We have a very, very early new crop Central: Panama Lot 12686. It's a coffee with no pedigree, but a fine, bright, lively cup.

We have 2 new lots coming in from Brazil, and both are pure Bourbon varietal coffees: Brazil Fazenda Boa Sorte Natural Bourbon and Brazil Cachoeira da Grama Yellow Bourbon .

It's crazy here, really crazy. Maria is crazy, I am crazy. We are working like crazy, packing like crazy, cupping like crazy (hence I dug up the "coffee cupping monkeys" photo from an origin trip I took). Just be glad if you are one of those who does not get swamped at the holidays, if you can actually enjoy it. We envy you.

We have a limited amount of Panama Auction Lot '06 - Carmen Estate from the Best of Panama Competition. This was one of the 3 coffees we sold as a set earlier this year. I found out there was a bag still unclaimed so I jumped on it (well, figuratively).  It's expensive. We paid 14.35 per pound in the auction for it, if that gives you some idea! One another note, we are entering the period we refer to as the Christmas Jamboree of 7-Day-A-Week Order Packin' Fun! Well ...

... meaning, share with others: we want this lot to get to as many folks as possible, so there is a 1 lb. limit per person. anyway, we lucked upon a bit more of the hacienda la esmeralda especial, that is, the 100% gesha lot that we offered earlier. to get it here in good shape (being late crop, and with the seasonal change in boquete region) we flew the coffee here on continental airlines. however, high price air travel could not save our precious, expensive lot from being slashed by customs ... oops, now it is customs and border security.

The boat came in, again. While we continue to run out of early-season lots, later arrivals (and a new crop Indonesia Java) have emerged. I know there's a lot of coffees coming in but I would I would loathe "pacing out" these arrivals artificially, since what we do here at SM is simply a reflection of the coffee crop cycle, and what small, outstanding lots of new crop coffee we can source.

We have received a new lot of Brazil Organic Cachoeira Yellow Bourbon and this is slightly sweeter (and a tad brighter) than the previous. I attribute this to the fact that we had the choice of mechanical dried lot, and this lot we selected … a 100% sun-dried lot where the coffee is laid on screens, not a patio.