Yay....We made it through an entire season!!!!
We only have 4 more steps until you get your coffee.
Step 1. Organize all of your different harvests and put them together.
Step 2. We take your parchment coffee and remove the parchment layer. For small batches, our machine does not work well. So, we use the traditional method. It is called a "Pilon" and it is a large mortar and pestle. It takes about 30 minutes of a person constantly pounding the coffee with a big stick. Then we remove all of the broken parchment pieces until we have just coffee beans. (WORST job on the farm!)
For those that would like more information on the drying and removing parchment, here is a 10 minute video Rick did a couple of years ago, which I have added below if you want to see more.
.jpg)
Step 3. Roasting!
This is the fun part and Rick also made a video with more information. I will attach that below.
Roasting Options:
There is no worldwide naming convention for the different roasts. When someone says they want a blonde or a breakfast blend or any other local name, it actually might mean something different in the USA compared to the UK or China. Those names are marketing terms used by different companies.
Coffee seeds are a lot like popcorn. You heat up the seed, it "cracks" or "pops" for popcorn. The seeds have the most acidity and as each seed cracks and turns into the coffee we know, we lose that acidity. After all of the seeds have cracked, you can continue to cook it and it will actually build up pressure and crack a 2nd time. Each bean that cracks and 2nd time is burnt and will add that a little more bitterness to your coffee. The more beans you burn, the more you will see the oils and taste the bitterness.
There are many studies stating the health benefits of drinking coffee, but to get the most of the health benefits, you should not use a paper filter when brewing your coffee and if you want the antioxidants, lighter roasts are better. I am not a nutritionist, but you can look up the different health benefits of light roasts compared to dark roasts. :)
To make things clear and easy, we have broken it down into the 5 most popular roasts.
-
Light: More acidic. About 80% of the beans have reached the 1st crack. Light brown with no oils on the beans.
-
Medium: The smoothest this coffee will get. All of the beans have reached 1st crack. The beans will be a matte brown.
-
Medium Dark: Slightly bitter. All of the beans have reached the 1st crack and about 30% of the beans have reached the 2nd crack. The beans that reached the 2nd crack will show spots of oil on them.
-
Dark: Very bitter. Dark, brown, shiny/oily beans where 80% have reached the 2nd crack.
-
Dark French: Bitter burnt tasting. This is the end of the 2nd crack crack where the beans are blackish and oily.
Step 4. Shipping!!!!
Storing the coffee:
Once we roast it and put it in the bag, it will stay fresh in the bag for up to 8 months. Much like potato chips, don't open your bag until you are ready to start using it. Once you open the bag and oxygen touches the beans, they will start to go stale. You have about 1 to 2 weeks of keeping it fresh after you open the bag. Yes, you can still drink it after 2 weeks, it is just not considered fresh anymore.
Keep your bag out of the sunlight and store it just like you would your potato chips! Do not put it in the freezer or refrigerator (it will just absorb moisture in there.)
For those that are local or will be in Panama in the next few months, please fill out the form and tell us at the bottom of the form that you will pick it up at our store in town or want it shipped through Uno Express or Fletes Chavales and which branch you would like it sent to. Also, let us know if you would like it finished for you or if you want to hull it and roast it yourself. :)
Thank you for spending the year with us and we hope you learned a few things about Panama and coffee!
Rick and Andi
Important Notes:
Address and shipping info:
Make sure you enter the correct address. Each year we have about 5 people enter an incorrect postal code or street number. :)
DHL requires an email and phone number. You will get an email if they have issues with the package or the driver will call you if he cannot locate your house. (This only has happened a few times. )
Vacation
If you are going to be on vacation or out of town at any point in March or April and do not have someone to receive your package, please put a date in the form telling us not ship it before the date you entered.
When we ship with DHL, if you are not there to receive it, it could be sent back to us and we will have to pay penalties and you will not get your coffee.
Import Fees
Your shipping fees were included in your package. However, your country might still charge you tariffs or other import fees. We put a value of $10 on your coffee when we ship it, but some countries will include the shipping fees when they decide your import fees or tariffs. We cannot lower the cost of DHL shipping fees and the Panama Post office is not shipping internationally right now.
If you are not sure what your country charges, contact your mail system and ask them what they will charge you to receive Panama coffee valued at $10 and Tell them that the DHL shipping is approximately USD $50-60. This will give you an idea of whether you want us to ship it now or delay it until there is a cheaper shipping option available. Sometimes we can send it from the USA when one of us is travelling up there.
Using the Pilon is the bottleneck in this process. We can only go as fast as our worker can hull the coffee. Usually this is only 4 trees a day. So, we will be processing, roasting and shipping coffee starting around March 15th and should have the last package sent out by the end of April.