Panama
Finca Don Benjie, Geisha Microlot - Panama
250g
*Competition Series*
Gesha Microlot Anaerobic Maceration
QUALITY SCORE: 93.00
Cup Notes
Cherry / Prune / Papaya / Blueberry / Kiwi / Raisin
Suggested for espresso and filter
when we roast
We freshly roast to order all coffees on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (excluding national holidays), and ship the same day! Cut-off time is 11:59pm (UTC+1) of the day before the roast day. *We only ship whole beans*
Details
- Producer
- Family De Dianous & Müller
- Country
- Panama
- Terroir
- Boquete
- Altitude
- 1400 - 1500
- Process
- Anaerobic Natural
- Arabica cultivar
- Geisha
- Picked in
- Mar - Apr 2019
- Arrived in
- October 2019
- Shipped in
- Box + Vacuum pack
- Roast profile by
- Rubens Gardelli
- Roasted on
- Customised solid-drum roaster
THE STORY BEHIND
The de Dianous Family arrived in Boquete in 1914 where Gabriel de Dianous purchased the first coffee farm in Bajo Mono. The family has been in the coffee business ever since. Dr Renan Esquivel, a very well-known Panamanian pediatrician, purchased the farm in the 1980s. He was a nature enthusiast, and he planted many exotic trees, plants and coffee varietals that are being preserved up to the present day.
The farm was purchased by Jose Benjamin de Dianous and Stefan Arwed Müller in 2011. Since then the plantation has been under constant renewal, aimed at excellent quality, taking care of the environment and the well-being of our workforce.
The beautiful coffee plantation Hacienda Bajo Mono consists of 33 hectares and is located in the Highlands of Chiriquí, north of the town of Boquete in the Bajo Mono Canyon, at the slopes of the Barú Volcano.
The valley of Bajo Mono with its special microclimate is known as one of the best regions for growing great quality coffee, as the region is blessed with volcanic soil, crystal clear spring water fountains, the famous mist called Bajareque, forming one of the many microclimates that makes the region famous for specialty coffee growing.
The coffee beans are hand-picked at their ripest stage, carefully selected and processed by varietal.
The coffees are processed in an Eco Mill with a very limited use of water in order to contribute to the environmental sustainability, always aiming for high quality in the cup in all the coffees they process. Part of the production is processed as Naturals. The coffee cherries are hand selected, processed anaerobically and carefully sun-dried on beds.
THE VARIETY
Rare, exclusive and fetching a heavy price tag, Gesha is often associated with coffees from Panama when in fact cultivation of the Gesha varietal only began there in the 1960s.
Gesha is an original variety of coffee that was discovered in the 1930s in the mountains around the Southwestern town of Gesha, Ethiopia. Gesha trees grow tall and can be distinguished by their beautiful and elongated leaves. The quality of this coffee can be drastically improved when grown at extremely high elevation.
The Geisha revolution set off an intense search for Geisha among coffee buyers and a primal pilgrimage to Ethiopia to find the source of its flavour. The roads those buyers traveled brought them in a wood in far western Ethiopia near a small town called Gesha in the forests where coffee was born and still grows wild.
THE FERMENTATION PROCESS
As producers give increasing consideration to the effect of fermentation on the quality and profile of their coffee, they are adopting different and interesting techniques to their repertoires in order to diversify their offering. One method that is becoming more popular is fermenting coffee in a controlled anaerobic environment, meaning that the coffee is held in a vessel without any presence of oxygen for a part of the fermentation process.
Any fermentation process is anaerobic as such, meaning that the yeast and bacteria that do the work of fermenting a coffee cherry’s sugars do not need the presence of oxygen to successfully complete their mission of transforming the organic material. The anaerobic in this case refers to the environment where processing occurs. One of the main benefits of holding the coffee in an oxygen-depleted environment, then, is to slow the fermentation process, allowing a totally different spectrum of flavours to emerge.
After fermentation, the coffee’s processing, the cherries can be dried intact whole as in a classic natural processing. The duration of drying will vary based on the drying area conditions.
