’s inconsistent with how we had come to think anaerobic coffees tasted, which is why it holds this special place in our namesake series. We love tasting anaerobic coffees, but we have never tasted one that is this clean before, so a coffee that challenged us was really fun to be able to discuss and talk about.
The best thing about both of these limited release coffees (read about the Sebastian Ramirez here) is that although they’re special and fun, they’re both incredibly approachable. Sometimes the most “fun and unique” coffees aren’t really the coffees you want as your daily drivers or your first morning cup, but both of these coffees are easy to enjoy and could be great first thing in the morning.
If you’d like to taste the coffee, we are hosting a free tasting event at our cafe on Sunday June 4, 2023 at 2pm in the conference room at our cafe.