Creativa Coffee District - Caturra Dark - Panama

Producer Info

This coffee is a caturra variety, that has been processed with the “Dynamic Cherry” process, which involves a 96-hour anaerobic fermentation in tanks with air traps. The process allows the release of gases accumulated during fermentation, and promotes the growth of yeast and lactic acid bacteria.

This coffee is from Enrique Pretel, of the Creativa Coffee District project in Panama. At the young age of 77 years old, Enrique produces coffees on a six-hectare farm with 7,000 coffee trees. The label color represents the color that Enrique identifies his coffee: purple.

Source: Equation Coffee

Why we selected this coffee

We were introduced to this coffee by our friend Hydrangea Coffee Roasters, who had recommended this coffee, and to roast it darker. Admittedly, we were skeptical to roast a coffee that had undergone significant processing to this dark roast level (the greens for this smell WILD). But we were wonderfully surprised at the resulting coffee — so much so that we thought this would be a great fit for our first ever dark roast coffee.

We wanted to demonstrate the same care and attention executing this dark roast, as we do for all of our other coffees. What we’ve done is probably controversial and confusing for some, but we believe that coffees shouldn’t all be roasted the same way. We’re able to bring out different attributes and expressions of this coffee, in a way that is still balanced and carefully crafted.

This coffee is excellent on espresso, pairing very well with milk to balance the intense dark chocolate flavors.

We are offering this as a special premium espresso upgrade on bar, if you find us at the Farmers’ Market at De Anza College on Sundays.

Brewing recommendations

We prefer this coffee through espresso with a shorter ratio of 1:1.5 closer to a ristretto. If possible we reduce temperatures down to 90degC to reduce the effect of bitterness. With milk this is an excellent pairing.

As for filter brewing, we have typically liked immersion style brewing such as french press or steep and release brew methods such as the Hario Switch. Lower temperatures of 88degC help here as well.