Panama ALARM from the Spanish roaster Brewing Dealers is a sweet and soothing Panama with a profile that combines richer dessert notes with a fresh citrus note. The cup is dominated by rich caramel and milk chocolate, which give the coffee a roundness and pleasant sweetness. Grapefruit then comes through, brightening the entire profile and adding liveliness, while a slightly floral note keeps the coffee elegant and clean. Thanks to its omni roast, it works well in both filter brews and espresso, though the individual layers may express themselves slightly differently in each. The result is a balanced coffee that feels approachable yet offers enough character and complexity that it never gets boring, even after several cups.
The coffee comes from the Chiriquí region of Panama, where it is grown at an elevation of 1,500 to 1,700 meters above sea level by Edilberto Moreno on the family-owned Moreno Coffee Farm. His story is closely tied to his return to the family’s land. At the age of fourteen, he left Boquete on a bicycle his father had given him, and after years of working in the city, he returned to restore his family’s land. Today, together with his family, he manages several small farms around Volcán Barú, near the La Amistad International Park nature corridor. This lot consists of the Catuai variety, specifically the yellow variety, which expresses sweetness, a full body, and fresh citrus acidity in the cup.
The coffee is processed using the honey method. Hand-picked cherries are first pulped, with the sweet layer of pulp intentionally left attached to the bean. The coffee is then transferred to a specialized greenhouse, where it is slowly and evenly dried on African beds under controlled conditions for approximately 25 days. It is precisely this extended contact between the beans and the natural sugars from the pulp during drying that enhances the sweetness and fuller character of the resulting cup. As a result, this coffee combines caramel and chocolate sweetness with a fresher grapefruit note and a light floral quality, without the resulting profile feeling heavy or overripe.