Australia - Jack Murat x Brew Methods / Catuai / Anaerobic Honey

It's finally ready — our very own coffee! 

Earlier this year, we returned to Jack Murat's coffee farm in Far North Queensland for our second visit, but this time with something a little different in mind. Together with our friends Sergii and Sammy, we wanted to produce a coffee of our own, taking everything we've learned about coffee processing over the years and putting it into practice, from picking the cherries ourselves to managing the fermentation and drying.

Thanks to our wonderful relationship with Jack Murat, we were given the opportunity to do exactly that, with the support of Sergio and the team, who generously opened up their farm and facilities to make our experiment possible.

We began in the field, selectively hand-picking only the ripest Catuai cherries we could find. By the time we arrived, the farm had already completed its first harvesting pass, meaning the cherries remaining on the trees had been given additional time to mature. We deliberately sought out these deeply ripened cherries, hoping to capture greater sweetness and complexity through careful fruit selection.

Once we'd finished picking, we brought our cherries back to the processing area, where we thoroughly washed them in water and removed any floaters. We then introduced an additional sanitation step, using a diluted mixture of water and vodka to reduce unwanted microbial activity before depulping the cherries ourselves.

But the preparation for this coffee had actually begun a month earlier.

Working closely with Sergio, we'd arranged for a special mossto culture to be cultivated specifically for our experiment. Sergio began with liquid recovered from a previous coffee fermentation, introducing a naturally occurring Pichia yeast culture and feeding it small quantities of sugar over several weeks to maintain its activity.

Our intention was to introduce an established microbial culture into our coffee, allowing us to influence the fermentation more deliberately rather than relying entirely on the microorganisms naturally present on the cherries.

After depulping, we combined our freshly pulped coffee, with its mucilage still intact, and the prepared mossto inside a GrainPro bag. We then transferred the coffee into a cold room maintained at approximately 13°C, where we allowed it to ferment for five days.

Temperature was one of the most important decisions we made throughout the process.

Rather than fermenting at ambient temperatures, we deliberately chose a much cooler environment to slow microbial activity and allow the fermentation to develop gradually. We wanted to explore how an extended fermentation could influence the coffee's aromatic complexity while maintaining the clarity and distinctive characteristics of Australian-grown Catuai.

After five days, we removed the coffee from the cold room and spread it across raised drying beds inside the greenhouse, where it dried for approximately seven days.

The result is a coffee that has genuinely surprised us, although not quite in the way we initially expected.

If we're being honest, we anticipated a much more pronounced, funky fruit character, particularly given the five-day anaerobic fermentation. Instead, the coffee developed a far more delicate and refined profile than we had imagined.

We suspect the Pichia yeast may have played an important role in this, as certain strains are known for their ability to produce aromatic compounds associated with floral and fruity characteristics. Combined with the low fermentation temperature, this may help explain why the coffee developed such a restrained and elegant profile despite its extended fermentation.

What surprised us most was just how clean the final cup turned out. There's a lovely light tropical fruit character, delicate citrus and florals, and that familiar sugarcane sweetness we've come to associate with Jack Murat coffees.

While the outcome was different from what we'd originally set out to achieve, it's been an incredibly rewarding experiment. It's also a reminder that fermentation doesn't always produce the results we anticipate, and that sometimes the most interesting discoveries come from allowing the coffee to surprise us.

Ultimately, we've ended up with a coffee that's beautifully clean, expressive and genuinely enjoyable, even if it took us somewhere a little different from where we'd planned to go.

But beyond the coffee itself, this experience represents something even more meaningful to us.

Having now visited Jack Murat twice, we've developed a wonderful relationship with the people behind the farm. Being welcomed back and given the freedom to produce our own coffee, using their facilities and drawing upon their knowledge, was an extraordinary privilege.

We're incredibly grateful to Sergio and the entire Jack Murat team for their generosity, guidance and trust throughout the process. Without their support, this experiment simply wouldn't have been possible.

We also want to give a special thank you to our friends Sergii Telvak and Sammy Evans, who joined us on the farm and rolled up their sleeves alongside us. From picking cherries to working through the different stages of processing, it was a genuinely collaborative experience, made all the more memorable by the people involved.

This is a coffee we didn't simply select or source. It's one we picked, prepared, fermented and dried ourselves, with the support of some wonderful people who share our curiosity and passion for coffee.

We're incredibly proud of what we've created together, and even more excited to finally share it with you.

Net weight: 100g.

Flavour profile: Guava, pomelo, sugar cane.

[Note] This coffee is roasted to order as a filter only. Please allow 1 – 2 days for dispatch.