Team Highlight: Meet The People On The Floor—Fermentation Specialists
by Iulian Donici
It’s easy to focus on the product.
The smooth spoon of yogurt. The tang of kefir. The thick, satisfying sip of sana from a cold glass bottle.
But behind that product—behind every jar, every batch—there are people. Not just machines or systems. People who watch, stir, listen, wait. People who understand the language of fermentation, which isn’t really written in manuals. It’s sensed.
And today, I want to talk about them.
The fermentation specialists at Artesana. The ones whose work most people never see—but whose hands, timing, and decisions shape everything we do.
It starts with instinct
Fermentation is science, yes. But also art. And honestly? A lot of it comes down to timing and feel.
Every morning, our team evaluates milk delivered from small farms across Romania. They look at color, smell, even the way it coats a ladle. These aren’t just checks—they’re conversations with the raw material.
Then, when it’s time to inoculate with cultures, they don’t just follow a clock. They taste. They adjust. They understand that a few degrees of temperature—or a few extra minutes of incubation—can change the entire texture or acidity.
I’ve seen one of our specialists, Ana, pull a sample mid-fermentation, frown, and then shift the jars ever so slightly to adjust airflow.
No chart told her to do that. She just knew.
A day in the life
Mornings usually begin around 6:00 a.m. for the fermentation team. The milk has arrived, pasteurization is complete, and cultures are ready. For goat milk, it’s often a slightly shorter ferment. For cow milk, especially in cooler seasons, it takes longer.
Then comes the delicate wait.
It’s tempting to think of fermentation as passive—just let the microbes do their thing. But actually, it’s one of the most active, attentive parts of our entire production.
Temperature checks every 15 minutes. Texture checks. Surface observations. Is there early bubbling? Are the proteins holding? Is the room just a little too humid today?
Each of these small details means the difference between a batch that’s great—and one that doesn’t leave the factory.
Meet some of the team
Ana has been with Artesana since the early days. She started on the bottling line but became fascinated with the fermentation process. She now oversees our sana production and trains new team members on reading texture cues.
Mihai, on the other hand, is all about the goat milk. He grew up on a farm and brings that experience with him every day. He often describes fermentation as “guiding, not forcing.”
Ioana, the quietest in the room, is the one we turn to when we want to troubleshoot a new recipe. Her notebooks are filled with scribbles and side notes like “try colder set—spring milk runs thinner.”
These aren’t job titles. These are craftspeople.
Why it matters
In big factories, fermentation is automated. Sensors, timers, standardized conditions. And that’s fine—for consistency. But it often sacrifices character.
At Artesana, we lean into the human side.
Because no batch of milk is ever exactly the same. The pasture changes. The weather shifts. The cows and goats eat different things. And our fermentation specialists? They adjust.
That’s how we keep things real.
It’s why our sana might taste slightly richer in summer. Why the kefir bubbles a little more in spring. Why the yogurt feels more delicate in October.
These differences aren’t mistakes. They’re signatures.
Bringing this to London
When we travel to London this November for the 2025 Go Global Awards, hosted by the International Trade Council, we’ll be representing more than a product.
We’ll be representing these people. These processes. This way of making food that still relies on attention over automation.
Because the Go Global Awards aren’t just about innovation in software or shipping. They’re about principles. About how companies build not just output, but meaning.
And our fermentation specialists? They’re a quiet example of that.
They won’t be on stage. But their work will be in every story we share.
Final thoughts
So the next time you open a jar of Artesana yogurt, or pour a glass of kefir, take a second. Look at the texture. The way it coats the sides. The flavor that lingers.
Somewhere behind that is a person—maybe Ana, maybe Mihai—who spent their morning watching it unfold.
And if you ask me, that makes the whole experience taste just a little bit better.