| Farm | Panama Momoto, Ethiopia Chelbessa Danche |
|---|---|
| Varietal | arabica heirloom Ethiopian varieties |
| Processing | natural |
| Crop | January 2021 |
| Coffee type | whole bean |
How does the terroir taste like?
The Ethiopian station Chelbessa Danche and the farm in Panama Momoto are in a straight line 13000km away from each other. And yet both coffees are very similar when it comes to their origin, way of growing and processing. You have a very rare opportunity to taste how terroir and climate affect the final taste of coffee.
Both coffees are original Ethiopian heirloom of Arabica coffee tree. The term "heirloom" is used for the original Ethiopian varities, which never have been genetically identified. You can find around 10-15 000 of them and we think they are the future of specialty coffee.
Farm Momoto
is owned by the sister of Ratibor Harmann. Altogether with her partner Luis, who himself comes from a Nicaraguan farming family, runs this farm in the region of Rio Sereno. Rio Sereno is situated on the Panamian-Costarican boarder and not far from the national park La Amistad. Momoto is a spanish name for birds form the family Momotus momota, which lives at the farm.
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Would you like to find out more about the farm?
Chelbessa Danche
is a station situated at 2300masl in Chelbessa region, Yirgacheffe. There is no street or pathed road leading to it. You need to hop on a motorcycle and climb the slopes up. Danche buys coffee from 313 farmers. Each of them owns cca 1-2 hectares of land where they grow also other crops. They can grow 1800-2400 coffee trees in one hectare. One coffee tree can give around 3kg of cherries. What a rarity you can find at this station - a water tank tiled with tiles brought from USA.
What are the differences in processing?
These two coffees were both processed naturally. And depsite that you can still find some little differencies between them. Coffee cherries are picked only when well riped and spread afterwards on African beds for 15-25 days. That is exactly how the Ethiopian beans got processed. It is slightly different with the Panamian variety. At the farm they used so called "bastodira" (a drying room) for the first time this year. Luis and Aliss transformed a part of their house into this drying room equipped with industrial air driers. This way they have the whole drying process under control until the humidity of cherries drops to 11.5%.
