“CIRAGI”- The microbial fermentation starter for developing excellent coffee flavour

Abstract

Most of the green bean coffees produced by smallholders are not properly fermented, while green bean coffees from large plantations undergo a spontaneous fermentation involving present microbial activity in the processing environment. The process of coffee fermentation itself involves not less than 144 endogenous microbial species originating from coffee fruits or from the surrounding environment. This condition is the source of inconsistency and low cup quality of coffee beans. The inoculation of selected microbial fermentation starter can transform microbial ecosystem. The transformation leads to beneficial microbes dominating and actively inducing flavour precursors into excellent aroma during roasting. The Indonesian Research Institute for Biotechnology and Bioindustry (IRIBB) has developed the CIRAGI (abbreviation of CItaRAsa tingGI meaning “a high flavour” in Indonesian), a fermentation starter for coffee beans using selected Lactobacillus sp. as the active ingredient. High cup quality coffee can consistently result from well-controlled fermentation process of the coffee bean using CIRAGI. The fermentation of both Robusta and Arabica coffee beans using CIRAGI has been demonstrated at laboratory and field trials. The cup tests of both Arabica and Robusta coffee have resulted in improved quality of the coffee flavour, increase of cup test scores based on the SCAA parameter, and elimination of off-flavour.