Description
Finca Maestra Chela is our buddy Keith Pech’s aunt. Keith is owner of Damarli Estate and his whole family has coffee in their blood. Her farm is located right above Damarli Estate and is only 2 hectares (a little under 5 acres), which is real small for a coffee farm, boutique production all around. Starting at about 1600m, the farm is actually a little higher up the mountain than Damarli Estate. Keith and his father do all the processing for her. A lovely new addition to our Panama lineup.
Keith normally doesn’t do washed processed coffee but with the Catuai strain, it created the perfect match. They still brought some science into the processing and while the coffee was in its short fermentation soaking to get the fruit off (open air tubs), they added their proprietary yeast mix which adds a wonderful depth of flavor and sweetness.
A stellar example of a washed processed Panama, not all fruity and wild like many of the other offerings, a wonderful traditional style cup.
Beautiful beans and screen of coffee, similar to the other Panama’s, these are basically 0 defect gems. Not your average coffee by any means. High scoring, crisp and clean, great from light to dark.
Tasting Notes: We thought it best right around a medium roast; balanced and sweet. Hints of sweet citric floral upfront comingle with smooth defined malt like tones, just the tiniest hint of a fruity factor in the aftertaste. Lighter roasts get much crisper, dominated with more floral citric fruit tones, lemony most would say but does still show a little malty undertone. Darker roasts cut out the more floral aspect of the cup and are very rich and smooth, more semi-sweet but still very malty, into second crack adds some complimenting smoky tones. Hard to find a bad roast point with these beans.
Roasting Notes: A very easy to roast coffee, even roasting with medium to low chaff. Darkens up a little quicker than many other central American coffees, so keep an eye out for first crack to mark your lighter roasts. A jazzy cup, setup will help smooth out the cup and pop out all the little exotic notes. 2-3 days is ideal but we still found it tasty right out of the 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.
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