Can Cultured Coffee Change Our Current Ideas About Coffee?

The trend of fermentation has yet to slow down — to the point that it should be a Portlandia sketch. Got some spiced cabbage? Ferment it. Coffee beans? Ferment them. Old boot? Ferment!

Afineur Cultured Coffee wants to caffeinate you with its special fermented beans, and it seems like people are receptive. Very receptive. According to Eater, Cultured Coffee's Kickstarter campaign launched last Wednesday and reached its target goal of $15,000 in a mere six hours. As of August 5, the campaign has raised over double the amount required to fund it. And there's still a little less than a month to go.

So how exactly does this all work? Chosen microorganisms "chew away" some flavor molecules while adding other ones, offering less bitterness, plus "shining fruity, floral and chocolaty notes," according to the Kickstarter page. The beans will be roasted in Brooklyn's Pulley Collective.

The campaign also points out that it's a less cruel and more sustainable method of fermenting coffee beans than how Kopi Luwak (more commonly known as cat-poop coffee) beans are produced. Those beans are extracted from the feces of civets, cat-like creatures found in Asia and Africa, which have been force-fed coffee beans since the popularization of the brew.

Similar to Kopi Luwak, however, Cultured Coffee won't come cheap. Supporters of the Kickstarter campaign can purchase a five-ounce bag of the stuff for $29, which is 20 percent less than the proposed retail price.