La Berlina is the epitome of classic Central American cup character; clean, sweet, caramel-malt roast taste, creamy body, a refined finish. I have been to this farm several times, and seeing the incredibly old 18 foot tall Typica trees makes it no wonder why the coffee bears this character. It is less acidic than our 1900 meter selection from Carmen Estate, but it makes up for it with this solid balance. Berlina is 100% old Typica cultivar, towering ancient trees, which expresses itself in the cup. And this Organic lot was far better than the samples I cupped of conventional Berlina, from newer plantings on a separate plot on the farm. The cup is balanced, with dry fragrance of cocoa backed by fruited tones and malt sugar (C+ roast), while at FC+ it turns to a rich, bittersweet chocolate. Wet aromatics have a nice sweet cane sugar scent, a soft cherry blossom floral aspect, slightly fruited. It becomes flatly pungent if you roast much into 2nd crack, so try to avoid that. On the break, there is some savory (umami) aroma. The cup has some interesting balance between sweet fruit (berry), body and chocolate. This is the pure varietal character: Typica coffees have classic balance between brightness and body, and an accessible flavor profile (whereas Bourbon types are more dense, compact, tightly knit flavor profiles). There's a caramel-malt sweetness at City+ roast, and creamy mouthfeel. Toffee-praline nut flavors come out as the cup cools. At this stage of roast, City+, the coffee has a fairly wrinkled surface appearance ... but this isn't a beauty contest. That wrinkled appearance can be the optimal degree of roast for brighter cup character. Darker roasts have a very intense chocolate, and some fruited, winey notes are still detectable, but for my money this is yet another City+ roast recommendation. City + (once again) is where you will experience the most of the aspects of this cup which make it so special. I thought my FC roasts of this coffee were too "roasty" and didn’t have the sparkle of the C to C+ cup. Still, the darker chocolate character of FC+ was attractive.

This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.

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