Lost Origin Lot 152 - Finca Maya

The coffee we used to win this year’s TBrC championship was Maya.

On the competition stage, we worked with a whole-cherry fermented lot, while the lot we’re sharing today is a pulped fermentation, with the skin and pulp removed before fermentation.

Out of the 152 lots from Finca Maya, this one stands out to me the most. It carries a very distinctive green Hami melon aroma, remarkably clean, with a beautiful, well-defined sweetness.

Lost Origin

The man behind Lost Origin, Franz, previously ran an award-winning craft beer company. Living in Panama—home to some of the world’s most exceptional Gesha coffees—inspired him to apply fermentation knowledge from brewing into coffee.

He began sourcing coffee cherries directly from farmers and fermenting them on the second floor of his brewery, using a beer fermentation mindset to create unique coffee profiles. Out of this approach, Lost Origin Coffee Lab was born—symbolizing a “lost origin” of coffee farms, where his fermentation philosophy could bring out new sensory dimensions.

At first, the project faced many setbacks, with few farmers willing to collaborate. But Franz’s aim was never to erase the effort of producers; rather, by purifying microbial strains and identifying the unique native yeasts of each farm, he refined the fermentation process to elevate their strengths. After a year of perseverance, he earned the trust of producers—and by the second year, a WBrC Champion had already won with his coffee.

Today, Lost Origin has become one of the most sought-after micro-producers in specialty coffee. With an annual output of only 2,000 kg (and a long-term cap at 4,000 kg), their coffees remain exceptionally rare. We are thrilled at Oasis to share with you Franz’s work—an uncompromising pursuit of excellence that continues to redefine fermentation in coffee.