Description
Mama Cata is a very top notch award winning farm that very seldom makes it to the US. Located in some of the best growing territory in Panama, Jose’s highest elevation and most renowned farm (he owns Garrido Estate as well as some other smaller fields). Some of the biggest names in Panama coffee are also located in this prime territory, Hacienda Esmeralda, Elida Estate and La Jones are all his neighbors. Since his coffee is mostly obtained by foreign markets, many in the US have not heard the name Mama Cata before unless they are watching the coffee competitions.
Founded in 1911, one of the original premium Panama farms, currently owned by Jose David Garrido Perez (who also owns Garrido, and just happens to be decent friends with our Panamanian farmer buddy, Keith Pech). Winner of many previous Best of Panama competitions. This farm knows how to grow/process some of the world’s best coffee.
This is a super tasty and clean washed processed coffee, highly rated but not a competition winner, much more affordable than the Geisha strains with just as good of a cup score. Produced by one of the best Panama farms on the block!
Tasting Notes: A super snazzy coffee! This is a great cup from light to dark, but similar to the rest of the Panama lineup, what separates these from average will mostly be seen in the light-medium roast range. A very highly rated and clean cup of coffee, but also the most traditional tasting; floral, nutty, malty, fuller bodied.
Lighter roasts will have some acidity. A very sweet cup with nutty and caramel tones popping right out, crisp lemony floral tones will linger on the tongue. A wonderful cup, but takes some setup time after roasting, will be pretty sharp for the first 3-4 days.
Medium roasts are equally as nice but will drop out most of the lemony acidic taste, while turning the nuttier tones much more malty. Still sweet edged, mostly malty cup with a little floral balance. Doesn’t take nearly as much setup time to bring joy to the taste buds.
Dark roasting builds a lot of body and more creamy features, still sweet with some smoky and roasty notes to compliment the more malty cup character. If you like sweet cup of dark roast coffee, not a bad choice.
Roasting Notes:An easy coffee to roast, beautiful large beans. Good from light to dark, pretty low chaff and pretty even roasting. Darkens up pretty quickly, will look a little darker than it is. We recommend trying it on the lighter side of a medium roast to get a nicely balanced cup.
Keith Pech has become a good friend over the last couple of seasons. He has some family in the U.P. (Michigan) and passes by our warehouse from time to time when visiting his family. Keith is really on the cutting edge of Panamanian coffee, he places in the the Best of Panama every year he enters.
He really hooked it up with some nice high-end Natural Processed Catuai and Typica from his farm, as well as playing our eyes and ears on the ground in Panama. His mom is actually part of the Ruiz family who we sourced a ton of awesome Panama coffees from in years past.
Turns out Keith is buddies with all the other Panama operations we have dealt with in the past as well. Elida, HI-U, Esmeralda, Mama Cata, Nuguo, Ruiz. Quite the guy to have befriended, with being able to piggyback on his containers, we now have easy access to the best of the best. Not only that, but with Keith playing nice and being very well-liked by these other farmers, we were able to snag top lots from the best farms in Panama, primo beans that normally never make it to the US. Nothing else on the block like these offerings!
Max Schaefer (verified owner) –
This is a good one. Roasted to city+, it was sweet, complex, and satisfying.