Panama Boquete Region | Casa Luis Berlina Estate | Flavor Profile of Honey Process Typica

Panama Boquete Region | Casa Ruiz La Berlina Estate | Honey Processed Typica Flavor

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Casa Ruiz is the most famous cooperative in the Boquete region of Baru Volcano, Panama. With a three-generation family heritage, it owns many estates, farms, and resources. Thanks to the integration of the family business, both horizontal and vertical integration have made coffee from this region internationally renowned. Amidst the explosive growth of the coffee industry, Casa Ruiz has not adopted methods of increasing production through quantity. Instead, it returns to a focus on natural ecology and coexistence with the environment, which continuously yields high-quality coffee beans. Casa Ruiz follows this approach and is almost always a perennial winner in Panama's Best Coffee competitions, as well as a major trading partner for specialty green beans.

La Berlina Estate of Casa Ruiz was founded by Mr. Segundo Diaz, a Colombian soldier who was sent to Panama in the 1900s to resolve Panama's separation and independence from La Gran Colombia. As a result, Panama achieved peaceful independence. These Colombian soldiers had two choices: return to their home country with their troops, or stay and become Panamanian citizens. He chose to stay because he fell in love with the Boquete region, and more importantly, he fell in love with a local Boquete girl. After his family was settled, he found a piece of high mountain land and began growing coffee. In 1920, their first coffee seeds were discovered in the surrounding wild tropical rainforest. They believed these coffee seeds might have been left behind by local animals called "Jujunas" (monkeys) after eating coffee pulp, with the seeds sprouting and growing into wild coffee trees. In addition to growing coffee, they also raised cattle and pigs and grew corn on this land. By the 1930s, La Berlina Estate's coffee was already very famous locally as a farm.

However, a few years later, the first major coffee price drop occurred, and his son Don Manuel was forced to sell his father Mr. Segundo Diaz's life story and leave the estate. In 1997, another negative economic factor emerged, and Casa Ruiz S.A. seized the opportunity to purchase this estate, making it part of their portfolio. Casa Ruiz S.A. cooperative was established in 1979 and is one of the most famous cooperatives in the Baru Volcano Boquete region. Its headquarters are located in the valley at the foot of Baru Volcano. The family has passed down through three generations to the present day, with over 300 small family farms and estates joining as partners from cultivation, processing to marketing. The member estates mostly have a hundred-year history, including Berlina, Maunier, Panamaria, and Cafe Ruiz. Unlike other cooperatives that sacrifice the environment to increase planting area for higher yields, Casa Ruiz and its partners follow environmentally friendly traditional cultivation methods in the Boquete region. However, to improve green bean quality, unlike the past, they have increased the strictness of every step in green bean processing, including cultivation, processing, selection, and storage. Besides being a perennial winner in Best of Panama competitions, Casa Ruiz is also an important partner for Panama's specialty green beans.

Casa Ruiz, S.A. itself has its own estates, established in 1920, located in the Boquete growing region of Baru Volcano. This region's geographical location is in the Boquete valley at the foot of Baru Volcano in northwestern Panama. It has already experienced three generations of coffee cultivation expertise, with coffee varieties including Typica, Caturra, Catuai, Mundo Novo, and Bourbons. In 1979, it established a cooperative, combining over 300 small local family farms, resulting in enormous production scale.

Casa Ruiz La Berlina Estate Typica Honey Process is exported through their own cooperative company. From the appearance, consistency, freshness to dry aroma and flavor of the green beans, everything is quite excellent. The aroma performance is very distinctive, with a clean and fresh taste, unique fruit flavors and aromas, dried fruit, black tea, almonds, good sweetness and pleasant aftertaste.

Recent Award Records of Casa Ruiz Estates:

• 2018 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Natural Geisha Category 13th Place (Baby Geisha)
• 2017 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Washed Geisha Category 12th Place (Baby Geisha)
• 2016 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Natural Geisha Category 15th Place (Baby Geisha)
• 2015 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Washed Geisha Category 9th Place (Finca Maunier)
• 2015 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Traditional Natural Category 7th Place (Berlina Organico Natural)
• 2014 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Traditional Natural Category 2nd Place (Berlina Orgánico Natural)
• 2013 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Washed Geisha Category 16th Place (Baby Geisha)
• 2013 - Best of Panama (BOP) Competition - Natural Geisha Category 5th Place (Baby Geisha)

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing:

• Dripper: Hario V60
• Water Temperature: 90°C
• Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5
• Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g coffee grounds. First pour: 25g water, 25s bloom. Second pour: inject to 120g water, then stop pouring. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g total water. Extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back end flavors of the coffee. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, stopping the pour can help extend the extraction time.

Flavor: Nuts, toast aroma, apricot, caramel, cane sugar sweetness, maple syrup sweetness, solid body, cocoa, chocolate aftertaste.

Important Notice :

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