A cup.
One minute.
One story.

Pacamara is El Salvador’s own invention. In 1958, the country’s coffee research institute crossed Pacas with Maragogipe and, after years of patient selection, produced a variety famous for two things: oversized beans, and a cup as big and bold as they are. Growing it here is growing it exactly where it was born.

This lot comes from Carlos Pola — a producer who came up through a family of coffee farmers and now runs his own on-farm lab, applying a meticulous eye for processing and quality control. It’s prepared semi-washed and roasted for filter, the better to keep the fruit clear.

In the cup, it’s creamy and juicy, and it leans unapologetically sweet: persimmon up front, orange-blossom honey, and a long run of dulce de leche, with chocolate and sponge cake emerging as it cools. A coffee with real body and a juicy, forgiving acidity.

Sweet, and proudly so. We brew it slowly, as filter, and let the sweetness unfold.

Origin: El Salvador · Producer: Carlos Pola · Variety: Pacamara · Process: semi-washed · Roast: filter · Notes: persimmon, orange-blossom honey, dulce de leche.

Garut sits in the Priangan highlands of West Java — the storied coffee country the Dutch built their colonial trade on, and the heartland of the coffee the world once knew simply as “Java.” This lot grows on Mount Cikuray, a steep volcano rising to 2,821 metres, its slopes layered with rich volcanic soil.

The cherries here sit between 1,600 and 1,800 metres, where cool mountain air slows their ripening. They’re handled as a classic natural — dried whole in the sun, fruit and all — which folds a deep, winey sweetness into the bean long before it meets the roaster.

Roasted for filter, the cup turns jammy and rich: raisin up front, a streak of bright kiwi, and the cocoa-sweetness of cascara underneath. Dark fruit, gently wild — the kind of cup that rewards a slow pour.

We brew it slowly, as filter, and let the sweetness build.

Origin: Mt. Cikuray, Garut, West Java, Indonesia · Process: Classic Natural · ~1,600–1,800 masl · Roast: filter · Notes: raisin, kiwi, cocoa cascara.

Blang Gele is a village just outside Takengon, in the Aceh Tengah highlands — the same Aceh we call home, set above the shores of Lake Laut Tawar.

It carries real history. This is some of the oldest commercial coffee ground in Gayo: in 1918 the Dutch built a plantation and processing house here, and smallholders have worked these slopes ever since. In Blang Gele, coffee isn't so much a crop as a century-old way of life.

This lot grows at around 1,500 metres, where cooler, thinner air slows the cherries and tightens their sweetness. Expect classic Gayo — a full body and gentle acidity, brown sugar and warm baking spice — lifted by the cleaner brightness that altitude brings.

Grounded, but bright. Old roots in a clean cup.

Coffee like this has long been prized for espresso and milk — deep, full, low in acid. As a slow bar, we're still in the lab with it: chasing the filter cup that does it justice.

Origin: Blang Gele, Bebesen, Aceh Tengah, Indonesia · Species: Arabica · ~1,500 masl · Smallholder-grown · Espresso & milk-forward; filter still in the lab.

Teritit sits in Bener Meriah, the younger half of the Gayo highlands — still Aceh, still close to home, just a few ridgelines on from Takengon.

Its coffee grows on the rich volcanic soil of Burni Telong, the mountain that warms these valleys with its hot springs. Like most of Gayo, this is smallholder country — small plots, family hands, generations deep.

This lot grows at around 1,300 metres, often the hardy Ateng and Catimor types the region favours. Expect a syrupy body and low acidity, dark chocolate and herb, with a round, savoury-sweet finish.

Easy-going, and deep. A cup with the volcano in it.

A body like this has always favoured espresso and milk. As a slow bar, we're still dialling it in — looking for the filter cup that brings it all forward.

Origin: Teritit, Bener Meriah, Indonesia · Species: Arabica · ~1,300 masl · Smallholder-grown · Espresso & milk-forward; filter still in the lab.

Guji has quietly become one of Ethiopia's most admired coffee zones — a highland pocket of Oromia known for cups of unusual clarity and sweetness. This particular lot comes from Siko, a small village in the Uraga district, where the hills climb to around 2,100–2,250 metres above sea level.

At that altitude, cherries ripen slowly. They are picked from roughly five hundred smallholder farmers who cultivate small plots of the deep, iron-rich red soils common to the area, then delivered to the Siko washing station — a relatively young operation, founded in 2017 — and dried whole in the open sun. No fermentation tanks. No washed-off pulp. Just the fruit and the heat and time.

The variety is 74158, one of the heritage selections developed at Ethiopia's Jimma research centre from a collection made in 1974 — valued for its floral clarity and gentle sweetness. Light roast, to keep all of that intact.

In the cup, it is soft and precise: chamomile, a faint twist of orange, and a clean, tea-like finish. Not loud. Just quietly, completely itself.

We brew it slowly, as filter, and let the florals settle.

A delicate cup, from the high hills of Guji.

