Myanmar – Green Land Estate – SL34 Washed Processed

Description

Direct trade micro-lots from Myanmar! We partnered up with our local buddy David from Green Bean Asia to source these wonderful estate coffees. Not often do we see stellar offerings from Myanmar, a great addition to our list.

SL34 is was originally a Kenyan strain of coffee, now grown in many different places. Known for its great balance and depth of flavors.

Green Land Estate lies on the road between Pyin Oo Lwin and Mogok, in Thatkan village, near the border of Mandalay Division and Northern Shan State. The land was acquired in 1998 and coffee was planted the following year over 400 acres. The coffee plants are intercropped with silver oak and macadamia trees for shade. At Green Land Estate,  you can see several experiments with different spacing between shade tree species, fertilization, solar water pump and drip irrigation system.

An onsite mill was installed with a washer-separator, eco-super pulper, rotary screener, and demucilager. Selectively harvested, only fully ripe cherries are sent to the wet mill and depulped within 20 hours after harvest. Any remaining floaters are removed before soaking in tiled tanks, where fermentation takes place for 20-25 hours. After washing, parchment is dried and turned hourly in the day and covered at night to prevent dew from reintroducing moisture. After about 7-10 days drying, parchment has reached 12% moisture content. Throughout all processing, daily lots are separated. Parchment is stored in the farm warehouse for resting after the harvest until a buyer is found, then sent to MCG for dry milling, final sorting and export.

Tasting Notes: A nice tasting coffee from light to dark. We thought it best right around a medium roast for daily drinking but depending on what you like, holds up well lighter or darker. Light roasts one can see the linkage to Kenya; citric and floral upfront, a sweet edge, thicker chocolate/spice undertones, hints of caramel with a little setup in the aftertaste. Not as punchy as most Kenyan offerings, but along the same line of tastes. Medium roasts really mellow the cup. Smooth most would say, a bit more neutral with just a hint of the floral and spice seen at the lighter roasts. Reminded us of a cross between the Mysore Nuggets and a nice Costa Rican coffee. Great for daily drinking. Darker roasts touching or into second crack retain the sweet edge and put a more malty/smoky taste into play with some lingering spice in the aftertaste.

Roasting Notes: Easy to roast – will appear one shade darker than it really is. Tends to get a sheen on it on the lighter side of a medium roast. Even roasting with medium chaff levels. Hard to pick a specific roast level, start where ever you tend to like stuff best, or if in doubt, a nice medium roast is a great starting point. Lighter roasting tasted more like an African, darker roasting a bit more like traditional Asian coffee.