Panama Robusta??? Yes, and the story behind this coffee is quite remarkable. Basically, it is grown in extremely remote areas by the Guyami indian group, and the way it gets to the coffee mill is amazing. But let me describe the cup first. This robusta coffee can be brewed as filter coffee or a French Press (ideal), and is ideal for people who like super-potent coffees such as Sumatras, aggressive, low-toned types roasted to Full City or darker. It does quite well with a bit of (gasp) half and half. The main use of robusta, and why we have it at all is to experiment in espresso blends. It adds nice crema and body to espresso tests I performed, up to around 15% of the total blend. The preparation of this coffee is quite good, since it is delivered to one of the best mills in Panama for final sorting. It has an odd savory sweet dry fragrance, toasted grains, aromatic wood, with a bit of campfire smoke in the wet aroma. As said, the cup is aggressive, smoky, with a lack of brightness, and a dry finish. But to appreciate this lot, you need to hear the history not just the cup description, and the crazy journey it takes ...The robusta plants came to the Atlantic side of Panama, to the region of Bocas del Toro, as an experiment done by the United Fruit Company /Chiquita Banana during the early years of the twenty century. Bananas proliferated in the easement land beside railroad lines granted to these big companies, and what better way to capitalize on the land, and on any empty freight, than grow banana for export to the US. And why not try lower-grown Robusta coffee as well? The Robusta spread along the coast of Bocas del Toro by the native pickers for the Banana Company: They were familiar with coffee since they were harvesting some in the mountains of Boquete. They took along some beans to roast and drink at their houses in the coast and also started some trees for themselves. In this way, significant amounts of coffee began to be cultivated in small backyard orchards together with cacao trees. The coffee is grown Organically (certified for Europe only at this time). The processing used by the Guyami is like no other ...Robusta is so hard to pulp off the skins that the Indians are submerging the bags of picked cherry in a creek for one day to soften the exterior. After they remove the skin, they ferment for 12 hours to loosen the mucilage, rinse the coffee, then wash it again in the river, and dry the parchment on canvas. When they accumulate about 200 pounds of dried parchment (= about 120 Lbs of finished coffee), they paddle it downriver in canoes to the coast on canoes to the Beach of the Wales. Bags are collected onto bigger boat and sail to the port on the Bay of Almirante. From there the coffee travels by public bus (!) to David, and then 2 hours to Boqete where it is dry-milled. What a journey! Our friend Plinio who initiated the project with the Guyami emailed me that "We will find more information for you if the Indians contact us."