What is the Relationship Between Bordeaux Wine and Panama Boquete Coffee?

Panama Boquete Coffee is, quite simply, as delicious and special as the great wine from the French region of Bordeaux. Panama Boquete Coffee has been considered among the best in the world for several years, based on results from recognized international coffee cupping competitions. The Specialty Coffee Association of America's (SCAA) Roasters Guild Cupping Pavilion Competition is recognized as a top venue to win best in class coffee recognition.

The SCAA is an annual 3-day competition that includes more than 30 international coffee organizations representing over 14 nations from Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific Rim.

The competition includes more than 30 very experienced coffee judges who choose "the winning coffee."
The judges evaluate scent, taste, fragrance, aroma, nose, aftertaste and body of the participating coffees.
They follow a very thorough and strict cupping protocol. Cupping is a professional and systematic method of evaluating the aroma and taste of coffee.
The judges slurp and swirl a soup spoon sized portion of coffee evenly over their palate. The judges then spit out the sample without swallowing it.
By saturating as many sensory nerves as possible, cuppers are able to better evaluate a coffee sample.
Cupping is a very formal step-by-step evaluation process where the future of thousands of people, if not millions, literally depends on that coffee swirl in the judges' mouths.
The winner of the competition commands higher prices for a long time and estalishes a worldwide reputation for quality.

Winning this coffee competition is to coffee what winning the World Cup is to Soccer. All participants, on site and remote, take the process and the results very seriously. Panama Boquete Coffee has won the competiton for 3 years in a row, that is quite an achievement!

What makes Panama Boquete Coffee so special? As they say in real estate, location, location, location.

The areas of Boquete, Volcan, Candela, Santa Clara and Bambito, in Panama, all offer exceptional conditions for producing gourmet specialty coffee.
The highlands of Panama enjoy wonderful coffee growing microclimate conditions: volcanic soils, abundant precipitation, cool temperatures, perfect mid range altitudes and plenty of shade for gourmet coffee cultivation.
Coffee is hand picked which means that only the perfectly ripe, red berries are harvested.
The farms emphasize shade grown cultivation and allow the precise amount of sun on each coffee tree.
In addition, the shade habitat protects the environment and is a wonderful area for fauna and flora.
The coffee from these regions is complex, distinctive, fragrant and truly remarkable.
Panama's soil is perfect for cultivating and harvesting a great variety of Specialty Coffees with characteristics that include hints of uncultivated flowers. For example: jasmine, mandarin, ripe fruit, berries, caramel,vanilla, and chocolate are highly regarded.
The coffee varietals in Panama include Geisha, Typica, Bourbon, San Ramon, Pashe, Catuai and Caturra.

Panama's coffee growers are very adept at segmenting their farms production, analyzing and tasting the coffee produced by each area of their farms and cataloguing it by a specific source of origin. This has been a great way to improve quality and establish a reputation for specialty coffees unlike other coffee producing countries.

An interesting fact to note is how Panama, such a small country, can beat much larger competitors who also have wonderful coffees. In 1996, during the international coffee crisis when prices dropped dramatically, the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama was established. Panama coffee growers understood that they could not compete with others from a volume standpoint but decided they would compete in quality. Panama has the smallest coffee production in Central America. The growth of specialty coffee consumption specifically over the past ten years has been a boost to quality and origin coffees. Since Panama coffee growers had been focused on quality origin coffee and "limited editions' before they were popularized, they were in an excellent position to benefit from new marketing trends demanding more quality specialty coffee.

So, ready for a cup of Panama Boquete coffee?

About this Author

Timothy ("Tim") S. Collins, the author, is called by those who know him "The Gourmet Coffee Guy." He is an expert in article writing who has done extensive research online and offline in his area of expertise, coffee marketing, as well as in other areas of personal and professional interest.

Come visit the author's website: http://www.ourgourmetcoffee.com Also visit: http://www.squidoo.com/coffee-lensography-TheGourmetCoffeeGuy

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