Strawberry Preserves - Red Fruits - Sebastian Ramirez

Tasting notes like strawberry preserves, raspberries, and chocolate mousse are the kind of thing that shows up on a coffee bag and immediately invites some skepticism. Those are specific, dessert-menu-level descriptions. The question worth asking isn't whether they sound appealing  it's whether there's an actual process behind them, or if they're just marketing copy.

The Same Farmer, a Different Direction

Sebastián Ramírez farms El Placer in Quindío, Colombia — the same farm behind the washed, carefully controlled lots we've written about before. But El Placer isn't just a growing operation anymore. Half the original estate still produces cherries, but Sebastián's real focus has shifted to post-harvest processing, where he works with both his own cherries and premium lots sourced from Huila, including Geisha and Pink Bourbon. He's also acquired new land to grow rarer varietals like Wush Wush and SL 28, which need more specific growing conditions than most farms are set up to provide.

This particular lot, called Red Fruits, is Sebastián at his most experimental — using an extreme anaerobic process with real additions, not a washed, restrained approach.

What's Actually in the Tanks

The process starts with hand-harvesting at peak ripeness 95% of the cherries used have to meet that bar before they're included in the lot. From there, whole cherries go into anaerobic fermentation tanks for 120 hours, with red wine yeast, dehydrated strawberries, and red fruit glucose added directly into the fermentation. Sebastián monitors pH throughout that stage, managing the balance between building complexity and letting the fermentation run too far.

After depulping, the beans go through a second fermentation  72 more hours, this time with CO2 injection to keep the tanks oxygen-free, which pushes sweetness and texture further than the first stage alone would. Drying is the final, slower step: a controlled 40°C on open patios, with a shade-drying phase spread across roughly five days to protect the flavor that took five days of fermentation to build.

What the Process Actually Produces

The result is a cup that tastes closer to a red fruit dessert than a typical coffee  strawberry preserves, raspberries, chocolate mousse, rich and layered. It's not a subtle coffee, and it's not meant to be. It's the outcome of a farmer who spent years building precision into washed processing choosing to apply that same attention somewhere far less conventional.

We buy this lot directly from Sebastián and stay in touch as he continues developing new ferments. If his washed lots are what patience and control look like, this is what happens when that same patience gets pointed at something much bolder.

Shop Sebastian Ramirez's Red Fruits → Buy Here