This morning’s coffee is a first for me from Miami, FL-based roaster, Palmar Coffee. We’ve been following one another through the wonderful Instagram and when they asked to send me a bag of their current in-season coffee I couldn’t respond with my address fast enough! I’ve really been digging on Florida-roasted coffee this year, Let’s check it out!
Buy this coffee directly from Palmar Coffee for $10/8oz
PALMAR COFFEE MANOS DE MUJER
Palmar Coffee has been roasting coffee and doing pop-ups around the community of Miami, FL since 2015. I don’t know a ton about the company, so let’s focus on the coffee today! Their current in-season offering is from the ADISQUE co-cop in Guatemala. This is an organic coffee grown in the area of Quezealtepeque and it’s grown by members of the International Women in Coffee Alliance. That explains its name, which means “hands of women.” The co-op consists of about 164 families growing coffee on as many hectares of land around 1400masl in altitude. Their micro-climate is influenced by the mountains sandwiching their land and the weather rolling in from the Caribbean. This particular coffee was cultivated by 49 women and it’s a mix of Bourbon and Caturra varieties. It seemed to have a light-side-of-medium roast judging simply by color and the gang at Palmar Coffee give us tasting suggestions of, “Chocolate, raisin, almond, toffee.”
Before I get to the coffee, I have to comment on how much I love this bag that Palmar Coffee is using. Their logo is a nice, clean, bold, somewhat retro/midcentury script and I love the big, graphic design of the label art. The color reads “Miami” to me and the superimposed coffee plant with the name and origin clearly displayed are nice. With so much ultra-minimalism on coffee bags, it’s cool to see something a little different that still maintains a modern and hip aesthetic! Alright, let’s drink…
That’s right up my alley because I really love sweet, sweet Guatemalan coffees. The word “cloying” does not enter my vocabulary when it comes to this origin, so let’s keep our fingers crossed! I used my usual 1:16 ratio pourover in the notNeutral Gino with Kalita 185 filters. I was getting slightly long brew times with my grinder set the way it was, so I opened it one notch and that ran a little fast, of course! Total brew time for 28g of coffee and 450g of water was 2:30 including the 30-second bloom. I’d like to hit 3:00-3:30 range, but I can’t adjust my mill any finer than this. Nonetheless…
The aroma has a very sweet, caramelized sugar note with something a little fruity… dark, maybe like figs, prunes, that sort of thing. Mostly the caramelized, almost-burnt sugar, though, is what comes through for me. This has a relatively light body (maybe from the fast brew time), but a simultaneously dense flavor presence on my palate. There is definitely a good amount of nuttiness in this cup along with a caramel/toffee sweetness, particularly in the aftertaste. There are some dark fruits like raisins and dates, too, but this coffee is not all dense sugar and heavy tones. This cup has a nice counterbalance of citric acidity that I would place in the grapefruit category. There is a little pithiness to it and it’s slightly sharp and bitter, but in a good way. It’s not as overtly grapefruity as, say, a Kenyan coffee, but it’s a toned down flavor note comparable to it. This coffee has a slightly dry finish and a long, nutty aftertaste. As the cup cooled I was also picking out lots of tart cherry notes and more orange juicy acidity, too. Yum!
I really enjoy this coffee as a pourover. It has surprising complexity and the flavors all meshed well together. Excellent and surprising coffee and an exceptional introduction to Palmar Coffee’s sourcing and roasting! Well done!
ESPRESSO ADDENDUM:
I had enough of this Manos de Mujer to try it out as espresso. I pulled a shot that came out a little fast but was nice, nonetheless. Nutty with soft orange acidity and a sweet finish. I tightened up my grind two steps (Rancilio Rocky grinder) and that was right on the money for pulling about 35-37g on a 20g dose in about 30 seconds. I made this second shot into a small cappuccino and it was TASTY. My milk skills are terrible (I pour as many milk drinks in a year as a halfway busy barista does during the first two hours of one morning shift) but the drink was sweet and rich and caramelly with creamy orange notes. YUM
