Description
Finca Romesas – Panama
Boquete is the biggest name in Panamanian coffee. In the highlands of Chiriquí, on the slopes of the Barú volcano, volcanic soil, altitudes of up to 2,000 metres, a well-defined dry season and the bajareque, the fine drizzle that rolls in with the mist, all come together. The cherry ripens slowly, and some of the world's most sought-after coffees have come from here, above all Geisha.
A coffee-growing family since the 1950s
Finca Romesas is part of the Romero Rosas family project, which began with Finca Lorayne in the 1950s and has added farms devoted to specialty coffee over the years. Today they control the whole chain: cultivation, processing and export. They work with microlots and new post-harvest processes, and coffees from their farms have been recognised in competitions such as Best of Panama.
This lot is Pacamara, the Salvadoran cross of Pacas —a compact Bourbon mutation— with Maragogipe, the giant-bean variety. From one it took size, from the other productivity, and in Panamanian coffee, with Boquete's altitude and climate in its favour, it gives cups of unusual complexity.
Panama coffee, natural ASD
ASD stands for anaerobic slow dry. The cherry is picked only when it reaches grape red, at its peak sugar level, and ferments whole for 72 hours without oxygen. Then comes the slow dry: slow drying entirely in the shade on raised beds, monitored constantly. Drying in the shade slows moisture loss, stabilises what the fermentation has developed and stops the fruit from overripening.
