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Tasting Like: Super Super Boozey, Old Fashion, Orangette Slices, Oak Barrel, Red Plums, Cherry Cola, Ombligon Like Body, Super Funky + Experimental

Farm: Torch Coffee
Producers: Marty Pollack
Variety: Catimor
Process: Black Sheep Double Fermentation
Origin: Yunnan, China
Altitude: 1550masl

Freaky. Super freaky actually. You've gotta be willing to venture to the unknown with this coffee. It's wildly popular and insanely hard to get but especially amongst those with the most curious of minds and palates. Red fruits overdrive, boozemaxxing, and a surprisingly pleasant cherry cola impression scream on this coffee. It's a black sheep of experimental coffees out currently and with your first sip you'll definitely get why. We've been chasing this lot for months - literally had it on our wish list since we first tasted it late 2024. When we finally confirmed we could secure a small allocation, we didn't hesitate. Fair warning however: this coffee will polarize more than us putting pineapples on pizza(yes it's good, go argue with a wall). You'll either be completely obsessed or kind of confused, and honestly, I'm ready for either reaction. Those who get it though understand. 

Basically to know you have to have some additional context. The "Black Sheep" process represents one of the most extreme experimental approaches to coffee fermentation currently being practiced anywhere on planet earth. Developed by American coffee educator Martin Pollack and his team at Torch Coffee Labs in Pu'er, Yunnan. Pollack, who founded Torch in 2015 after falling in love with Yunnan's coffee potential, serves as both Business Director and certified Q Grader Instructor, running coffee education and certification programs throughout Asia while maintaining decade-long relationships with local producers and running Torch. His Black Sheep method involves an initial thirty-day anaerobic fermentation where Catimor cherries are sealed in tanks without oxygen, allowing wild yeasts and bacteria to create intense flavor compounds. After this extended fermentation, the cherries are partially dried to exactly thirty-five percent moisture content-the most critical step that concentrates the fermentation byproducts while preparing the beans for another phase of processing. The coffee then undergoes an additional sealed twenty-day long fermentation period, creating layers of complexity that would be impossible with anything but this odd processing. Finally, the beans are dried to twelve percent moisture content and carefully monitored throughout to prevent over-fermentation. This double anaerobic approach creates the intense boozy, oak barrel characteristics when done on the catimor varietal. Torch's approach reflects a encouraging commitment to education-driven experimentation. Every wild process they develop teaches both farmers and you + I something new about fermentation science and flavor development. That's the coffee of tomorrow I believe.

Further research for you about the region:

Yunnan Province is a region historically famous for thousand-year-old tea trees that has quietly become China's coffee powerhouse, producing ninety-eight percent of the country's drinkable coffee across some 120,000 hectares of mountainous terrain. Located in southwestern China bordering Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, Yunnan's unique terroir combines high-altitude growing conditions between 1200-2000 meters with volcanic soils enriched by centuries of tea cultivation, creating a distinctive "tea-like" influence in the coffee that's unlike anywhere else in the world. While coffee first arrived in Yunnan in the late nineteenth century through French missionaries, serious specialty coffee development only began around 2010 when pioneers like Pollack recognized the region's potential for producing world-class Arabica. The Catimor variety dominates production due to its resilience against coffee leaf rust and ability to thrive at Yunnan's relatively high latitudes, where dramatic day-night temperature swings allow for slow cherry development and exceptional flavor concentration. What makes Yunnan particularly exciting for the future of specialty coffee is its combination of government support for quality improvement, rapid domestic coffee consumption growth, and a new generation of producers committed to experimental processing methods. This is exactly the kind of forward-thinking coffee cultivation that defines tomorrow's specialty landscape: rooted in traditional agricultural wisdom but unafraid to break every rule in pursuit of extraordinary flavor and experiences. Fire.  

Recommended Music to accompany brewing: Batphone by Arctic Monkeys
Includes QR code to applicable Tasting Guide™