#makerseries5

This week I am in the Volcan region of Panama at Ninety Plus Gesha Estates. I am here to participate in Maker Series 5. The Maker Series is a continuing effort to connect international baristas with one another and with production and experimentation on the farm level. This takes many forms, from collaborating and supporting one another at competitions, to sharing knowledge about different processing techniques. Each Maker has their own unique set of skills that they bring to the team and this creates an extremely unique environment to learn. Since arriving here, I have asked many questions, but never felt foolish for asking them – it is the perfect culture for learning!

While I am here I will cup coffee with the other Makers, design an experimental processing project, and start to learn more about what makes this farm special, unique, and exciting.

Ninety Plus Gesha Estates is in Volcan. Looking at the lush vegetation and the numerous shade trees, it is hard to believe that only 7 years ago this coffee farm was actually a cattle farm, filled with hard, compact soil and invasive grasses. Joseph Brodsky saw the potential in the land. Much of the farm borders protected forest providing biodiversity and native shade tree species, a river surrounds the property creating a natural protective boundary for the farm, and the winds from the Baru volcano and the ocean provide cool winds to the farm when the temperatures increase. Joseph went to work: He removed the invasive grass species carefully and with as little negative impact as possible, improved the soil, planted local vegetation and trees, and replaced the unhealthy coffee trees with healthy gesha.

This hard work and vision paid off. Parts of the farm that once were just pasture are now filled with birds and plants. The farm is so healthy and welcoming to the native species that a black jaguar lives nearby (the Ninety Plus team saw it a few weeks ago and we saw its paw prints on the river bed). The coffee trees look very healthy and the vegetation and terrain have created numerous microclimates that Joseph and the team are slowly identifying and cataloguing.

I’ll continue updating as we spend time on the farm exploring, experimenting, cupping, learning, and collaborating.  

- Ben