Coffee is one of the world’s most valuable beverages and agricultural commodities. Recent studies have revealed the diversity of microorganisms present during the process of coffee fermentation. This, along with the soil quality, influences the coffee’s flavor. Although the microbial diversity in the coffee fermentation process has been widely studied, the geisha variety (one of the most expensive and valuable coffees in the world) has been unexplored. Our goal is to determine the chemical differences between the different microbial communities within the endosperm of the coffee, and how fermentation influences the flavor profile. This project is a collaboration with the Dalling lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Hacienda la Esmeralda in Palmira, Panama.

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