Good morning and welcome to today’s review, where I’m taking a look at Wei Wei, the first of two coffees sent to me from Palma Coffee Co. Let’s drink!
Purchase this coffee directly for $17/12oz
PALMA COFFEE CO. WEI WEI
Palma Coffee Co. is a new venture started by Manuel Montenegro and his wife, Amanda. Manuel is originally from Colombia, so he supposes coffee is part of his DNA. Amanda and Manuel were first exposed to specialty coffee about five years while on their honeymoon, and their passion for excellent coffee has grown along with their aviation business, which has taken them to parts of the world like Istanbul, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Denmark, the UK and all over the USA. Manuel stressed to me that Palma Coffee Co. is a passion project and I think he differentiates that from a business that makes money. I can relate, KC Coffee Geek has only cost me money over the years, but I still love doing it and never intended it to be a money maker, either. This structure allows Manuel and Amanda to be very selective in the coffees they roast and to be a bridge between the consuming countries and the producing countries, where most coffee farmers live below the poverty line. Amanda and Manuel are helped by their friend, Carl, who has an Artisan X-E fluid bed coffee roaster. Fluid bed roasters use hot air to do the roasting… imagine a VERY upgraded popcorn popper! Palma Coffee Co. is currently located in Miami, Florida and I’m excited to see where this journey into coffee takes them!
One of Palma’s first coffees is Wei Wei, which I’m reviewing for you this morning. This name is a play on “Huehuetenango,” one of Guatemala’s premier coffee growing regions. It’s grown by Dr. Carlos Roberto Serrano Roa at Finca Severa in Santa Cruz Barillas, located in the Huehuetenango department of Guatemala. You can read more about Dr. Carlos and Finca Severa at Royal Coffee’s excellent website. As I added this information after taking my tasting notes, I did notice they mention some tomato-like, Kenya-esque notes to some of Finca Severa’s coffees and it’s interesting because I caught glimpses of tomato in the dry fragrance of this coffee’s grounds, but not in the flavors themselves. Palate validation! LOL Coffee grows at 1615masl at Finca Severa and this is a mix of Anacafe 14, Caturra, Pache and Sarchimor varieties, washed and sun-dried. Palma gives us tasting notes of “chocolate, orange, apple, a hint of sweetness and mild citric acidity. Syrupy full body.” I like that they don’t print this on their labels because it allows me to do my evaluation totally free of influence and I must say my palate is tuned to the folks at Palma Coffee Co.! It’s always nice to get some palate validation and today I get a double-dose as it turned out!
I’m using my standard pourover setup for this coffee, which is a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin dripper with Kalita 155 filter. My grinder for pourovers is a Knock Aergrind and I pulse pour through a Melodrip to minimize agitation of the coffee bed during brewing. This coffee got a 30 second bloom and required a fair amount of manipulation with the Melodrip’s glass rod to knock out any dry spots in the coffee bed, then the brew time came in at 2:50 in addition to the bloom.
The dry fragrance from this coffee while grinding is awesome. I’m getting tons of single origin, high quality dark chocolate as I grind, and there’s a hint of something more savory here, almost tomato, too. The aroma in the brewed cup has a lot of that same deep, dark chocolate on the nose. Taking a sip, this is a medium to medium+ bodied coffee for me and it has a slick mouthfeel not unlike an oatmeal stout or porter. The low end of this cup is the sweetness I absolutely love about Guatemalan coffees… there’s caramel and honey here and the sweetness of this coffee clings to my tongue and coats my palate like a warm blanket. All that sweetness needs some high notes to give the coffee balance and structure, and in this Wei Wei I’m getting some apple juice sweetness and acidity (malic acidity) and a definitive tea-like note that I’m not accustomed to in Guatemalan coffees. It has elements of both black and green teas, for me, and these notes linger into the long aftertaste for me, too. If I hold the coffee in my mouth for a little longer than normal and agitate it some I get some green grape notes, crisp, sweet lemon acidity and something that’s bordering on apricot but isn’t QUITE there fully. This is a delicious and juicy coffee that really hits my cheeks and makes me want to sip more and more, faster and faster. The tea notes and some of the chocolate from the fragrance and aroma come through in the finish, which is sweet, and the aftertaste, which hangs around for as long as I can stand it. I get a little bit of a tobacco note on my palate long into the aftertaste, too. I really love this coffee!
Palma’s Wei Wei has all the elements I love in a good Guatemalan coffee. Syrupy body, nice mouthfeel, it’s dripping with sweetness but has light, fresh, high notes to bring drinkability and balance to the cup. Especially at cooler temperatures, this is an absolute gem and I can’t recommend it highly enough. YUM! On a side note, I just noticed as I was processing my photos for this review that the pattern at the top of the label is the shape of Guatemala, which is a neat little Easter egg!
