97 Klatch Coffee Panama Ironman Camilina Geisha

Roaster Location: Los Angeles, California Coffee Origin: Boquete growing region, western Panama. Roast Level: Medium-Light Agtron: 58/80 Est. Price: $49.95/8 ounces Review Date: September 2014 Aroma: 10 Acidity : 9 Body: 9 Flavor: 10 Aftertaste: 9

Blind Assessment: Beautifully structured and almost impossibly intricate in flavor and aroma. The fruit sensation is so deep and so complex that one could find almost any note in it: we settled on guava, mango and tangerine. Intensely floral – passion fruit, lilac, lily – with crisp cacao nib and sandalwood complication. Rich, lyric acidity; syrupy but buoyant mouthfeel. The aromatic fireworks quiet a bit but still saturate the finish.

Notes: This exceptional coffee was selected as the #1 coffee on Coffee Review’s list of the Top 30 Coffees of 2014. Produced from trees of the rare Ethiopia-derived botanical variety Gesha (also spelled Geisha) by farmer Roberto Brenes of Auromar Estate. With its generally elongated beans and distinctive floral and crisp, often chocolaty cup, the Gesha variety continues to distinguish itself as one of the world’s most unique coffees. This is a dry-processed or “natural” Gesha, meaning the beans were dried inside the fruit rather than after the fruit has been removed, as is the case with wet-processed or “washed” coffees. A wet-processed version of the Ironman Gesha took first prize at the prestigious 2013 Best of Panama juried green coffee competition. Klatch Coffee is an award-winning small-batch roasting company in the Los Angeles area whose resident barista and trainer, Heather Perry, won both the 2003 and 2007 United States Barista Championships brewing a Klatch Coffee espresso blend. Visit www.klatchroasting.com or call 877-455-2824 for more information.

Who Should Drink It : Anyone who can afford it. The wet-processed Gesha profile, however complex and extraordinary, can be too bright and drying for many coffee drinkers, but here the dried-in-the-fruit or natural processing rounds and deepens the acidity – and everything else – in this utterly amazing, if dauntingly expensive, coffee.