Panama Premium Boquete – Damarli Estate – Geisha Natural

Description

Everything Damarli Estate produces is considered boutique coffees but these high end Geisha coffees are in a class of their own. Very high scoring coffees and the best the farm has to offer. Higher rated coffees are often exotic and high acidity, including this one. A lighter roast coffee that is very fruit forward and floral with moderate acidity. Not for everyone. but those who love a fruit forward Geisha cup, wont want to miss this one.

Very seldom do we see coffees this special but boy, what a price tag to follow. All in all, there are worse ways to spend your money than on a super unique crazy high rated pound of coffee. Here at Burman Coffee, we are always looking for a deal, even on coffees this special. Similar chops to these beans with the same care and love  auctioned off for over $65/lb this season!

We made a new friend last season with Damarli Estate and boy is it paying off. Keith Pech, owner of Damarli Estate has some family in the U.P. (Michigan) and passes by our warehouse from time to time visiting his family. Keith is really on the cutting edge of Panamanian coffee and produces many award winning lots.

Tasting Notes: Lighter roasts are where this cup is best served, good clean acidity, the first note to hit the tongue.  Very sweet and floral, a bit of jasmine especially in the aromatics, accompanied with a stronger and sweeter fruity edge that produces complexities one cannot find in other strains of coffee. Hints of tea like spice linger on the tongue providing awesome depth of flavor. Layer after layer of goodness for you natural processed fans. Medium roasts drop the acidity greatly in the cup which may be good for some but comparatively to the lighter roasts, puts much of the jazzy fruitiness into the background of the profile.  Especially as the cup cools, it tends to pop it right back out though, a true sign of quality in the cup. Darker roasts we found the same thing, much more plain with some roasty smoky notes popping out of a malty cup profile while pipping hot but got much more exotic and tasty as it cooled, retaining a sweet fruity edge. Usually coffee gets worse as it cool in temperature, a great sign for the quality of these beans.

Roasting Notes:  These beans can be a little tricky to roast. Higher chaff beans, so watch your batch size, reducing it a bit is often a good bet with a coffee like this. They darken up quickly, looks a shade darker than it really is. Lighter roasts are great but if it doesn’t make it through first crack, will not be tasty, so I would error towards a medium roast on your first roast to insure you get a tasty cup. Make sure you hit 1st crack for those lighter roast points. Can roast a little two toned especially on a quicker roaster.

Damarli Estate is a specialty coffee farm located in Boquete, Panama. The estate dates back to 1995 when David Pech, a photographer in the United States and his wife Lia Pech (Ruiz) bought the farm from a bank foreclosure. Lia’s family, the Ruiz family, had been heavily involved in the coffee industry in Boquete for four generations; thus David and Lia were encouraged to get involved with the family industry as well.

Damarli, as a name came from a combination of the original investors: David and Lia and David’s father and mother (Manfred and Ruth Pech) – DA- for David, MA- for Manfred, R – for Ruth and LI – for Lia.

The estate was planted in 1996 and began to produce in 2001. For over one decade Damarli Estate sold the raw coffee cherries to Casa Ruiz, which was Lia’s family’s coffee business. In 2014, David and Lia’s son Keith moved from the United States to Panama in order to begin a new project at Damarli Estate. This was the beginning of a new chapter for the beans.

Keith began to identify all the unique coffee varieties that were grown at Damarli Estate and market them internationally. Keith and David began to process their own coffee at the estate in a way that would create sweet and unique cup profiles that had little to no water waste. They built a house on the estate to accept visitors, a new mill and drying beds to process all the coffees and a coffee tasting lab to accept international buyers. Damarli Estate is a beautiful farm filled with tropical birds, tall canopy forests and enchanting sunrises.