Panama 90+ Lot 23088 (200g)
An enchanting coffee experience awaits with this lot. The aroma whispers of summer with delicate notes of watermelon and jasmine. As you sip, you'll be transported to a realm of decadence, where yuzu, milk chocolate, and caramel dance in harmony, caressing your palate with a velvety smooth mouthfeel. The grand finale unveils the lingering embrace of ripe apricot and the effervescence of champagne, making each sip a symphony of beauty and flavor.
FARM: Ninety Plus Gesha Estates
This lot was harvested on the 3rd of January 2023 from our Estate #126, located on the central side of Gesha Estates at an elevation of 1,480 meters, with a total area of 0.31 ha. The trees on this estate are six years old. Processing coffee is a twist on our Thermolic™ process, which lasts 150 hours. Coffee was dried for 33 days in Red Room into an uneven formation, giving it a distinct complexity.
For centuries, traditional coffee farm workers have lived impoverished lives and suffered from low wages and belittlement in the workplace. Ninety Plus challenges these standards by making humanity a priority, providing fair pay and living conditions for its growing workforce, and establishing a culture built on taste, education, and collaboration on its farms. With education at the center, we create new opportunities, incentives to advance, and competitive compensation for our employees. Subsequently, our workers gain ownership over their work, their quality of life and happiness improve, and our coffee excels. With this structure, we’ve constructed an expanding community of farm workers who are united and inspired by the common objective to improve coffee.
Ninety Plus recognizes the importance of reforesting and preserving agricultural lands. When we first launched our operation, we knew that we could become an example for the rest of the world by shattering the boundaries of traditional commodity coffee farming. As a result, we set our sights on formulating a distinctly unique coffee experience, entered into a relationship with nature, and put the spotlight on ecology. Presently, we’re dedicated to growing long-living, heirloom varieties that thrive under 100 percent natural management techniques, conserve biodiversity, and maximize the health of the ecosystem and its inhabitants. We cultivate shade-loving plants at low-density areas with native forest canopy trees and consistently achieve exceptionally flavorful coffee varieties. Yet, the reward goes beyond the coffee itself. Today, the vegetation and animals are flourishing, and what were once overgrazed farms are now prosperous forests that are sustained by restoration, topsoil and water retention, increased environmental variance, and a community of residential and seasonal workers.
KUDUS’s collaboration with Ninety Plus Gesha Estates started in 2017. But the relationship became more closed when we visited the farm in 2019 and started a direct trade relationship focusing on creating unique coffees for our customers with them.
About Lot 23088
PRODUCER:Joseph Brodsky
TERROIR:Baru Volcano
ALTITUDE:1400-2050 m
PROCESS:Thermolic
ARRIVED IN:5 Kg Vacuum Sealed Bags
VARIETIES:Gesha
AROMA:Champagne, Jasmine
FLAVOR:Caramel, Yuzu, Milk chocolate
BODY:Silky
FINISH:Riped Apricot, Whisky
Thermolic Process
Thermolic™ processing is a method of coffee processing that utilizes heat to accelerate the breakdown of sugars and other complex proteins in the coffee mucilage. This process starts with freshly picked coffee cherries, which are gradually heated to reach the desired temperature using the sun or other means.
During the Thermolic™ process, the coffee cherries are exposed to warm or hot temperatures, usually around 30 to 50 degrees Celsius, in an oxygencontrolled environment. The oxygen-controlled environment can significantly impact the flavor profile of the resulting coffee.
The oxygen levels during the processing stage can also significantly impact the flavor profile of the resulting coffee. By controlling the oxygen available during fermentation, the bacteria present in the coffee cherries can produce unique flavors and aromas not found in coffee processed using traditional methods.
Once the processing stage is complete, seeds are placed to dry into a single-layer formation not exceeding 2cm in thickness in raised African beds in the Red Room. Afterward, seeds are placed on the top level until they reach 18% humidity and then gradually moved to the lower levels to extend drying time. They are agitated every 2 hours during the daytime to ensure homogeneous drying and avoid hot spots during the drying period. Typically, drying takes 20-25 days until coffee in parchment reaches 11.5% humidity.
The resulting coffee beans are known for their unique and complex flavor profile, often with notes of tropical fruit, citrus, and even wine-like characteristics.
Thermolic™ processing can produce a coffee that specialty coffee enthusiasts covet, as it offers a unique and distinctive flavor profile not found in coffee processed using traditional methods. The first coffee produced using this method was the 2013 Simeon Abbay from Shakiso Estates in Ethiopia, used two years later to win the 2015 World Brewers Cup, in Stockholm.
