Thursday, June 01, 2006


standing among the shards of glass

"a panamanian specialty coffee, a rare variety of the geisha plant strain, sold for a record-breaking US$50.25 a pound in an on-line auction hosted by the specialty coffee association of america. . .with judges competing for superlatives and florid descriptions of its flavour."

as the price ceiling for fine coffees is not just broken, but destroyed.

long-time readers immediately recognize this coffee: the panama geisha i wrote about here so often from scott & jessica at batdorf. i urged everyone to get it then, despite what seemed like a high-ish price.

this year, whoo -- while there's no doubt that this coffee is worth absolutely every penny. this is one of the world's great coffees.

i'll go farther: this is one of the world's great beverages. like a 1799 lafite.

i'm not exaggerating here, or speaking for effect: it is a coffee people will be talking about for a long time in the future.

considering the 40 cups of coffee a pound makes, you realize that even prices at this level are quite reasonable for the beverage quality! esp. in a world where people don't blink an eye at paying US$1.25 for a can of mere soda.

even if scott & jessica were to retail this at US$75.00 a pound, that would only be US$1.88 a cup when you brew it at home. you can barely touch a decent glass of premium wine for that price, much less a wine of the same quality as the geisha, beverage-wise.

alas, scott didn't buy any; the whole lot went to long-time bccy pals doug zell of intelligentsia, duane at stumptown, tom at sweet marias, and ric at groundwork -- that semi-formal group known as the "small axe alliance."

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posted by fortune | 8:16 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 2 comments