Owned by David and Lia Pech, Damarli Estate is located 1500MASL near Baru Volcano in Boquete, Panama. In this dry microclimate, the Pech family grows varietals like red bourbon, pacamara, and gesha; their gesha was planted in 2006 with plants purchased from the Peterson family’s Jaramillo Estate. Plot 11 is where this gesha resides today at Damarli. Last year, gesha from this plot placed in the top 20 at Best of Panama, a first for the farm! 

Due to constrained water access, Damarli Estate only currently produces natural processed gesha. In close collaboration with Lucia Solis, they developed the ‘Noble’ natural process to highlight clean expression of their terroir in the cup. Here is some more info on processing from our good friend Keith Pech, who is in charge of exporting the farm’s wonderful coffee:

“For every Noble lot, we begin with only fully ripe, hand-picked cherries. The cherries are floated, hand sorted, washed, and placed into sealed fermentation tanks, where each batch is inoculated with a specific activated yeast culture. Fermentation typically lasts 3–4 days, ending once most of the available sugars have been consumed and the desired pH has been reached.

The coffee is then transferred to raised drying beds and slowly dried to 15–18% moisture content, rested for 2–3 weeks to allow moisture to equalize throughout the beans, and finally dried to a stable 9.5–10% moisture content before storage.”

This coffee is from Daylot 2. It is amongst the best naturals I’ve had the opportunity to try all year. In the cup, I find intense tropical fruit sweetness, like juicy mangoes, and intensely creamy florals.