Notes: Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, at the Guatemalan border. The coffees are distinct from the Oaxaca Plumas and Coatepec coffees: they are a little brighter, sweeter, and bear some resemblance to the Huehuetenango coffees of Guatemala. Oaxaca is my other favorite Mexican origin, but the really good Chiapas coffees like this one have been consistently excellent, are a brighter and livelier cup. Many of the coffees from Chiapas are from small farms, cooperatively wet-milled and sold. UDEPOM is located in Motozintla, Chiapas, in the southern part of the state, and the 850 member/farmers are in Motozintla, Huixtla, Tuzantan, Escuintla, Siltepec and Amatenango districts in Chiapas. This coop was started in 1992 and actually has the incredibly long name of Unión de Ejidos Profesor Otiliio Montaño (which just doesn't fit on our labels, so now we are using Udepom. We did stock this same coffee for the past 2 years so if you have purchased a Chiapas, it would have been from the same cooperative!) The cup? Light body, mild, crisp, a bit nutty, with just a hint of a rustic aromatic woodiness in the cup. This is the character I look for in a good Chiapas - it is never going to be a Kenya! A really nice Chiapas is a great breakfast coffee, and provides relief from other "over the top" cups like Yemens and Harars and Kenyas with it's simple charm. This particular lot really beat all others hands down on the cupping table this year. The coffee is mild, like all Mexican coffees, and has a just a bit of a rustic note lingering in the finish. The body is fairly light, but I really enjoy the zingy, pointed high tone in the cup (especially at City to City+ roast). You can also go to the other end of the spectrum with this coffee to good effect: I really like the sharp, sweet pungency of the darker roast with this Chiapas.

11/1/06: We first bought this coffee this year through the Best of Panama competition as noted below- and since then future pickings have become available. When we got word that 10 bags were available from the tail end of the crop, we jumped at the chance to buy them. The coffee came air freight to SFO, so coffee that was at the mill two weeks ago now is in our warehouse - which is pretty cool. We have a limited stock of this coffee - so there is a 1 lb limit per order. Notes: It's rare that a coffee varietal announces itself so clearly in the cup flavors as the Gesha cultivar does in Panamanian coffee. You remember Gesha, it was the cultivar responsible for the $25/lb La Esmeralda Jaramillo we offered in 2004. This year we paid a mere $50.25 for it per lb in the Best of Panama Coffee Auction, as part of our buying group the Small Axe Coffee Alliance (I prefer "Small Acts" myself). Anyway It won the Panama competition again in 2005 and 2006. It is what I refer to as an Exotic: Ethiopian coffee grown in Panama, and not your traditional Panama cup profile. Nonetheless, judges ask themselves"Is this good?" and (as a judge at BOP this year) my answer was YES! Another funny judging issue; The Esmeralda Gesha makes blind cupping almost senseless, since I can identify its amazing fragrance, aroma and cup flavors immediately when I come upon it in a "blind" cupping! It is that dry fragrance that lets you know right away what is coming when the water hits the cup: incredible sweet floral, citrus blossom, sweet honey perfume atomized into the air. This is our "regular" lot of Gesha from the Jaramillo plot, and I am the first to admit that it is a bit tamer than the 120 Lbs of Gesha from the competition. But the emphasis is on "a LITTLE bit" because this lot still would have blown the doors off the other coffees at the cupping table. It also won't set you back $50 or $60 bucks. We are basically part of a small buying group for this coffee, with a much bigger company (Peets) having rights to the bulk of it. We asked for double the amount we were allotted, but nomatter, there simply isn't enough for even the priveledged buyers given a chance at the coffee. That's why I think it's kind of neat Sweet Maria's can spread this around a bit, allow many people who truly are the most motivated coffee enthusiasts (home roasters) experience the Gesha cultivar. Yes, in terms of intensity, fruited and floral aspects, wet-processed Ethiopians and Kenyas are more in league with Gesha than any other coffee. But it is difficult to price this sort of cup character, and when it is as exotic ...no, extraterrestial ... as The Esmeralda Gesha, it is even more hard to quantify. The dry fragrance is intensely floral, jasmine and sweetly herbal. When it hits the burrs of your grinder, you know right away this is an extraordinary coffee. Citrus, jasmine flowers, cherry, passion fruit, and mango; these are some of the flavors that come to mind as they essentially leap out at you. It's very much an herbal-floral infusion and I think those who eschew coffee in favor of such teas might do a double-take. There are tea-like, Earl Grey, zesty notes I get sometimes too. A basket of fruit, a bouquet of flowers; no description seems too sappy, sentimental or ridiculous for a coffee that is so obviously unique.

