Description
Garry’s coffee special features three of our more interesting coffees. Higher acidity, interesting processing, this bundle is leaning towards more exotic coffee tones.
*Bundles change over time. You will get the listed coffees at the time of order. *
A pound each of:
Panama Premium Boquete – Damarli Estate – Catuai Natural Processed
This is season four of working with Keith Pech, owner of Damarli Estate. He 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. He really hooked us up this season with his best chops but much smaller quantities than normal. Luckily he was able to produce two winning lots from his neighbor as well to fill in the shortfalls. These are high scoring, super fresh and very tasty lots. His mom is actually part of the Ruiz family who we sourced a ton of awesome Panama coffees from in years past.
This Catuai Natural is more wild and is on the stronger side. Awesome prep and one heck of a cup. Pretty exotic stuff, if you are new to Natural Processed coffees, be in for something different. Being highly rated this cup will have some acidity to it. Floral, winy and fruity mark this cup.
Tasting Notes: A very jazzy & blasty cup of coffee with a noticeable natural processed spin; full of citric, floral and fruity tones. Although similar to the Typica, this Catuai is a much more potent cup, stronger acidity and more complex darker tones (think African type cup). Light roasts themselves will be bright and crisp with strong lemony floral and fruit tones. The fruitiness is almost winy and more reminiscent of a red grape-skin; complex with a little astringency upfront. The cup will be front-loaded (almost all citric/floral/fruity tastes) at the light roast points but will have a little complex herbal chocolaty balance. Medium roasts bring a more traditional cup with better balance. This should be the minimum roast level if you do not want blasty floral/fruit notes upfront. Still a bit lemony upfront but has a much more noticeable malt like tone with a bit of spice to balance it out. The fruitiness turns a bit more normal for a natural, red-fruit like and sweet.
Dark roasting still has well above normal jazz to the cup, hard to roast the floral/fruity notes out of the cup, fuller bodied malt and spice comingle with a little roasty and floral, a little hint of fruit as the cup cools.
Roasting Notes: A bit dependent on personal taste what to do with this coffee and can be a bit harder to roast. High chaff, good to reduce the batch size slightly. Looks way darker roasted than it is, even at first crack, looks like you are pushing 2nd crack. If you are seeing splotches of color on a single bean, you are still in the light to medium ballpark. A strong shine to the beans are you are getting closer to 2nd crack than first. If you like acidity, floral and fruit tones, the front loaded light roast cup is pretty cool stuff. If you like traditional Panama and Central American coffee, good to go into the medium roast points to get some darker toned balance. Darker roasts will be exotic for the roast point, but we liked it best before 2nd crack. A longer setup time on these beans will help a ton, blasty coffees often need 3-5 days to start tasting their best.
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.
Indian Karnataka – Ratnagiri Estate – Pearl Mountain Natural Processed
This is a fruity natural processed. Very different tasting from traditional Indian coffee. A very premium product but with a whole different flavor profile. Fruity naturals are slow dried in the coffee fruit itself adding a level of sweet fermentation. This is our first fruity natural Indian coffee, and one you natural fans will not want to miss but be aware if a traditional Indian fan, this has closer links to fancy Central American Honey/Natural processed coffees than other Indian beans.
The Hindi word ‘Ratnagiri’ translates literally to ‘Pearl Mountain’, a reference to the dense silver oak canopy which crowns this farm. Ratnagiri was established in 1920 and is owned and operated by Ashok Patre, having been passed down from Grandfather, to father to son. Ashok Patre is a progressive. Well-travelled and bursting with initiative, he has drawn inspiration from elsewhere to step beyond the boundaries of traditional Indian coffee cultivation and processing. Brix levels are tested before harvesting. Processing includes natural, honey and fermentation experiments alongside the traditional washed.
For all intents and purposes Pearl Mountain Estate is an organic/biodynamic farm and also maintains official Rainforest Alliance Certification. Quarterly soil tests and organic corrections to soil are applied. Ionic seawater and sea weed extract are applied to improve plant immunity and sugar levels of the fruit. The estate is a lush shaded environment with 3 stories of shade. It is home to over 48 recorded bird populations, monkeys, leopards, wild boar, tigers, mongoose and – on occasion – elephants. The rich biodiversity demands that Ashok and his family have an approach to farming which places ecology and harmony with the environment at the forefront. This is a world class farm, truly one of the leading in India and a great example of the farmer working together to engineer excellence.
Tasting Notes: A beautiful delicate and clean natural processed bean best served at the lighter roast points. Hint of citric acidity upfront are quickly covered up by lovely layers of sweet fruitiness. We put it down the stone (red) fruit alley, similar tasting to Cascara (dried coffee skin tea). There is some lovely darker toned balance: a little almost barrel aged, rustic oak like spice with some nuttiness, and if you push the roast towards medium or dark, turns much more chocolatey. Medium roasts are mellower and smoother but can roast out the fruitiness pretty quickly. Dark roasts will get a bit bitter.
Roasting Notes: High chaff but even roasting for the coffee type. To see it shine and if playing towards a crowd that is familiar with natural processed coffee, stick with lighter roast points. If unknown if you like naturals, or giving away gifts, generally we shoot for a strong medium roast, builds some stronger traditional coffee tones to not shock the system.
Honduran Org. 18 Rabbit Microlot – Natural Processed
This is the full natural version of the 18 rabbit, very fruit forward and on the wild side for naturals. Filled with sweet, fruit forward more fermented tones. Higher chaff and uneven roasting. A wonderful treat for fruit forward natural fans.
Nestled near the pyramids of the Mayan King, 18 Rabbit (from which this coffee pulls its name), Flhor Zelaya Ontreras set out to change the coffee culture in her area.
Starting her first farm when she was five years old, she was already focusing on growing organically. Now, as an adult, Flhor is committed to total sustainability of the land. She acquired a Biodynamic certification, which guarantees that her farming not only has the absence of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, but that the planting of coffee does not disrupt the ecosystem. It instead works with it.
She manages an all-female cooperative and has now partnered with Cafe Kreyol and Cafe Femenino, to begin an entrepreneur program for indigenous women in the mountains.
Healthier land makes better coffee, and for her hard work, Flhor earns over 300% higher wages than the Fair Trade minimum. We have come to love her in the time we have known her, and we hope you can see why.
Tasting Notes: A very fruit forward, delicate and sweet cup. Best served in the light to medium roast range. At light roasts it hold up well but will be higher acidity and very fruity and winy upfront, only a hint of a darker toned contrast. Medium roasts introduce a more chocolaty balance and mute up some of the acidity making it nice for a lower acidity fan. A great mix of fruit and chocolaty factor where one can play with the balance of tones through roast level. Darker roasts are not recommended, get edgy and smoky with a little hint of fruit coming through.
Roasting Notes: A bit more challenging to roast, higher chaff and roasts pretty uneven but well worth the challenge. I would cut the batch size a bit and bring it up to temp a bit slower. When shooting for the lighter roast mark you have to make sure to get the lighter beans through first crack otherwise you will want to flick anything out of the roast that has not quite expanded. Medium roasts a great and much easier to insure those lighter beans get where they need to be. Pushing close to 2nd crack still creates a tasty cup but will mute a lot of acidity and fruity factor, into 2nd crack is not recommended.
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