Forest Coffee has built a reputation as one of Colombia’s most restless and inventive producer groups. Based at El Vergel Estate in Fresno, Tolima, the Bayter family came to coffee from avocado farming a little over a decade ago and have treated it as a discipline ever since: diverse plantings, modernised equipment, a solar array to cut their footprint, and an almost compulsive appetite for experimentation at the processing stage. Through Swiss Water’s Emerald Micro Lots program we’ve been lucky to work with their coffees before, and this release is the most ambitious yet.

This Tropical Co-Ferment is not a single lot but four. Each comes from a different producer across four Colombian departments, brought together under Forest’s Developing Coffee Projects program and curated by the Bayters into one blend.

Candy Blast is a watermelon co-fermentation. Caturra The Journey is an anaerobic semi-washed coffee carried through a lactic fermentation. Caturra Syrup is washed, with an extended fermentation in sealed tanks. Rocket Flower is washed with an enzyme-assisted fermentation designed to coax out florality. On their own, each is a statement about what fermentation can do. Together, they read like a travelogue of Colombian processing.

The producers behind these lots are as considered as the coffees. Huver Castillo’s Candy Blast comes from land tied to the UNESCO World Heritage site at San Agustín; Alexander Hernández farms under Rainforest Alliance certification; and the smallholders Forest works with through the program are brought into a level of processing sophistication that would otherwise be out of reach for a single farm.

Decaffeination can flatten coffees this expressive, which is exactly why this one matters to us. Swiss Water’s process strips the caffeine and leaves the fermentation character intact — and in the cup, that character is unmistakable. Expect florals up front, a lemon-lime brightness, then passionfruit, watermelon and white grape giving way to a plum-like depth. It’s bright, dynamic and a little bit wild, and we think it is one of the most exciting decafs we’ve had the chance to roast.