Description
Panama has arrived! One of our favorites from last year is the first to make it back this year. Panama coffee has been tricky the last couple of years but we have been working hard here at Burman Coffee to find some stellar Panama lots, this year looks like it will pan out very nicely.
First new crop arrival is this La Gloria Estate, a “Baru Indian High” estate coffee grown in the Boquete region. All Baru Indian High estates are located in Panama’s Boquete region and have altitudes from 1360 to 2000 meters above sea level.
A beautiful larger bean screen.
Tasting Notes: Very clean, rich and fuller bodied cup with pretty low acidity. A nice sweet tone upfront giving off a little soft fruit note balancing with a smooth malty/chocolaty tone. Light roasts have amazing body for the roast point, a little lemony acidity balancing with a dryer chocolate note, a little hint of caramel with proper setup. Medium roasts are where this cup shine, low acidity and very smooth, good creamy body with a little soft fruit and chocolaty factor. Darker roasts were the weakest roast point, burned out most of the cool jazzy tones, reduced the body of the cup a bit and added some roasty notes. A awesome cup for light/medium roast fans.
Roasting Notes: A bit different to roast, the beans will darken up quickly. Right after first crack they already look a couple shades darker than it is. Watch the patchiness of a single bean to help judge roast. They will develop a bit of sheen on the surface a shade or two before 2nd crack.
Panamanian coffee has gone through some wild changes in the last 5-10 years. Bulk competitively priced lots of Panama coffee have dried up. Panama coffees have been demanding a huge premium, due to better paid pickers and cutting edge growing techniques and strains. Very cool stuff but the larger operations that were competing on the commodity end of the market were no longer able to compete, with higher paid workers and more costly production, the large worldly coffee buyers would go buy a similar scoring Honduran or such versus a Panama, which would run almost twice the cost of some of the neighboring countries production. A slow transition where only the farms producing high end premium coffee can thrive. The rest have switched to other crops. The market in Panama for coffee has basically just turned into boutique high end operations.
Baru Indian High is Suarez family owned and managed by Norberto Suarez. Their estates’ soil is of volcanic origin. They processes all of their own coffee at the Beneficio Don Pedro, located in the Cochea region, Dolega District. The final drying process is done on drying machines to maintain quality, consistency and control. Each of the estates that is managed by Baru Indian High has a unique micro climate that produces incredibly varied flavor profiles. La Gloria Estate’s topography is irregular and provides spectacular views of the Baru Volcano. It also has a wide variety of flora and wildlife, including white-neck monkeys, venison, rabbits and several native birds. Four natural springs either originate or run across the estate, which help make the soil rich and well balanced.
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