Origin: Siko Village, Uraga, Guji, Oromia, Ethiopia · Process: Natural · Variety: 74158 · ~2,100–2,250 masl · Light roast · Brewed as filter.

Most of the world drinks two coffees: arabica and robusta. Liberica is the quiet third — a species the Dutch planted across Indonesia in the late 1800s to replace arabica after leaf rust destroyed it. It never took over, and today it grows in only a handful of places. This is one of them.

Batang Asai is a district in the hills of Sarolangun, Jambi — here on Sumatra. Its liberica grows at around 300 metres, tended by community forestry groups across thousands of hectares at the forest's edge.

The trees are unlike any other coffee: tall, reaching nine to twelve metres, with broad glossy leaves and oversized cherries. The cup is just as bold. Expect the scent of ripe jackfruit, a sweetness like cane sugar, an earthy and nutty depth, and a long, low-acid finish — less bright than arabica, far rounder than robusta, and carrying notably less caffeine than robusta.

It isn't a delicate coffee, and it doesn't try to be. We brew it slowly, as filter, and let its strangeness speak.

Something rare — and grown right here on Sumatra.

Origin: Batang Asai, Sarolangun, Jambi, Sumatra · Species: Coffea liberica · ~300 masl · Community forestry · Brewed as filter.

Guji sits in the Oromia highlands of southern Ethiopia — a zone whose deep red earth grows some of the country's brightest, most floral coffees.

This lot is fully washed and grown between 1,900 and 2,000 masl, planted with the heirloom selections 74110 and 74112, chosen from Ethiopia's native coffee for their resilience and clean cup.

In the cup: jasmine on the nose, red apple and honey through the middle, and a long, clean finish that settles into black tea. Delicate, precise, almost weightless — washed Guji at its most articulate.

This isn't a coffee that shouts. We brew it slowly, as filter, and let the florals open in their own time.

Origin: Guji Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia · Variety: Heirloom 74110 & 74112 · Process: Washed · Brewed as filter.

Some coffees whisper. Kenya answers back. Kirinyaga, on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya, is one of the country's most celebrated coffee regions — and its cups are famous for an acidity so vivid it stops you mid-sip.

This is smallholder country: small farms on deep red volcanic soil, their cherries pooled at local washing stations. The "AA" on the bag is a grade by bean size — the largest, most uniform beans — a mark of careful sorting, not a flavour in itself.

Most of Kirinyaga grows from SL28 and SL34, the legendary varieties selected in 1930s Kenya. They yield little and ask much of the farmer, but they sit behind some of the most prized cups in the world.

Washed clean with Kenya's long double fermentation, then cupped for clarity, it pours the unmistakable Kenyan signature: a bright, wine-like acidity, blackcurrant and red berry, a juicy full body, and a long, sweet finish.

Vivid, and unmistakable. We brew it slowly, as filter, and let the brightness ring.

Origin: Kirinyaga, slopes of Mount Kenya · Grade: AA (bean size) · Varieties: SL28 & SL34 · Process: washed · Best as: filter.

Buku Sayisa is a washing station tucked into the Hambela Wamena hills of Guji, in southern Ethiopia — one of the highest coffee-growing areas in the country, where farms climb beyond 2,000 metres. In that cool, thin mountain air, cherries ripen slowly and sweetly.

Hundreds of smallholders carry their ripe cherries here — sometimes by horse, over ground too uneven for anything else — grown from Ethiopia's heirloom varieties on small, scattered plots. The station's care in sorting and drying is what gives this coffee its clarity.

Built for filter, the cup is bright and lifted: mandarin orange up front, the soft sweetness of white grapes, and the tart, floral snap of rosella through the finish. Delicate, juicy, and unmistakably Ethiopian.

It's a coffee that rewards a slow hand. We brew it as filter, and let the fruit ring out.

Origin: Buku Sayisa, Hambela Wamena, Guji, Ethiopia · Varieties: heirloom · ~2,000–2,350 masl · Process: Washed · Brewed as filter · Notes: mandarin orange, white grapes, rosella.

There's a variety that makes people pause at the first sip — Geisha. It traces back to the Gesha forests of Ethiopia and found its fame in the highlands of Panama, and it's loved precisely because it doesn't taste like ordinary coffee.

This lot comes from Santamaría Estate in Paso Ancho, in the Tierras Altas highlands of Chiriquí, Panama. The farm has been in the Santamaría family since 1950 — now in its third generation under Edwin Santamaría and his son — and it's a familiar name at the Best of Panama, with placements stretching from 2017 to today. Grown high on volcanic soil, picked with patience.

In the cup: a soft aroma of orange blossom and jasmine, a sweetness like floral honey, with bright traces of mandarin and pineapple. The body is light and tea-like, the finish clean and long — a touch of bergamot that recalls a cup of Earl Grey.

Geisha isn't a coffee to rush. We serve it slowly, as filter, so every layer of aroma has the time to arrive.

Sit for a while. Let it bloom.

Origin: Santamaría Estate · Paso Ancho, Tierras Altas, Chiriquí, Panama · Variety: Geisha · Brewed as filter.