Coffee Fermentor

Vietnam, my home country, is the world's second biggest coffee exporter. Sadly, the flavours of our local beans - mainly robusta variety, are deemed less pleasant than arabica beans from overseas. Hence the former fetches a lower price. When I learnt that through fermentation processes, new flavours can develop, I wondered if the taste of robusta beans can be enhanced with carbonic maceration, a method commonly used in wine-making. If we can improve the robusta beans this way, it could potentially increase their values and income for local farmers, thereby improving their livelihood.

My idea is making a controlled carbonic fermentation chamber for coffee beans. Essentially it allows coffee beans to ferment in the absence of oxygen, while allowing CO2 released in the process to get out. I also wanted to capture the change in fermentation through light and colours.