Notes: It's rare that a coffee varietal announces itself so clearly in the cup flavors as the Gesha cultivar does in Panamanian coffee. You remember Gesha, it was the cultivar responsible for the $25/lb La Esmeralda Jaramillo we offered in 2004. This year we paid a mere $50.25 for it per lb in the Best of Panama Coffee Auction, as part of our buying group the Small Axe Coffee Alliance (I prefer "Small Acts" myself). Anyway It won the Panama competition again in 2005 and 2006. It is what I refer to as an Exotic: Ethiopian coffee grown in Panama, and not your traditional Panama cup profile. Nonetheless, judges ask themselves"Is this good?" and (as a judge at BOP this year) my answer was YES! Another funny judging issue; The Esmeralda Gesha makes blind cupping almost senseless, since I can identify its amazing fragrance, aroma and cup flavors immediately when I come upon it in a "blind" cupping! It is that dry fragrance that lets you know right away what is coming when the water hits the cup: incredible sweet floral, citrus blossom, sweet honey perfume atomized into the air. This is our "regular" lot of Gesha from the Jaramillo plot, and I am the first to admit that it is a bit tamer than the 120 Lbs of Gesha from the competition. But the emphasis is on "a LITTLE bit" because this lot still would have blown the doors off the other coffees at the cupping table. It also won't set you back $50 or $60 bucks. We are basically part of a small buying group for this coffee, with a much bigger company (Peets) having rights to the bulk of it. We asked for double the amount we were allotted, but nomatter, there simply isn't enough for even the priveledged buyers given a chance at the coffee. That's why I think it's kind of neat Sweet Maria's can spread this around a bit, allow many people who truly are the most motivated coffee enthusiasts (home roasters) experience the Gesha cultivar. Yes, in terms of intensity, fruited and floral aspects, wet-processed Ethiopians and Kenyas are more in league with Gesha than any other coffee. But it is difficult to price this sort of cup character, and when it is as exotic ...no, extraterrestial ... as The Esmeralda Gesha, it is even more hard to quantify. The dry fragrance is intensely floral, jasmine and sweetly herbal. When it hits the burrs of your grinder, you know right away this is an extraordinary coffee. Citrus, jasmine flowers, cherry, passion fruit, and mango; these are some of the flavors that come to mind as they essentially leap out at you. It's very much an herbal-floral infusion and I think those who eschew coffee in favor of such teas might do a double-take. There are tea-like, Earl Grey, zesty notes I get sometimes too. A basket of fruit, a bouquet of flowers; no description seems too sappy, sentimental or ridiculous for a coffee that is so obviously unique.

The 2006 Best of Panama Green Coffee Set- Limit One set per Customer

The 2006 Best of Panama Green Coffee Set

The set includes

• 1 pound green coffee of Panama Auction Lot 1st Place -Esmeralda Gesha
• 1 pound green coffee of Panama Auction Lot 2nd Place - Bambito Estate
• 1 pound green coffee of Panama Auction Lot 3rd Place -Carmen Estate

This is a fairly limited chance to own the top 3 coffees of the year, the Esmeralda Gesha being the highest price ever paid for a coffee in an auction ($50.25 per lb, just for that lot!) Is this a lot to pay for 3 Lbs. of coffee; definitely! Will you find top flight coffees in this price range that have superior cup quality to these three? I say no. These are three extremely special coffees. Will they come packed in silk bags and a handcrafted, dove-tailed mahogany box? No ... it is not the Sweet Maria's way. We sell what's in the bag, not the bag. We will ship them securely packaged, and include a print of the cupping and roasting notes for each.

Notes: Carmen Estate is a small farm located high on the hillside above the large, well known Finca La Florentina. In fact, La Florentina used to buy the coffee cherry from all the surrounding farms to augment their own, but this was done for more than increasing the volume. The fact is, La Florentina is down in the flat valley and Carmen Estate roughtly another 500-600 meters higher up. Carmen is on a very steep hillside with southern exposure, and due to the high altitude, the coffee has greater density, better acidity, a more piquant cup. So in a way, Florentina was getting some better cup quality with Carmen in the mix. But the farm was passed down to the new generation of the Franceschi family, namely Carlos Franceschi (Carmen was his grandmother) ... and he realized that they had a better coffee on their family farm then something to blend with lower-grown coffees. He built an independant mill for the Estate down in the valley using the latest equipment, and began a program to care for the trees usign new techniques. This farm uses the de-muscilage process where the muscilage is stripped off the parchment layer using friction, rather than traditional fermentation. I was very impressed with the high altitude and excellent practices of Carlos and Finca Carmen. This coffee won the #3 spot in the Best of Panama competition in 2003, 2004 and #2 in 2005. The entire farm is very high altitude; it starts at 1450, an altitude many farms don't even reach, meters and goes up from there! We have a special arrangement to buy the coffee each year from the 1700+ meter altitudes, a very small amount of coffee. We sold out of that lot rapidly this year, but the entire crop is so good (a testament to Carlos' innovations) we set aside this Estate lot from his later shipment to the US, based on sample approval once it got here. Well, the sample was great, so once again we have Carmen Estate coffee this '05 season. The cup is bright, very lively, very nippy. at a City + roast, this acidity is knotted together with a very distinct golden raisin flavor. It is a unique, specific kind of bright, zippy raisin flavor, that is. When it cools it has a tart cherry fruitiness to the cup. The acidity is remarkable, in the realm of Kenyas. (A note to those who think they don't like acidic coffees; saying a coffee is acidic does not mean it has an acidic effect, but rather it has a high range in the cup flavors due to flavorful acids - think of hop flower brightness in an IPA ale.)

