Ready to meet the cherry on top of Colombia’s innovative specialty coffee scene? The  Bonbon Box is a celebration of coffee’s wildest processing methods presented in drip bag form, and features the harvests of celebrated Colombian producers like Brayan Alvear,  Luz Helena Salazar, and the Hernández family.

Each box contains FIVE dessert-themed drip bag flavours processed using the latest coffee techniques: from fruit co-fermentation to mosto and enzymatic washed fermentation, it’s a party for your palate and everyone’s invited to join!

Why are all the Bonbon drip coffee bag flavours sourced from Colombia? If it’s coffee and chemistry you’re after, Colombia’s the place to be. The country’s rich growing traditions, science-forward processing methods, and diverse topography make it a juggernaut on the experimental coffee scene. 

While all the coffee is sourced from Colombia, each Bonbon drip bag flavour is unique in its farm of origin, producer, processing, and variety.

Producer Brayan Alvear—the architect behind this flavour and the Watermelon Cake flavoured drip bag—is a champion of the fruit co-fermentation method. 

What this method does is takes the best Pink Bourbon cherries from Las Palmas and seals them in tanks with dehydrated coconut and coconut water for 144 hours to create an anaerobic environment ripe for fermentation! This extended fermentation imbues the porous cherries with the subtle flavour notes and aromas of the fruit co-sealed in the tank.

After fermentation, this lot followed the usual 30-day drying process (both sun and mechanical drying) characteristic of natural coffees with one twist; lemon peel is also present right up to stabilisation and milling! A small touch that gives the final cup a hint of citrus on the finish.

All this, combined with a coffee that inherently holds subtle tropical berry notes and creamy texture, leads to an incredibly jammy brew that smells not unlike sweet lamingtons.

Ground from coffee enigmatically called ‘rocket flower’, this Forest Flower Cake drip bag owes its abundance of botanical notes to Huver Castillo’s careful production of Caturra cherries, and a non-conventional, washed enzymatic fermentation. 

Post-harvest from the El Paseo farm in Nariño, the high-grown cherries experience double fermentation (one 36-hour cycle and one anaerobic fermentation) with flotation in 2% sea salt water. The cherries are also pulped in-between each fermentation.

During the second fermentation, the beans are sealed in stainless steel tanks with leachates (collected from the pulping stage) and special enzymes. Working with the leachates, these enzymes catalyse in the anaerobic environment over a 6-day period to lend the beans that distinctive floral profile. 

Expect to pick up notes of lemongrass, panela sugar, and spiced aromas reminiscent of sweet sponge cake and spring flowers!

Didn’t think watermelon and coffee could be combined? Think again! Another blast of flavour courtesy of Brayan Alvear of Las Palmas fame, this mixed Caturra-Colombia lot was anaerobically co-fermented with dried ground watermelon over a period of 5 days.

Moreover, not only was fresh watermelon introduced at various points during fermentation to ensure full infusion, but the beans were fermented with its mucilage intact all the way through the drying stage until milling—otherwise known as honey processing. 

As the name implies, this additional process imparts extra sweetness and body to the cup, leaving us with a coffee that’s full of juicy watermelon notes, mixed with traces of nutty pistachio and raspberry flavour.

Rich in body with light nectar-like flavours, it’s no wonder this drip bag reminds us of a peachy caramel eclair. 

Born and bred in coffee-growing country—Armenia in the Quindío department—producer Luz Helena Salazar has been experimenting with different processing methods for the past two decades, and was perfectly placed to create this beautifully washed and co-fermented cup.

The lot used in this drip bag saw ripe Castillo cherries placed in a dry, anaerobic tank for fermentation; alone at first to develop inherent sugary notes, and then with fresh peaches to incorporate some extra stone fruit flavour! 

After 30 hours of fermentation, the cherries were pulped and washed, then finished off with a light roast in our Sydney roastery, which cemented the coffee’s fine butterscotch and fruit notes.

While all the drip bags in the Bonbon box are standouts, our Baklava-esque flavour is particularly unique for being more nutty than fruity; we expect nothing less from the farm whose name means “the walnut trees” in Spanish!

Courtesy of the Hernández family on Los Nogales, this lot comprises of meticulously selected Caturra cherries that were initially thermoshocked to encourage sugar development (increasing porosity). The cherries then underwent a 96-hour anaerobic fermentation with lixiviated liquid, collected from the processing of a different Caturra batch.

Containing unique native microorganisms, this liquid fermentation, combined with washed processing and a final 2-4 day drying stage, is what built the uniquely syrupy body and rose aroma profile in this drip bag. Not to mention deliciously nutty, white chocolate notes on the finish.

Drip coffee bags were originally a Japanese invention (more on thathere), so it felt right to give our series a Japanese name. 

Isshu-kan (一週間) means ‘one week’, and speaks to our original desire to create a box that keeps the recipients caffeinated and ready to go with a drip coffee bag for every day of the week…and then some! 

It just so happened that we could fit a few extra envelopes in there, which is why the Bonbon Box (and all boxes in the Isshu-kan series) containtwo drip bags per each of the five flavours, giving you ten drip bags total to enjoy and explore.