Specialty coffee · Worth knowing

Ponlasit Peepanich won the 2026 Thailand AeroPress Championship using a naturally processed coffee from Omkoi, Chiang Mai, prepared with carefully designed water profiles. His winning approach centered on revealing the coffee's inherent character rather than forcing it into something new—he used a brewing water combining TONIK, TANAT, and KONFLUX drops to highlight bright citrus acidity and fruit clarity, paired with a dilution water of JAMM and LYLAC drops to enhance sweetness and balance. Peepanich's preparation involved extensive blind tastings to understand how mineral profiles influence extraction and flavor, supported by community practice sessions at his coffee shop where brewers gathered daily. He will now represent Thailand at the World AeroPress Championship in Mexico.

Diego Bermudez, a renowned Colombian producer known for innovative fermentation techniques, has released a specialty coffee blend that showcases his mastery of processing methods. The "Total Eclipse" is a blend of two lots on opposite ends of the fermentation spectrum: a clean washed Geisha and a Caturra processed with Bermudez's signature "Anti-Maceration" technique that produces intensely funky fermentation-forward flavors. Bermudez's use of primary and secondary fermentation has historically produced nuanced, complex flavor profiles so intense they were once suspected of being artificial. The blend combines tropical fruit notes like passion fruit with cooked stone fruit and peach preserves, with the cleaner lot balancing the fermentation-forward intensity while maintaining what the roaster describes as craft chocolate and natural wine characteristics.