last Wednesday I roasted the 26 samples from the Nicaragua cup of excellence, then spent 3 hours on Thursday cupping them all.
there were some stand out, sweet, juicy, ripe coffees in the line up. it was the cup of excellence with the most presidential awards (coffee scoring 90+ points out of 100).
the auction was thursday night and we brought a small part of lot 4 (in a buying group with some european and asian coffee roasters) this is the first 90+ coe coffee we have purchased.
the farm is called Santa Guadalupe and is owned by Jaime Rosales Pasquier, he is a 5th generation coffee farmer and was pretty stoked to get such a high placing for his coffee.
the auction lot was a varietal called pacamara which is a cross between maragogype {elephant bean, they are huge} and pacas {a mutation of the bourbon varietal}, when pacamara is grown in the right place it is spectacular, when it's grown in the wrong place it tastes of spring onion, luckily this one was grown in the right place, by a great coffee farmer.
Jamie harvested the cherries only when they were fully ripe, then pulped them the same day, after which they were washed and fully sun dried.
the santa guadalupe won't be here for a while but we will keep you posted, it' one of the good ones.