So we finished the Best of PanamaPanama coffee ranges from medium quality lower altitude farms to those at 1600 - 1800 meters centered in the area of Boquete in the Chirqui district near the... competition this afternoon with an unusual twist: re-roasting and re-cupping the top 8 coffees. There was enough concern on the jury about variations in the roast levels that some felt they could not judge the coffee fairly. One was quite light, several a bit dark. But the fact is, these were a very difficult set of samples to roast. A pacamaraAs the name implies, Pacamara is a large bean cultivar, a cross between Pacas and Maragogype with unique flavor properties. This variant originated in El Salvador in 1958,..., 2-3 geishaGesha is a long-bean Ethiopia selection with unique cup character. Gesha is the name of the town in Western Ethiopia where the original samples were collected. Spelling it..., some miel coffees, and one really weird low grown lot. Nobody is quite sure how that slipped in…
Anyway, Maria noted the results at the award ceremony as best she could while I chased around after Ben:
10. Callejon EstateA "coffee estate" is used to imply a farm that has its own processing facility, a wet-mill. In Spanish this is called an Hacienda. A Finca (farm) does... -Alvado
9. Cafe valentine
8. Lerida Estate -Collins
7. Kotawa -Koyner
6. Cafe Ole -Monchi
5. Elida Estate -Lamastus
4. Carmen Estate Paso Ancho -Carlos
3. Don Gulliano – Gonzalo Rojas (Pmara)
2. Gesha Carleda
1. Esmeralda Especial Gesha
So it’s not a huge surprise, in the Panama coffee competition that Esmeralda entered again after a hiatus and won. Their Gesha lot was truly spectacular next to the other 2 in the top 10 coffees. This is a rough list with a few misspellings for sure – So after a couple weeks on the road it’s back to California tomorrow and back SM on Monday! -Tom