Panama Jaramillo Geisha Blue - Full Review Coming Soon Here are some comments ....Sweet Maria's was one of 7 companies that shared the winning lot of coffee in the 2004 Panama Coffee Competition. The coffee sold at a record price for any auction, and there was good reason why based on the unique cup character. The coffee is grown on a farm called Jaramillo operated by the well-known Finca Esmeralda and the Peterson family. The coffee has an extraordinary character, quite out of place for a Panama, that comes from a combination of unique environment, high altitude and a little-known Coffea Arabica cultivar called Geisha. By appearance and cup character , I suspect Geisha has an Ethiopian lineage - there are extraordinary floral and herbal qualities in the cup that are reminicent of Yirgacheffe. After the record auction price, there was talk about how to offer this coffee in the future, and a groupe of companies decided to split the crop in 2005, paying not the outstanding auction price but something that still is about 8x the norm for Panamas! As it turns out, Jaramillo Geisha cultivar won the 2005 competition too. What we offer here is not from the auction, this is our portion of the regular Geisha crop ... well, if the term regular can be used here at all. The cup character of this coffee is not only unique among Panamas, it is unique among all Central American coffees, with floral aromatics, a fresh citrus flower brightness, light body, herbal and honeyed cup. It's a very buoyant coffee, lively and not overbearing. You will notice a very unusual long seed shape, much like ""longberry Harar"" but this is a fully wet-processed coffee. You don't want to roast this too light - it is quite bright and easily turns too sourish with a City roast. I prefer City+ and darker. The best cup I had was a melange - a blend of two roasts. I did a Full City+ with a few snaps of 2nd crack, and a City+ roast. Rested a couple days, this cup is awesome and has better body and more depth. Aromas are more lively after a shorter 12-24 hour rest though. This is quite a pricey coffee due to the very limited amount available. When you consider we sold the auction lot of Geisha last year for $24.80 per lb, it's much more reasonable this time though! -Tom

Notes: The sample from Arokara Estate impressed me again this year. It was my 4th place PNG in the previous crop cupping cycle, so we did not offer it but this time around I picked it in a blind cupping lineup with some very good Java and other PNG Plantation coffees. Again, I face the situation where we really don't need to offer multiple PNG coffees but I can't pass up something that is good, nomatter how little "business sense" it makes. I appreciate roasters and brokers that can put limits on their buys based on having a sensible "coffee menu" ... I have just found myself unable to do it when faced with a really nice cup. But the way we operate here is that I buy anything that is exceptionally good, and everything else is secondary; the sweet maria's "prime directive". Although I fear (with falling coffee prices paid to farmers) a quality dropoff in coming years, and some awful day when, following our credo, we stock 3 coffees because that is ALL that is good ... we're thankfully not there yet. Anyway, I halfheartedly roasted up Arokara samples and started cupping them way too soon, and in a backwards sort of way by brewing French Presses of it before doing the traditional cupping technique with a spoon. I had only allowed it to rest 2 hours(!) a bad thing to do to a PNG coffee and any others too. But the cup had body right off the bat, it wasn't sharp or bright but did have a medium-tone in the cup that you could sense while it was still hot, and in the aftertaste there was deep fruitiness. As the cup cooled the fruit emerged more; it is a baritone and balanced, lush plum and blackberry flavor, very subtle but definitely there. I cupped the samples the traditional way the next morning; same great results with more body. In fact, I think this has as much body as the Organic PNG samples I have cupped, without the nasty side-effects ... the Organics tend to have an unpleasant barb in the aftertaste this season. I also like the Arokara as an aromatic component in espresso blends, or in fact as a straight, single-origin espresso. It terms of balance and acids, it has that soft, Island-like Kona profile, making very sweet, perfumy shots.