Another Monday, another cup of coffee! This time I have a Guatemalan selection courtesy of my friends at Pammel Park Coffee Co. in Iowa. Let’s drink!
Purchase this coffee for $12/12oz
Other reviews in this series: Espresso Blend | Costa Rica Natural Microlot | Kenya Embu AA
PAMMEL PARK COFFEE CO. GUATEMALA HUEHUETENANGO
Pammel Park Coffee Co. is a coffee roastery started by Matt Upton, and his wife, Naomi, in 2018. After spending nearly 20 years working for specialty coffee importer, Cafe Imports, Matt and Naomi returned to the Upton family farm and all that barn space was perfect for a roaster! The Uptons have owned this farmland since 1917 and it sits near Winterset, Iowa, in famed Madison County. About 45 minutes southwest of Des Moines, Madison County’s bridges are known worldwide thanks to Robert James Waller’s book, The Bridges of Madison County and the subsequent Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep movie of the same name. And now we can add great coffee to the reasons everyone should know about Madison County! Matt and Naomi named the roastery after Pammel Park, Iowa’s first state park, located in the Devil’s Backbone area of the country.
This morning’s coffee is simply listed on the Pammel Park website as “Guatemala Huehuetenango,” however, I was able to learn quite a bit more about the coffee from Matt. This is a fully washed mix of Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai and Pache varietals grown on Finca Guachipilin in San Pedro Necta in the state of Huehuetenango. The farm is owned by Ovidio Ramirez and his coffee grows around 1600masl. I found some more info on this coffee and farm at Cafe Imports’ excellent site (the best I’ve found in coffee, for sure). Ovidio’s farm has fewer than 100 coffee trees. Coffee cherries are picked and depulped on the same day, then dry fermented in their remaining mucilage for 18-24 hours, after which the coffee is washed three times in tanks and dried on patios over 3-5 days. Pammel Park’s website gives us tasting notes of, “Light citric acidity with lavendar aroma and toffee notes.”
I’m using my standard pourover setup for my cups, which is a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin brewer with a Kalita 155 filter. My grinder is a Knock Aergrind and I’m also using a Melodrip to control my pours. I do a 40-isg gram bloom and use Melodrip’s glass rod to probe the coffee bed and make sure there are no dry spots, which takes 30-35 seconds. After this bloom/probe, I do pulse pours through the Melodrip until I arrive at 352g. This coffee took 3:30 for most of my cups.
This is a medium-light bodied coffee, for me, and what I’m getting is just balance on balance in this cup. Is “balanced” boring when it comes to coffee? Maybe to write about, but people love balanced coffee, just like we love a dish that is balanced or a cocktail that has all the right elements in the right proportions. I’m getting a honey-like sweetness that washes over my palate with… here it comes… perfectly balanced light lemon candy acidity. There’s a little bit of a floral note hidden away in there, too. Calling the citrus acidity “lemon candy” may be a little too simple. There is some orange in there, too. If you could smoosh an orange and a lemon together, this is what it would taste like to me! If I agitate the coffee and get some retronasal activity going, I get a lot of jasmine in my sinuses and it’s a really nice complement to this cup. I’m getting a bit of apple juice-esque sweetness here, too, although I don’t know that I’m necessarily getting any apple notes in the flavor, per se.
This Huehuetenago from Pammel Park isn’t going to win any awards for complexity, but it’s incredibly drinkable, and that’s what you should love about it. The flavors are absolutely delicious and that perfect balance in the coffee makes this an easy drinker that could go down cup after cup without even thinking about it. It’s fresh and bright, yet sweet. The finish is clean and light and slightly sweet and prepares your palate for the next gulp. A total winner and at $12/bag this is practically stealing!
As a summary of Pammel Park Coffee Co, in general, these four coffees they sent definitely tell a story, and that story is that you can find top notch coffee in the most unexpected places. Matt’s long career with Cafe Imports certainly set him up with all the skills he needs to find great coffees and roast them. All four of these coffees were stellar and I would purchase anything from Pammel Park without hesitation.